Beginners Courses and Masterclasses are here

Our new facility in the Wiltshire countryside is now open, positioned on the grounds of of a delightful garden center, our bindery, The Daffodil Barn has undergone refurbishment and is ready for our first influx of novice and experienced binding students alike.

Our full programme ranges from the Absolute Beginners' courses to Masterclasses in gold finishing, edge gilding, forwarding, Japanese style binding and more.

For further information click the image above or contact Alison Strachan on 01672 851979.

Even more paper!

We are very happy with our new extension to our famous wall of paper.

Due in this week we have over 40 new types of Japanese decorative papers, lace, watermarked, metallic, tissues and more. Not sure where we'll put them yet!

Little Nipper

New to Shepherds is this Nipping Press. Handmade in the USA, this is probably the best of it's type we've seen. Made from laminated birch and with 2000lbs of pressure we think this little press should be in every bookbinders home!

This will be available in May but we are now taking pre-orders.

For further information contact us at the shop on 0207 831 1151 and we will be delighted to tell you more about this little gem.

Tools Archive

Coming soon, the Sangorski & Sutcliffe tool archive online. Our collection of blocks, decorative tools and corners, pallets, frames et al. A fascinating look through the history, design and craftsmanship.

Blocking Machine

A short demonstration of our blocking machine in use. This is perfect for bookbinding, product branding and even stationery. We import these from the USA and as such the prices are a little volatile at the moment.

A 1920s sample set of bindings from our Sangorski & Sutcliffe archive.

During the earlier part of the last century, salesmen would travel all over the world looking for business, especially across the USA.

This case contains 20 miniature examples of possibilities a customer could be inspired by.

The selection in this case vary from the most basic cloth covered bindings to intricate vellum and calf selections.

Southampton Row

For many years Falkiners has been selling the finest range of paper in the UK. Now renamed Shepherds, we continue our ambition to create the worlds finest fine paper business.

We carry on that tradition today with an ever increasing folio of stock for artists.

Of course we are also the UK's only high street stockist of hand bookbinding supplies too, our range covering all aspects of our customers requirements, from the traditional to the cutting edge book-arts binders.





Part of our famous wall of paper

We are particularly proud of our Japanese decorative papers which from March will be increased by 50%; beautiful lace papers, unryu thread papers, metallic sheets as well as a greater range of handmade printmaking and conservation sheets.








Our customers choosing their papers from our selection of 25 books containing thousands of samples.

As we have so much paper we have to keep the full sheets on racking at the back of the shop. This ensures that the stock is kept in the best possible condition and that our inventory can be controlled as closely as possible, a difficult task given the broad range we carry.












Our racks of paper after everyone has gone home.

Over the years we have seen many beautiful papers discontinued and mills close down, however our search for new sheets for the discerning buyer is an ongoing task, combined with actively reacting to ever changing requirements, nowadays the trend being digital reproduction.

Shepherds, Sangorski & Sutcliffe in Mayfair

Just before Christmas, 2008, we opened our new store in Mayfair. Designed as a showcase for our fine bindings and for our bespoke businesses (stationery, framing, restoration and bookbinding) we have been delighted at the response our presence has received.

Shepherd market is a charming small square and piazza developed in 1735-46 by Edward Shepherd. This tiny little enclave is tucked away between Piccadilly and Curzon Street, in the exclusive borough of Mayfair.
Mayfair itself is named after the infamous fifteen-day fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today, and which was banned in 1708 due to the fair’s revellers’ relentless boisterousness and disorder. A local architect and developer (Edward Shepherd), was commissioned to develop the site after the banning of the fair, and it was completed in the mid 18th century, with paved alleys, a duck pond, and a two-storey market, topped with a theatre. The theatre was opened in the month of May, and attracted a much higher class of visitor than the noisy, unruly fair beforehand.
During the 1920's, Shepherd Market was an ultrafashionable address for some of London's most refined inhabitants, who lived there like characters in a play by Noel Coward, the new West End sensation. The writer Michael Arlen rented rooms opposite The Grapes public house, and used Shepherd Market as the setting for his best-selling 1924 novel “The Green Hat”. The book also went on to become a hit Broadway play and a film starring Greta Garbo.

