M. Sue Gilly

Carrollton, Texas 
M. Sue Gilly has studied bookbinding with David Lawrence at the Craft Guild of Dallas since 2005 and has taken a workshop in gold tooling with Stuart Brockman. She has also taken stained glass classes with Dave Kittrell. Her studio is at her home in Carrollton, Texas.

Example Binding: 
Irving Stone. 
The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Novel of Michelangelo.
New York: Doubleday, 1961.

Quarter blue goatskin with glass boards; text sewn onto linen tapes laced through holes drilled in zinc frame with brass tubing soldered into holes; hand embroidered silk headbands; all edges colored with graphite; title blind stamped on label of black goatskin; flyleaves of handmade paper. Front cover depicts the ribbon from Michelangelo's Pietà painted on antique glass and fired. Upper portion of back cover shows a geometric reduction of the vaulted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel using red and blue stained glass. Lower portion of back cover, drawn on antique glass and fired, shows a portion of a sonnet by Michelangelo with a sketch of the artist painting the Sistine Chapel. Glass covers framed in zinc and given an aged look.

Design Description: 
Quarter black goatskin with glass boards; text sewn onto linen tapes laced through glass covers with zinc patinated frames; hand embroidered silk headbands; flyleaves of Unryushi Sume off- white paper. Front cover with center depiction of Christ walking with a disciple painted on glass and fired; the illustration is from 1878 edition of The Imitation of Christ by Chapman and Hall. Image will be surrounded by frame of red and blue stained glass with the Latin title painted on glass in the panel just below the image. Back board will also be a red and blue stained glass frame but with central panel diapered. The design is intended to evoke the sense of being inside an old church with stained glass windows depicting the way Christ lived his life.