Bookbinding

Custom designed blank journals, bookbinding and book repair

The beginning

The first time I walked into Sharen May's bookbinding studio, Drennan Bookbinding, heavenly choirs burst into song, rays of light shone on her vintage equipment and the rolls of leather and stacks of paper, and I knew I was where I wanted to be. If you've read my book Skiving Down the Bones, you know that my life took an abrupt side road for several years, and Sharen stood by me, patiently teaching me the craft she learned from her father, Ralph Drennan, who learned it on the job back in the days when all things book and print were done by hand on massive cast-iron equipment. Sullivan Book Arts got its start with Sharen, but since then, has evolved into more of an artsy atelier. I still repair books that have been loved so hard their covers have fallen off, but what I like best is to make custom projects for people from their concept or mine: books worthy of dragon hoards and steampunk libraries in the bowels of the Nautilus.

Photo Credit: Angelica Abshire

My Training

In addition to several years working and learning with Sharen, I earned a core bookbinding certificate from the San Francisco Center for the Book and take additional courses when I can.

My Partner’s Training

My partner, Angel Abshire, works on bookbinding with me but has also expanded into her own imprint, Wyrd Hoard Letterpress. She is studying printing and graphic design at Pittsburg State University and working as a bookbinder and archivist's assistant in the university library's special collections. Her current project is restoring hundreds of old printing plates from the E. Haldeman-Julius Little Blue Book Series. She gave a presentation on this work at the 2025 National Council on Public History conference in Montreal. She is also repairing some of the archives’ old books, including county records and textbooks from the 1800s.