Last week, from October 11 to 17, I was in London. Here is some words about my visit to the Shepherds Bookbinding Store near Victoria Station…

Shepherds Bookbinding Store
Shepherds Bookbinding Store

I have long had thoughts of making small series with handmade “art books” with photography. As a step further from fanzine productions. Small gorgeous books with hardcover. I got introduced to this by Eisenhart Keimeyer during the photobook fair in Kassel, Germany in 2015. Since then, the dream been there. I have underway bought the equipment I need step by step, but lacked special move that will dress binders. This I have not found in Norway and because of small purchases and too high postage cost I waited … loooong … before I was able to stop by this store to stock up the last thing I was missing. Fantastic selection and excellent service. Thanks to staff at Shepherds!

The roll of bookcloth...
The roll of bookcloth…

Cover-cloths was sold in meter lengths. The roll was basically 1 meter wide, so you could buy the length you would like from this. I bought two different colors and two meters of each. This was rolled in a cardboard tube and packed lovely. Empowered that I could go on record and send it … Well, when I a few blocks later entered the post office, then came the shock! They should have 48 GBP for sending this roll to Norway. The diaper nothing, to put it that way!

I took the roll with me to the hotel, because now I had to be solution-oriented. I had seen such all-possible-shop where everything cost 1 pound. I went there. Bought scissors, tape, hacksaw blade and tape measure – yes, it was 4 pounds. Then back to the hotel. Here I packed up the package, rolled out the rolls and shared the “substance” in the middle. Now I had split two lengths of 1 meter width to 4 lengths of 50 cm width. Cardboard roll was split in half with the hacksaw blade and all packs of cardboard and plastic was divided into two. Here was a meter long packet into two packets of 50 cm. Now they went into my suitcase 🙂 – Now I really want to move home to create books, so rejoice folks. At sometime in the future to take part in my little handmade art books.

Pictures from the feed room:

From the store

Norwegian text/ Norsk tekst:

Jeg har lenge hatt tanker om å lage små serier med håndlagde “art-books” med fotografi. Som et skritt videre fra fanzine produksjonene mine. Små lekre bøker med harde permer. Jeg fikk en innføring i dette av Eisenhart Keimeyer under fotobokmessen i Kässel, Tyskland i 2015. Siden den gang har drømmen vært der. Jeg har underveis kjøpt inn det utstyret jeg trenger for å kunne gjøre dette, men manglet spesialtrekket som skal kle permene. Dette har jeg ikke funnet i Norge og på grunn av små innkjøp og dyr porto har jeg ventet… leeeeeenge… på å komme innom denne butikken for å hamstre inn det siste jeg manglet. Fantastisk utvalg og fantastisk service.

Here is the value of goods…

Omslagspapiret/stoffet ble solgt i meters lengder. Rullen var i utgangspunktet 1 meter bred, så kunne du kjøpe den lengden du ville ut fra denne bredden. Jeg kjøpte 2 ulike farger og to meter av hver. Dette ble rullet på et papprør og pakket nydelig inn. Klargjort for at jeg kunne gå på posten og sende det… Vel, når jeg et par kvartaler senere entret postkontoret så kom sjokket! De skulle ha 48 GBP for å sende denne rullen til Norge. Det er 484,- Norske kroner det! Det blei ikke noe, for å si det slik!

Details about where to find the store

Jeg tok med meg rullen på hotellet, for nå måtte jeg være løsnings-orientert. Jeg hadde sett en slik alt-mulig-butikk der alt kostet 1 pund. Jeg dro dit. Kjøpte saks, tape, baufilblad og målbånd – ja, det ble 4 pund. Så tilbake til hotellet. Her pakket jeg opp pakken, rullet ut rullen og delte “stoffet” på midten. Nå hadde jeg delt to lengder på 1 meters bredde til 4 lengder på 50 cm bredde. Papprullen ble delt i to med baufilblad og alle pakkninger av papp og plast ble delt i to. Slik ble en meterlang pakke til to pakker på 50 cm. Nå gikk de i kofferten 🙂 – Nå blir det hjem å lage bøker, så gled dere folkens. Til en gang i fremtiden å kunne få ta del i mine små håndlagde kunstbøker.

 

 

Homemade and selfpublished art books…

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