OUR BOOKBINDERS

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

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Mie (Mia) H. Radcliffe: Bookbinder /Restorer in charge
She started her apprenticeship under the tutelage of  Joel Radcliffe in late 1997 and has become the official assistant bookbinder/restorer since 2003. She had worked behind Joel diligently and known as “our best kept secret”. She has been in charge of most binding and restoration works (except for publishing) since 2006, and has become in charge of  all operations at ARS OBSCURA Bookbinding & Restoration Co. since June, 2020.

Joel Radcliffe (1953 – 2020)
Mr. Radcliffe began his career in bookbinding in 1975 at University Bookbinding Company, a hand binding shop operated out of the home of Mr. Rodney Oleson in the Wallingford District of Seattle. Although not many years were spent working in the trade at that time, it is here that he caught the binding bug. From 1981-1984 he worked with a bookbinder, Jon Symon, of Acorn Press from Canada, now defunct. After obtaining a mastery certificate, he established his own bindery, ARS OBSCURA  Bookbinding Co. in 1991.

His primary work had been on publishing for the last decade since MHR had mastered the knowledge and skills of restoration and fine bindings.
He stepped back from his binding life after being diagnosed with cancer in April, 2020, and passed away by the side of his wife, Mia on June 22nd, 2020.

Cara Stuber: Part time intern (Apprentice)
She has been with us since 2016.