Esther Kibby
Dallas, Texas
Esther Kibby is a professor, photographer, and fine art binder. She received her MFA in Photography from Texas Woman's University where she also began her studies in book arts. She has been involved in the book arts since 2001, studying with Sally Key, David Lawrence, and Jim Croft. A member of the Guild of Book Workers, Kibby received the Jury Prize for Design in the 2006 Helen Warren DeGolyer Triennial American Bookbinding Competition.
Example Binding:
Edna St. Vincent Millay.
Collected Poems.
New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1956.
Full burgundy leather, sewn-on-tape binding over sculpted boards with embossed purple leather carved insets revealing rust and gold leather underneath. The cover design alludes to the themes of impermanence in Millay's poetry. Hollow back spine and leather joint construction with gold leather doublures. Hand-sewn silk headbands in burgundy, gold, and peach color. Decorative fore-edges with air-brushed gradient flame to peach color, hand lettered book title and hand painted flame motif carried over from the carved book cover motifs. Marbled endpapers by Catherine Levine. The book is housed in a black and deep gold linen clamshell case.
Design Description:
Contemporary full black leather, sewn-on-tape binding with raised thread lines and carved circular insets revealing grey, terra-cotta, and gold leather underneath. Leather joint construction and terra-cotta leather doublures with marbled end sheets by Galen Berry. Hand-sewn silk headbands of terra-cotta, black, grey, and gold. Spine of deep gold with pale yellow leather onlay bands.
Raised thread lines across the covers and spine represent tie downs of traditional core bindings. Scarfed, terra-cotta onlays along the book board spine edge with tooled abstract lines crossing onto the black leather, indicating joint mends in book preservation. The identical, tooled lines are repeated within the raised v-lines on the board fore-edges. Decorative airbrushed fore-edges in gradient terra-cotta to gold to pale yellow. The volume will be housed in a black linen clamshell box.
