SERVICES

NOTICE

Our email address has been changed. All mails sent to the old email (joel@arsobscurabookbinding.com) after May 1st, 2021 were not received. Please resend your inquiries to: arsobscurabookbinding@gmail.com

From your grandma’s secret recipe book to a first edition Twain, from your daily prayer book to a forgotten Family Bible in the dusty basement, we are here to give new life to books in distress, indiscriminately. Whether your book needs a brand new cover, or all the existing materials need to be preserved, we can do it.

The skilled hands of the bookbinders at ARS OBSCURA can make the repair as invisible as possible. Over the years, we have studied and developed the unique skill of taking the conventional “patched-up-looking-restoration” to another level. The traditional process of the school of book restorers is basically the same, but unlike other restoration works done by others, we’ve dared not to give back a book that still looks “injured”. We naturally blend all the new materials to the original, so that the finished book looks as if it was never damaged.

As well, ARS OBSCURA has also developed their own leather dyeing/antiquing technique that is perfect for a facsimile binding. We can make the newly rebound book to match the appearance of the original binding.

We use 23 carat gold leaf and 22 carat gold foil for the tooling and hot-stamping.

Custom Blank Books, Journals and Diaries – Guaranteed to outlive the author. Keep your thoughts, experiences and creative ideas in a hand-made journal, bound with a quality to match your content. We can manufacture a custom field manual, register, ship’s log or other journal to your specifications. – Tell us your design, and we’ll make it happen.

We offer Custom Antiqued Leather, as well as bindings in more esoteric, vellum and in exotic materials such as snake and papyrus. Please inquire for availability.

Everything is custom-made to order, so please refer to our GALLERY to see what we can do for you.

We offer specialty boxes and folders for first editions, art, portfolio and presentation, as delineated by the Library of Congress blueprints & more.

These include clamshell boxes in all their variations as well as slipcases. Clamshell boxes are desirable for books, manuscripts and documents of high value. Its double-case construction will protect its content perfectly. The primary satisfaction in book box creation is an encasement for loose sheets, photographs or art prints that the client may not want to have bound together but does want to be able to shelve with the rest of their collection.

ARS OBSCURA Bookbinding & Restoration Co. will consider contracts for private publishing of limited press-runs, stressing originality and quality including deluxe library editions and trade cloth bindings.

Please contact us for consultation. Please check out our GALLERY page to see some of our former clients’ deluxe library editions that we’ve bound.

NOTE: We do not discriminate on the basis of the subject matter of your publication.

Blank Journals

We’ve a gorgeous line of journals that we offer, with such inlaid art motifs as a Buddhist Endless Knot, Celtic Knot, Celtic Banner, Hexagram or Pentagram in our standard colors of black, brown, burgundy or green kidskin.The paper that we’ve standardized on is an archivally sound Starwhite Vicksburg 80 lb. text of an ivory color tone. This stock is a domestic supply Simpson paper. Being folded from parent sheets, the hand sewing is typically done on sawn-in cords. The bottom edge is hand deckled with a generous 100% silk ribbon for bookmark.The headbands are made from the same leather as the hide that’s used for the binding and false raised cords on the book spine.

Temporarily unavailable

ARS OBSCURA Bookbinding & Restoration Co. has officially established its own small publishing subsidiary, ARS OBSCURA Press in 2005. We have published a few rare titles in limited editions. Please check our available titles, and feel free to contact us for more details.
Trade Discounts:
Trade Cloth binding at 40% discount on a minimum order of 3.
Library Edition binding at 20% short discount on a minimum order of 3.
Contact us for shipping price on trade discounts, which may vary.

Temporarily unavailable

Mr. Radcliffe, before working full time bookbinding, worked on doing reproductions of wood-cuts and engravings, has published some of these and also offers them here.  They are The Sefirothic Tree – Portae Lucis, Dalliance – Marquis Von Bayros, and Cometographia.

 


BASIC BOOKBINDING CLASSES

Temporarily unavailable until further notice

Private, hands-on classes are available upon inquiry. In these workshops, you will learn enumerated basic techniques that will prepare you to be able to bind books that outlive you and its author.

PRIVATE CLASS: Basic Bookbinding

You will learn how to bind a simple cloth book from scratch and the use of some of the basic tools by the end of the class. Whole session would last approximately 8~12 hours, divided sessions over two days; 1st day on *Basic forwarding, 2nd day on Case-making & the finishing of the binding.

*To read testimonials of our class, please click here.

PRIVATE CLASS: Basic Leather Paring

Leather paring is one of the most essential skills to master as a bookbinder and to advance your creativity. You will learn how to sharpen the steel and work with leather, then the basics of paring leather by the end of this class. Whole session would last approximately 5 hours.

 

PRIVATE CLASS: Basic Leather Binding

You will learn how to bind a *French-joint full leather binding with false-raised bands and gold embossing either by hot stamping machine and/or hand tools by the end of this class. Whole session would last approximately 8 to 14 hours, divided sessions over two to three days; 1st day on *Basic forwarding, 2nd and/or 3rd day on Case-making & the finishing of the binding.