Isle of Skye Bindery
Laura West

An industrial estate on the outskirts of Portree is the location Laura West chose for her bookbinding workshop in June 2000.

You quickly realise that this creative person has a sound head for business, and it it the business woman who leads the conversation. Yet the transatlantic accent proclaims someone who has deliberately - and perhaps sentimentally - elected to bring her business to an island remote from the traditional centres of the bookbinding world.

Laura moved to Britain from New Jersey in 1982. Like many before her, she was attracted to Skye by happy holiday visits and - with her partner moved to the island from London in 1999. She confesses that becoming all-year-round residents in an island community was harder than they had anticipated.

However, the priority was to establish a sound business presence, and it took five years' considerable hard work to achieve a fairly modest living. Teaching bookbinding at various levels helps supplement the core income from a growing clientele, which includes Talisker Distillery. A special edition of the Visitors' Book was commissioned - gilt edged, with calf leather binding to match the original.

Selection by the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust in 2000 brought a bursary to pursue her studies into traditional methods of bookbinding and gold finishing.

"...I am inspired by how the form of the book has changed throughout time and within differing cultures. By experimenting with materials and form, new and sometimes unusual books are created. Although the beauty of the object shows in its shape, structure and materials, the underlying principle is the the object is durable and functions well."

Laura specialises in traditional and contemporary hand-sewn book bindings, but her service includes book repair, the production of desk stationery, display portfolios and the binding of collections.

In addition, and - you sense - closer to the heart of the maker, is a "range of unique artefact books accurately founded on genuine Medieval and Ancient bindings of Europe and the East...authentically bound from selected half and quarter sawn timbers, goat skins in wine reds and creamy whites, thick hand-tooled hides, hand-finished vellum, linen thread and paper...".

You can see Laura's work at:
www.laura-west.com

If you wish to use any of my photographs for publication, please contact me. Commissions for similar illustrated features are welcome - contact me any time to discuss your ideas.