BIO
Kate completed her BA in Art History at East London University before going on to study bookbinding at the London College of Printing. In 2004 she founded Hanbury Press which produces bespoke books and limited editions using traditional hand-binding methods. Later she joined the Wyvern Bindery, as well as studying master classes at Studio 5 with Mark Cockram.
In 2023, Kate became a QEST scholar after completing a year’s study in further master classes in Design Binding with Nicky Oliver. In 2024 she was elected a Licentiate of Designers Bookbinders.
Kate currently works on commission and runs her independent press from her studio located in East London. She regularly teaches Book Arts workshops and courses at City Lit and The London Centre Of Book Arts. In 2023 she was awarded the Lisa Von Clemm prize for Best Newcomer in the Designer Bookbinders UK competition.
Charmed Life
by Diana Wynne Jones
Illustrated by Alison Bryant
The Folio Society
Bound 2025
Private Collection, USA
Awarded the Folio Society Set Book 1st Prize in the Designer Bookbinders UK competition 2025
Bound in Harmatan leather with a Fraynot hinge attachment and hand-coloured, goffered edges. Hand-printed, gold-dusted endpapers of my own design; silk headbands; leather joints; gold-leaf sprinkling; fine hand-tooling; and onlays of leather and hand-painted paper.
Beneath a luminous full moon, regal Gwendolen meets a dragon, embodying the glittering illusion of ambition and perilous magic in a parallel realm. On the back, Cat, small and shadowed, reveals hidden strength and self-discovery. The design evokes enchantment, wonder, and the delicate play between appearance and reality, offering a symbolic reflection on the story’s themes.
Selected Poems by Emily Dickinson
Wood engravings by Jane Lydbury
Folio Society, London 2016
222 x 147 x 21 mm
Bound in 2024
Unsupported link stitch with a fraynot hinge attachment. Quarter bound: spine covered in bark cloth with paper covers in Fabriano watercolour paper. Hand-sewn silk headbands. Deckled edges. The feathers, hand-carved into the paper covers.
The feathers, hand-carved into the paper covers, allude to the symbolism of Emily Dickinson’s poem Hope, while the spine is bound in cloth made from tree bark, handmade in Uganda. The book’s overall whiteness references the legend that Dickinson wore only white in the latter part of her life, reinforcing the work’s themes of simplicity, reflection, and resilience.
Love Poems, Edited by Imtiaz Dharker
Illustrated by Mikki Lee
The Folio Society, 2022
Bound 2023
175 x 253 x 30 mm
Private Collection, USA
Full leather binding with a Fraynot hinge attachment in black goatskin with hand-painted tissue onlays and black leather onlays. Edge decoration is hand-painted with acrylic inks. Silk hand-sewn endbands. The endpapers were hand-painted with soft pastels.
I wanted the figures on the cover to communicate romantic love. The edge decoration and the background cover tissue detail were designed to compliment the decorative elements seen in the illustrations of the book. The endpapers are hand-painted with pastels, designed to ignite the emotion of love and desire.
Awarded the Lisa Von Clemm prize for Best Newcomer in the Designer Bookbinders UK competition 2023.
Estuary Poems by Ralph Rochester
Published by Hanbury Press
Bound 2022
Private Collection, UK
Laced on boards, full leather binding. The Harmetan goatskin cover has been dyed with various leather dyes to create a graduation colour and sprinkled with gold leaf to create movement. The paper onlays have been hand-tinted/painted and a hand-made brass tool was used for the fish tails which were hand tooled in real gold foil. The end papers were hand-painted using soft pastels and the edge decoration was hand painted with watercolour paints to create a graduation of blue colours. Silk-sewn end bands.
The design of this book was inspired by the narrative within the pages. Poems, legends and local historical musings surrounding the Exe Estuary in Devon. One of the stories of fishermen sighting a mermaid was the main inspiration behind the design. I wanted there to be a continuation from the cover to the edges and endpapers to convey the colours of the deep blue sea. The endpapers show a calmer water scene and on the cover you glimpse all the drama of what is going on below the surface.
Fables Choises La Fontaine
11th Biennales Mondiale de la Reliure, France
Bound 2011
286 x 197 x 42mm
Private Collection, UK
Fraynot hinge attachment. Quarter binding with black goatskin and vellum covers hand illustrated with black ink and gold leaf detail. The tree design on the spine was created by hand-tooling in gold foil. The endpapers were hand-painted in ink and gold leaf with hand tooled letters in red foil. Silk-sewn end bands.
The design of this book was inspired by one Fontaine’s most famous fables The Fox and the Crow. In this fable the Crow learns a valuable lesson about flattery. The cunning fox complements the crow which causes her to forget about the food in her mouth which drops to the fox. On my cover the hand-tooled letter in the foxes mouth symbolises the food, a letter F which with other red foiled letters continued inside on the endpapers spells Fables.
GET IN TOUCH
Email: help@hanburypress.co.uk
Website: www.hanburypress.co.uk
Instagram: @hanburypress
Accepts Commissions: Yes
