……………Short Bio…………….
Hello and Welcome!
I am a Canadian-Taiwanese designer bookbinder, marbling artist and stationer based in Toronto Canada since 2006. My specialization is French-technique design binding & gilding (la reliure d’art et la dorure).
As a fine binder, I am always accepting one-off or small-scale commissions in custom fine hand bookbinding & boxmaking. Miniature bindings are just one of my specialties. Most of my leather design fine bindings are bound in the beautiful, sublime & refined French-technique; perfected by master craftsmen in Paris for centuries, culminated during the French Art Nouveau/Art Deco era, and therefore highly sought after by discerning collectors and libraries around the world. Typically, there is a waiting list of six months to two years of turnaround time for one of my French-style design bindings depending on the complexity and budget of the project.
As a marbling artist, I have been marbling, experimenting and developing my own unique takes on the traditional marbling art which I coined the term "Marbled Graphics"™. You can purchase my marbling art directly on my website shop or purchase in person in Toronto.
As a stationer, I produce old-fashioned writing stationery using diecutting or letterpress printing technique. You can purchase my fine traditional stationery on my Etsy shop at www.studioRobertWu.Etsy.com
Besides bookbinding, marbling and making stationery, occasionally I also offer my service in antique book washing (prior to binding); print, map or poster washing and restorations, large or small.
……………………..Long Bio………………………..
I graduated from the University of Toronto with a Masters degree in Architecture and also graduated from Ryerson University in Toronto with a Bachelor degree in Architectural science. My eight years of architectural training have given me the most solid foundation in design. During which time, I also studied classical painting techniques for 3 years at Toronto Academy of Realist Art ( John Angel Studio ).
I started bookbinding and paper conservation in 1990s through CBBAG (Canadian Bookbinders & Bookartists Guild) in Toronto with Don Taylor, Betsy Palmer Elderidge and furthered my training in bookbinding with Masterbinder Monique Lallier & Don Etherington at AAB (American Academy of Bookbinding) in Colorado USA, where I was awarded the first ever one-time endowment "Tini Miura Scholarship", selected by the masterbinder Tini herself. Later on, I received my full-time formative intensive private training with Tini Miura at her California studio. Subsequently, I also invited Tini to teach workshops at CBBAG and had some private lessons with her afterwards. I also attended a workshop at the Center for the Bookarts in NYC with Masterbinder Luigi Castiglioni of Italy.
I taught several workshops in bookbinding at CBBAG in the past and participated in Designer Bookbinders International Competitions UK twice with my submitted bindings chosen for its touring exhibitions. In 2012, I had the honour of being invited to participate in Album Amicorum - an Internaltional marbling exhibition in Turkey, USA and Europe. Only a handful of the world's leading marblers were referred and personally invited by Turkey's Ebru (marbling) master Hikmet Barutcugil of Ebristan.
Collections of my marbling art and fine bindings can be found worldwide, most notably in The Grolier Club NYC, Fisher Rarebooks UofT, Bruce Peels Special Collections UofA, Royal Ontario Museum Toronto, Harvard & Yale Universities, Boston Athenaeum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.