Monday, January 9, 2012

A Visit to The Gilded Leaf: December 15, 2011



My husband and I took a day and drove to Maryville to meet Bob Roberts and his family and to tour The Gilded Leaf Bindery. Bob & I have a special challenge as we are a master/apprentice duo that live 4 hours away from one another and have incredibly busy schedules both in our respective binderies and teaching in our localities.  It's a challenge that we can work through, I know I'm looking forward to the trip to Maryville each month.

Bob's bindery is incredible, chocked full of ancient books, presses, ploughs, rolls of leather, and nearly every tool you can imagine a fine bookbinder coveting....it's all here. When we arrived Bob's assistant was in the process of rebinding a pre-Civil War book. Bob quickly showed us around the bindery, talking shop with my husband about all the new tools he can look forward to building me in the coming months. Bob's wife Caroline was incredibly sweet and treated us to cake and pie {of which I have a great love}. After several oohs and ahhs, lots of note taking, and pic snapping, we said our goodbyes and made plans for January. It started to drizzle as Chris & I headed back to Smyrna but we were both so excited about everything we had seen that we didn't stop talking about The Gilded Leaf until we were nearly home.

Here are a few pics of our day, mostly of equipment and odds and ends. I threw in one of Chris at the Smoky Mountain Brewery which is near the hotel where I'll be staying. They have plenty of great locally brewed beer for taste testing! Look for lots more images of my studio practice here at Brown Dog Bindery and, of course, my next meeting with Bob in January!



That's All!

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