Jamie Kamph

Lambertville, New Jersey 
A binder for forty years, Jamie Kamph initially learned bookbinding from Hope Weil, her friends, and visiting bookbinders. Additional instruction came from studying books and journals and she continues to learn through ongoing experience. A professional member of the American Institute of Conservators and a member of the Guild of Book Workers, Kamph is the proprietor of the Stonehouse Bindery where she produces both restoration and design bindings. In addition to her bookbinding, she has also written extensively about bindings. Oak Knoll Press will publish Tricks of the Trade: Confessions of a Bookbinder in 2015.

Example Binding: 
Isak Dinssen. 
Babette’s Feast.
Covelo, California: The Yolla Bolly Press, 1997.

Full wine colored Oasis goatskin binding with semi-pressed inlays of multicolored goatskin representing fruit, vegetables, and bottles. Gold tooled highlights and titling. Silk headbands worked in dark red and green thread. Twinrockers endpapers. The volume is stored in a matching linen grape patterned box.

Design Description: 
This design refers to the essential relationship between historical bookbinding styles and hands-on restoration techniques. The hands-on concept is represented by semi-pressed inlays of hands and books, worked in multicolored goatskin on the deep blue Oasis goatskin of the full leather binding.  Historical sensibility inspires the spine design, made up from small tools, gilt, in a design reminiscent of sixteenth-century Italian bookbinding. Inlays are partially gold-tooled as shown by the gold and lead penciling on the design sheet. Borders are both blind tooled and gold tooled, with the perimeter border subordinate to the inlaid design. The spine is elaborately gold tooled. Fabriano Roma endpapers and silk embroidered headbands will be utilized.