As soon as I saw RoughdrAftbooks I just fell in love with everything in the shop! It’s a wonderful, one woman bookmaking shop based in Philadelphia and has everything from notepads to journals. I’m so glad E was able to make some time to share her work today. Prepare to swoon!
Q. Could you tell us a little about yourself?
Hello there, my name is e. I am an artist, a bookbinder and a freelance designer living in the sweet town of Philadelphia. I am also and not always at the same time, a professor, a student, a traveler, avid reader, chronic list maker, and obsessive documenter… I’ve been designing and binding books for about 14 years and operating my little book studio since 2003. I specialize in making beautiful useful objects (mostly books!!) for people to use in their everyday life.
Q. How did roughdrAftbooks get started?
When I finished art school as an undergrad I immediately began to travel, and the more I traveled the more I became obsessed with the idea of documenting my world. Whenever I would plan for these trips, I could never find a sketchbook I liked because I wanted something that was both beautiful, like an art object itself, but also useful, efficient and most important, it had to lay flat when opened. It was as simple as that. I made my first rudimentary book for a trip to Kenya so I could draw and write on long jeep rides across the country and from then I was just hooked. I made that first book with a crazy binding I just made up using screws to hold it together, and I still have it. I love that it reminds me of the freedom you have when you don’t exactly know how to make something but you try anyway. The best accidents happen that way.
Q. Your shop is so lovely! What is your creative process like?
Thank you! My creative process is always changing but lately I have been working through the idea of deconstructing the idea of a book and paring things down to its essential pieces. I like seeing all the pieces of the book visibly from the outside, so nothing is hidden. I’ve been taking that idea and using the bare essential pieces of the book as its decoration.
Q. Which is your favorite book to make?
The caterpillar bindings are my favorite ones to physically make. They are the intricate ones with the swirly thread lines on the covers and they take a long time to sew but I just love the feeling of sewing them. I love that every page has to be sewn by me for the book to stay together and that at the end of the process the thread lines are so sturdy and useful. The ones I like to mentally think about most are the alphabet journals. They are more like design experiments so I love thinking about which words to use, their meanings and which illustrations might enhance the overall compositions.
Q. What’s a normal day in your life like?
Lately a normal day has been extreme production mode because I have a large series of journals to finish for Anthropologie stores this holiday season. It’s equally exciting and intense as I have never had so many books going at once. Other normal days include trying to balance making enough stock to keep my etsy shop running, promoting the shop and doing my freelance design work as well. The days are long but never boring so I am lucky.
Q. What inspires you most of all?
I could go on for days here but I think everything I make is inspired in some way (big or small) by the following list:lines, land masses, cracks, horizons, territories, earth surfaces, natural patterns, chance. crevices, stories, the space between things.pauses. words & their fluid meanings, memory, tension, shape;the way one line meets up against another, or where one colors starts to change into its opposite.
abby on 
Courtney on
Those books are so pretty! This is why I love coming back to your blog all the time- you always introduce me to such amazing shops and talented people. Thanks for sharing. :)
aww, thanks marina!
PS. I just visited your blog and heard the news. congratulations!!