strongarmbindery

03/10/2025

Saturday, October 4, come on over to Running With Scissors Open Studios—part of Maine Craft Weekend. We’re open 12-4, and there will be an abundance of artists and makers showing you what they’ve got! I’ll be demoing marbling on paper, and I hear will be working on an enormous vessel! Show up and see how we make it happen! And it’s a just a short walk over to to see the RWS 6x6 exhibit + tasty beer!
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26/04/2025

Smokey and a Lovely New Print from . These days I’m done shortly, but I’m grateful for what I’ve got. Thank you!

31/03/2025

I had a blast this weekend teaching a 2-day Intro to Linoleum block Printing at Running With Scissors. We designed, transferred, carved, and printed our blocks on the RWS Reprex press. We also had a go at mixing colors for each block — things got a little inky! And what a fun, creative, and industrious group to work with! Thank you all for your enthusiasm, your concentration and your lovely work. And many thanks to for the support and for making this and other workshops possible!

24/03/2025

I had the distinct pleasure to spend the past weekend co-teaching the workshop Printing Historical Endpapers with .swing.and.a.mitch at North Bennet Street School. The students were an absolute joy to work with and we spent three glorious days designing, carving and printing our versions of block printed antiquarian endpapers and wrappers. And we really could have kept going for another three days! Many thanks to and and NBSS Community Education for their support, and making it all possible. It was way too much fun, and we’ll have to do it again!

13/02/2025

Outside these days.

23/11/2024

Strong Arm Bindery Pop-Up is happening right now ! We’re here til 1:00pm, and there could not be a nicer place to be on this cold, dank Saturday. Come say hello!

15/10/2024

25 years ago today I moved in here and started Strong Arm Bindery. That was October 15, 1999, and it was on Exchange Street with the windows facing out onto Milk. It’s my , and maybe a significant one. I was only there for 4 years, and it felt more like a private detective’s office than a bindery, but Portland was still weird and smelly and wonderful. And it was a great start.

11/10/2024

31/08/2024

To celebrate my favorite forms of labor this weekend, I’ve put a small herd of Project Books up on the website (link in bio, or try strongarmbinderystore.com) Cover papers were marbled right here , and dot-grid text paper letterpress printed right here, too : marbled, printed, sewn and bound by hand. Happy Labor Day!

21/08/2024

This is what progress looks like !! My beloved press experienced electrical challenges last month and would not travel the length of the bed. And one of my beloved nephews, Brian-the-Engineer, took the time to dive in and sort through the mazes of contactors, fuses, switches and, ultimately, the variac behind the control panel… Our man bought a used variac on eBay and switched out the fuses, and voila!! I started breathing again. I am so grateful for BK’s focus and patience, and his keen interest in beautiful, old equipment. my

30/07/2024

Well, well, well. Look who’s back. Hand-sewn, covered in beautiful, durable and gold stamped. Look for them on my website: www.strongarmbinderystore.com or stop by the shop and ring the doorbell.

24/02/2024

Here’s a little slice from a type-centric project I’ve been working on for a couple years now. My client asks me to provide new labels for existing books, and I take all the cues I can from the book provided, and the back-story for the”new” book. I dig around in the type cases, sort through leather scraps, make labels to fit the spine and hold my breath while we determine if it’s all a good fit for the project. Today was a good day, as I nailed the client’s request for “a gold label with black type” — my biggest concern was the “cheese factor”, when in fact cheese was the answer. Cheese in the form of gold foil.