Book Restoration Bindery

12/29/2025

After ten years of waiting, my letter finally came. My owl must have been lost all of these years, evidently in England…

🦉💌✨

This year I will be moving back to the United Kingdom to further my studies, finishing a graduate degree in the conservation of book and library materials.

The bindery will remain in Philadelphia while I continue these studies. I want to thank everyone who has entrusted me with their work over the years, this education pursuit would not have been possible without your support.

I will provide more updates on this bindery as things progress, but for now this page will rest.

For those of you interested in the next chapter of my endeavors, I have begun a new blog to share conservation work and more personal design binding projects-

I will begin sharing new work in the new year on the Liminal Bindings page ✨

Wishing you a happy new year!

Thank you,
Domonique

🤍

01/22/2025

News Announcement

This Thursday (1/23) will be airing a 25 minute profile on my work, interviewing me live at 11:00a on the app and showing at 2:00 on tv.

Tune in if you are interested in hearing this binder babble about books in the bindery!

🎥✨

01/13/2025

Mold, and mildew, and moisture oh my!
These documents have been properly treated and returned to their owner.

This page has been quiet as of lately. We are buzzing in the bindery to complete all open projects. We have a few exciting changes on the horizon so our focus is to assist our current clients.

We are not currently taking in any new projects, if you have sent us an email we have placed you on a waiting list in the order inquiries have been received or you will be referred to another talented binder.

I apologize if you have an open Dm that has not been answered- I or my associate Siri are working to answer communications prioritizing our current clientele.

Thank you for your support. I hope everyone is having a beautiful start to the new year!

10/28/2024

Posies Out of Rings: And Other Conceits
Book by William Theodore Peters 1896

Before & After ✨

This quaint little book has such a beautiful binding. It was such a pleasure restoring this precious book back to working & stabilized condition. 🤍

10/21/2024

From the misty mountains of Greece, over the Atlantic Ocean shores…

Some of the books that find their way to my bench take such unexpected journeys, this in particular having flown from overseas. It’s curious to think on the eras & geographies these books experience, the exchanging of hands, and the universality of love and care we have for them and the stories they hold. 🤍

Before & after photos of a ‘The Hobbit’ dust jacket ✨

10/14/2024

Moments of Reflection at the Binder’s Bench…

As with many bookbinders, my journey in this craft is intertwined with interdisciplinary study. I began as a teenager working in a craft store where I fell in love with paper craft. Taking home scraps of discarded patterned paper, I fostered a fascination with collage and paper engineering. This later developed into a paper sculpting technique that I would showcase and sell at galleries & museums.

I became a custom framer where I was trained/certified in preservation techniques. I fell in love with this profession, repairing wood, cutting mats & creating design and color schemes.

I found a position as a jeweler’s assistant where I spent my days performing finishing work, cooking patinas and pulling wax molds. There is a magic within the alchemy of these practices. The synergy of Jeweler’s Row was incredible; working with several different jewelers, each specializing in different mechanisms of the craft.

I cherish my days working at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I hold great respect for the many moving parts and skilled people working within the walls and beneath the floors of such a magnificent establishment.

Between my education & apprenticeship as a book worker and restorer, I had the pleasure of working with antique shops and book dealers. Being privy to their many tales of discovery. From auctions to house calls, shuffling through boxes, sifting through catalogues, and long drives to unassuming places.

I worked at the Historical Society, shivering in their temperature controlled archives, as I shuffled through pamphlets and tomes.

Reflecting on these vignettes of experiences building my craft as a bookbinder, I have so much appreciation for this and for the craftsmen I have been honored to work with. I am so grateful for my clients who have put their trust in me, my business, and my work allowing me to continue the work I am so passionate about each day. I am humbled by my fellow binders and conservators and their work that inspire my continued studies and practice.

I reflect at age 28 and know that this is only the beginning of my journey as I look to the practice and study ahead of me.

10/07/2024

Before & After Photos of The Prince and the Pauper.

This is one of many Yellow-back books that have been worked on for this private collection.

A Victorian equivalent of a cheap paperback, the name came from their cheap binding which was often covered with yellow paper. They were occasionally called “mustard-plaster” novels. Yellow-backs first appeared in the late 1840s to compete with the penny-dreadful.

The demand for these books came with the shift from handmade books to the less expensive and more accessible, machine-made books. This process started with the introduction of machine-made paper in the late 18th century and concluded with the mass production of bookbindings beginning in the 1830s.

I find such poetry in bringing these yellow-back books into my care. A hand made process, moved to machinery for the sake of mass production, to come back to the restorer to be worked on by hand again. What was created with little intent in longevity is now a collectible antiquarian piece.

09/23/2024