C. L. Ingalls

Crested Butte, Colorado 
C. L. Ingalls of Crested Butte, Colorado, received a degree in Fine Binding from the American Academy of Bookbinding in 2007. In addition to classes at the Academy with Tini Miura and Monique Lallier, she has studied with Edwin Heim and Eleanor Ramsey.

Example Binding: 
Charles Perrault. 
Contes de ma mère l’Oye.
Illustrations by S. Delprat, C. Hénault, L. Koechlin, and J.-L. Zirnhelt.
Chambon-sur-Lignon, France: Biennales Mondiales de la Reliure d’Art, 2006.

Full red chagrin leather binding in the French technique. Hand sewn silk endbands, handcolored and “crackled” gold top edge, and gold pastepaper endpapers. Title and tooling in 23 karat gold. The volume housed in a matching chemise, slipcase, and clamshell box.

Design Description: 
Binding structure in the French technique, with deep-blue goatskin with ‘Birdsong’ lines and titling hand tooled in 23 karat gold. Silk thread endbands, natural top edge, endsheets of blue pastepaper with sparkles of gold. “Sunken suede” doublures. The volume is to be housed in a matching protective clamshell box, suede interior. The words of John Graves can be heard to sing, much as the wrens sang to the narrator as he made his way down the Brazos. The gold lines on the cover are the graphic representations of birdsong, taken directly from the text, the “high, sad, slow whistler’s song.”