The village-like area around Shepherd Market still has something of a jaunty reputation. It was round the corner at 9 Curzon Place that Cass Elliot (Mama Cass) of The Mamas and Papas died in July 1974, and, four years later, Keith Moon, drummer with The Who, died of an overdose. Shepherd Market was also where the Tory fraudster and best-selling author, Jeffrey Archer, met the prostitute, Monica Coghlan. And more recently still, it was at the Mirabelle restaurant on Curzon Street where actors Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis spent a cool £17,000 on a meal for two (including £11,000 on a single bottle of burgundy). Emerging from the restaurant, Depp lashed out at the paparazzi and ended up in the local police cells.
Next to Shepherd Market is Half Moon Street, where the fictional Wooster (the perfect upper-class Mayfair resident and his faithful valet Jeeves) of P.G. Wodehouse's novels lived, and where in 1763 the real James Boswell (newly arrived from Edinburgh) took lodgings and wrote his defamatory diary. Curzon Street is home to Crewe House, originally built by Edward Shepherd, but now a company headquarters and one of the few eighteenth-century Mayfair mansions still standing.
Nowadays, Shepherd Market is better known for its chic boutiques, intimate little restaurants and impressive Victorian pubs.

Shepherds Bookbinders - Rochester Row

Our new bindery in Rochester Row, Pimlico.

Sweeney Todd - Finished Today

This was finished today at the Rochester Row workshops. A first edition Sweeney Todd in a leather clam shell box featuring blood splatter leather onlays. We like this one!

Silk Flowers

We are delighted to announce that Shepherds have stock of this highly desirable bookcloth. It is actually a discontinued material but luckily we found a roll hidden away in our storage facility.

A favourite for beautiful wedding albums, guest books and quarter cloth bindings, add a touch of chic elegance to your work.

A very delicate and finely textured cloth similar in feel to silk with tone-on-tone flowers reflecting in silver on a pure white surface.

See further information here

Cloth Frenzy

Shepherds have long been a supplier of Japanese bookcloth and our range has gone through some significant changes recently due to availability and of course the extremely strong Yen.

New to our range are these shades.

Thats awl folks

New for December we have sourced some interesting tools.


The first is a beautiful set of Bookbinders Shears, 7" long in total with 3" blades, these are based on a traditional tailors shear, note the blunt end to the lower blade to protect the underside of the material during the cutting process. We like these as the shorter blades give good close control on the cut.

These are forged and polished blue steel and have been manufactured to the highest quality.


The second tools is a a German Paper Cutting Knife.

This has a long, flexible and very sharp blade.

Useful for cutting all types of paper, from very fine Japanese washi to heavy weight watercolour sheets, we love these and cannot recommend them highly enough.

Like the shears, this knife has been beautifully made.





Lastly, another awl.

This has been sourced from Japan and it has been forged from a single piece of steel in exactly the same way as Samurai swords! Perhaps thats why we like it so much?

The advantage of this is that there are no parts to break, the point is extremely sharp and it can be used for light or very heavy work.

VAT

Shepherds will be passing on the 2.5% VAT reduction from Monday.

Making Japanese Paper

At Shepherds we love Japanese paper, or 'washi' as it is correctly known. The reason we regard it so highly, apart from it's warmth and strength is the incredible lengths the makers go through to produce a sheet. Browsing the 'net, we found this website which shows in detail how painstaking this process is.

In the west it is mainly used for two purposes, art (painting, drawing and printmaking) and and conservation. On this website you are taken through the various stages where the sheet is finally prepared as momigami (wrinkled and creased), a style of paper treated with konnyaku, a vegetable derived starch, whose purpose was to clean Japanese swords.

As the UK's leading retailer of washi, we are dedicated to supplying the widest range of quality sheets for artists and conservators.

New News!

This summer we undertook a major re-organisation of our business that involved some important changes to our premises and a simplification of our trading names. From now on we will be trading as 'Shepherds' but we will continue to use the name Sangorski & Sutcliffe for all our fine binding work.

From November we will be operating out of just two of our original premises;

ROCHESTER ROW and SOUTHAMPTON ROW.

Rochester Row houses our bindery and will be fronted by a small shop where customers can bring work and purchase products made in our workshop. Our fine bindery and bookselling business will also be run from Rochester Row.

Southampton Row (formerly Falkiner Fine Papers) now trades under the name 'Shepherds' and continues to sell our comprehensive range of papers, stationery and bookbinding materials.

We have also just opened a new bindery in the Wiltshire countryside where our volume production work is now being undertaken.

Handmade Books DVD

We are very pleased to announce the arrival of our instructional DVD 'Handmade Books'. Aimed at the novice binder this is a great training aid - separated into chapters, lessons can be re-visited, paused or even fast-forwarded!

