Bookbinder

Hannah Brown

Hannah Brown is a bookbinder working from her home studio in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, United Kingdom. She specializes in fine bookbinding and other bespoke works, using a variety of materials and objects to create unique, hand-crafted pieces from scratch.

Hannah studied Three-Dimensional Craft at Brighton University, taking bookbinding evening classes at the same time. When she graduated, she transferred to classes at The Institute in London.

After winning first prize and the Mansfield Medal in the 2008 Designer Bookbinders Competition, Hannah was elected as a Licentiate member in 2009. She has since won the competition twice more (in 2011 and 2013) and has also won two distinguished winner awards in the Designer Bookbinders International Bookbinding Competition (in 2013, 2017 and 2022).

When crafting her bindings, Hannah favours materials and techniques traditionally used in bookbinding, such as leather, paper, gold leaf and gold tooling. With her crafts background, she is also keen to incorporate alternative skills into her work, including metalwork, textiles, printmaking and woodwork. She likes playing with colors and textures to create depth on the covers and uses a lot of embroidery in her binding work.

Hannah would like for her bindings to be appreciated for their relation to the content of the pages inside, whilst simultaneously creating a tactile object to be handled and used.