BIO
Miranda graduated from Oxford Polytechnic with a degree in Visual Studies and History of Art, during which she was first introduced to bookbinding. After a short career in visual merchandising and a much longer career teaching art to children, Miranda came back to bookbinding.
She has been a student at Studio 5 with Mark Cockram for many years. Miranda is also a keen printmaker using a variety of printing methods including etching, linocut and monotype. She uses her prints for endpapers, book covering and artists’ books.
She was elected as a Licentiate of Designer Bookbinders in 2022 and has won several prizes for her books. Miranda’s bindings are held in several private collections and also at the British Library. She now spends her time working on fine bindings for competitions and commissions. She is looking forward to new projects and the opportunities that becoming a Licentiate will bring.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Folio Society, 2018
222 x 144mm
Bound 2020
Private Collection
Bradel Binding. The design ideas are drawn from imagery of the hot Californian sun beating down on farm buildings. The front and back boards are made up strips of spirit-dyed fair goat. The spine is natural fair goat tooled in gold using a handmade tool.
The Folio Society 1st Prize for the Set Book in the Designer Bookbinders Annual Competition 2020/2021.
Twelve Months in Print by Miranda Kemp
Leather concertina structure with binders own etchings.
Botanical Sketchbooks by Helen Bynum and William Bynum
Thames and Hudson, 2017
270 x 200 x 30mm
Bound 2020
For Sale: £1,200
Bradel binding. The front and back board coverings are panels of laminated layers of hand printed Japanese tissue. They are tooled with coloured foil. The spine is made up of kraft paper and vellum with leather at the head and tail.
Sketchbooks are often made up of notebooks, journals, albums, loose pieces of paper, works on vellum and manuscripts. This has informed my choice of covering for this binding.
Distinguished Winner of the International Designer Bookbinder Competition 2022.
Tulipomania by Wilfred Blunt
King Penguin Books, 1950, First Edition
182 x 120 x 10mm
2020
With Binder
Ultra flat back bradel binding. The front and back boards are edged in spirit dyed pink leather with panels decorated in hand printed and foil tooled paper shapes. Tulipomania documents the rise in popularity of the tulip since the 16th Century. The design reflects the shapes and colours found in the illustrations in the book.
Winner of the Highly Commended Prize in the Designer Bookbinders Annual Competition 2020/2021.
The Observer’s Book of Wild Flowers, Compiled by W.J Stokoe
Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd
Full leather binding with spirit-dyed back-pared inlays and gold tooling.
The Girl from the Sea by George MacKay Brown
Images Michael Onken
The Old Stile Press, 2008
330 x 230 x 150mm
Bound in 2017
For Sale: £900
Flat back full leather binding. Spirit dyed leather with dyed and tooled leather back pared onlays. Palladium white gold tooling and hand printed endpapers. The design for this binding is inspired by the story set on the shores that surround the Orkney Islands.
Winner of the Highly Commended Prize in the Designer Bookbinders Annual Competition 2017.
Wings Take Us by Phil Madden and Paul L Kershaw
Ghrapho Editions, Edition Number 80 of 130, 2009
270 x 195 x 50mm
Bound in 2022
For Sale: £950
Minimalist type flat back binding with hand marbled endpapers and full doublures. Leather spine and board edges with etched paper and gold-tooled leather decorated front and back panels.
The poems and illustrations in Wings Take Us are a synthesis of words and images. The design is a bird’s wing inspired by visual themes throughout the book.
GET IN TOUCH
Email: mirandakemp66@gmail.com
Instagram: @kemp.miranda
Accepts Commissions: Yes
