17-05-2025
Books are my business: Owner and founder of EDB Studios Elize de Beer
Elize de Beer is the owner and founder of EDB Studios and is a bookbinder with a background in book and paper conservation.
The bindery specialises in custom, small-run special editions, artist books, and enclosures.
Originally from South Africa, she now lives in Crosshaven, Co Cork.
What sparked your interest in bookbinding?
I've always loved books in general, and I also love making and collecting them.
I started to figure out that this was something I could just make and I was so curious to see their construction.
I'm predominantly self-taught; over time, I just learned more and more of the processes.
I also apprenticed at a conservation bindery, so a lot of my formal training was around conservation and repair.
I think that's also why the books that I make now are still very traditional. They're made very much with conservation materials in mind.
As I was making more books, more people were asking me for them. From there, I thought, why not actually just make this a business?
It started off with making notebooks, and then I transitioned into making special edition books for authors that were self-publishing, special edition artist books, and things like that.
Making collectible items is where I am now at the moment. I love making traditional books because I know that they'll last.
I'm so rough with my books but I know if I've hand-sewn something, it's a centuries-old technique and it's going to hold up to me throwing it in my bag every day. I want these objects to be used.
My favourite thing is seeing people purchase my notebooks or any of my books and that they're being used.
What does your work involve?
On a typical day, I start by making sure I have my orders for the week. I work in batches. So depending on the day, I'm either sewing, or making covers, or box-making.
My favourite part is getting stuck into the big batch part of it, I play a podcast or listen to an audiobook, and get lost in the meditative process of it.
At the end of the week, it's very satisfying having the final books done.
What do you like most about it?
I really love the process. When it comes to making books, I find that because I use such a traditional technique, there's no real way to speed it up.
There are, of course, machines we can use, but there's something way more special about working with something that is handmade.
It's about the satisfaction at the end when you have gone through this laborious process, and you are holding the physical thing in your hand.
You know the work — the sewing, the glueing, the colour choice — that has gone into this simple, quiet, unassuming object.
What do you like least about it?
Often, if you're making 200 books, I think by number 100, you're a little mad.
It's hard to see the end point sometimes, and you just have to push through.
Also, the emails and communication part, as I wish I could just be making all day.
Three desert island books
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams; it is still one of my favourite stories.
Then I have this book in my collection called This Book is a Planetarium, it's a pop-up book by Kelli Anderson, and it has all these different elements, so I just get lost in it.
My third pick would be one I read recently, Daughter of No Worlds by Carissa Broadbent. Fantasy is still my favourite genre to read, and it's such a beautiful story, I can read it again and again.
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