A bookbinder from Mull has won a best creative award for the second year running – this time with rubbish.
Toben Lewis who runs Baile Mòr Books on Iona used debris washed up on the beach to earn his award in the National Library of Scotland’s prestigious bookbinding competition.
He used a rubber innertube for the covers, an agricultural tag, drawstring, and fishing net to band the end of the book spine, and then a carrier bag and crisp packet for the flyleaf and the cover’s lining.
This year’s theme was climate change, so inspired, or perhaps discouraged, by the vast amounts of plastic waste floating around the oceans, Toben took to the shores around his island home to find materials that he could use.
He knew straight away that he would chose to bind Naomi Klein’s book This Changes Everything, an influential piece of work on the subject.
Past winners of the Elizabeth Soutar Bookbinding Competition, started in 1993, have hailed from Spain, Germany, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The competition is about encouraging and developing creative and craft binding skills to showcase individual expression and originality.
Toben was not always a bookbinder, he initially spent 10 years as a graphic designer.
He self taught in the craft before earning a scholarship from The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) in 2019, which meant he could study with master bookbinders and book conservation specialists from across the UK, Europe and America.
He was awarded another scholarship from the Heritage Crafts Association so he could study more and now has his own small bindery business, taking commissions for fine and design bindings. Toben also repairs damaged books and teaches bookbinding to others.
Judges said the beauty of Toben’s entry was that it met the criteria of the competition perfectly, using materials that most people would consider as waste.
Talking about his winning entry, Toben said: ““I don’t know how the materials used on this book will age, and I certainly don’t know how the adhesives will last. I am honoured to have this binding as part of the National Library of Scotland’s permanent collection and can only apologise to future conservators who may have to deal with it’s degradation. But I think that the inherent instability and unknown nature of this physical binding is somewhat of a perfect metaphor for how we’re treating our planet.”
The winning book will be displayed with other entered bindings in an exhibition at the National Library of Scotland ’s George IV Bridge building in Edinburgh later this year.