Remastered from our original video this will be on sale in November in both PAL and NTSC formats and will be available to buy online from our shop for £14.99.

Featuring nine easy-to-follow excercises for the beginner and the work of Shepherds Bookbinders, a traditional English bindery, Griffen Mill, a hand paper making mill and Ann Muir marbled paper artist.

Learn how to make a variety of books using simple tools and materials as well as detailed lessons on choosing materials, sewing sections and understanding the principles of bookbinding.

FREE with your purchase until the end of December is a Shepherds ready-to-bind 2009 pocket diary which is usually sold for £6.

A sneak peak

Here is a preview of our Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam which is currently in the finishing department. Made using the original blocks and tools this is an exciting addition to our 2008 catalogue and it will be on sale later this year.

This is unfinished but will feature more tooling and of course precious stones set into the covers. This particular copy has been signed by Francis Sangorski and George Sutcliffe.

Sangorski Desk Blotter

This interesting article was brought into our offices a few weeks ago.

Although not stamped as a Sangorski item we believe that it was made as a bespoke order for a customer, perhaps in the middle of the last century or even earlier.

The two exterior boards are hinged and they open up to expose a blotter pad.

Click on the image for a closeup view.

Handmade Kiraku Kozo - 34gsm

This is just one of our many new Japanese papers. It is called Kiraku Kozo and is made using 100% kozo fibre which means that it is an extremely strong sheet.
It has a lovely even surface and its generous size (635x990mm) makes sure that it represents excellent value for money.
It is suitable for most printmaking techniques and is a popular drawing paper too.
Most recently it is being used by London conservators as a hinging and guarding paper. In the USA it is also used for dimensional purposes. Less expensive than the more popular Kozo-shi most commonly used in the UK for conservation purposes we recommend that artists and conservators check out this sheet asap!

Buy this sheet here

Japanese Calligraphy Rolls

We have large stocks of this Japanese Sumi-e paper on a roll. Measuring 450mm x22M this represents excellent value for money at £11.25.

This type of paper would traditionally be used for Japanese calligraphy or sumi-e but it is also popular with artists for drawing, painting and even printmaking.

More information can be found here

Guild of Bookworkers

This years GBW Standards of Excellence will be held on October 16th to 18th in Toronto. Shepherds will of course be attending along with the usual UK stalwarts of these events, P&S Engraving, Harmatan and Hewits.


We will be bringing along a variety of decorative, conservation and other papers as well as a selection of those hard to find bookbinding tools.

We look forward to seeing our Canadian and American friends once again.

Absolute Beginners Workshops

We are delighted to announce the beginning of our Bookbinders Workshop programme which is starting in November.

The first courses are for the novice and you will be taught everything you need to know to make a range of basic books.

By the end of the four weeks the aim is that you will have finished 3 books; a simple single section pamphlet, a multi-section sewn book and a photograph album.

You will use a wide range of bindery equipment including sewing frames, presses, hot foil blocking machinery, vertical trimming ploughs etc. The skills that you will learn include sewing techniques, grain direction, gluing and much more.

The courses will be held at our Southampton Row store after-hours and there will be a maximum of 5 students per class.

You can find more information here.

New Sample Books

Moriki Kozo

Our range of Moriki Kozo represents the finest range of coloured Japanese paper in the UK. The colours are strong, vibrant and consistent.

Available in 29 colours and hand made from 90%+ kozo fibre, these papers are used in a range of printmaking techniques, bookbinding and conservation.

To buy this sample book please visit this link.


Ruscombe Mill Colours

Our range of handmade Ruscombe Mill papers have been popular for many years with conservators, artists, printmakers and bookbinders alike.

To buy this sample book please visit this link

Sangorski & Sutcliffe Tool Archive

The majority of the Sangorski & Sutcliffe hand tool and block collection is currently being digitally catalogued and archived and will be available as an online resource early in 2009 through bookbinding.co.uk.

Our collection is made of thousands of hand engraved brass patterns which have featured on some of the most important bindings of the 20th & 21st centuries including the Queens Coronation Bible, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and countless other bindings.
Tool by Tom MacEwan

We will also be releasing limited sets of our most iconic hand tools with one of our supply partners which will be available in 2009 as well as a beautiful stainless steel Sangorski & Sutcliffe Backing Hammer and a new 2009 design of the classic Shepherds Band Nipper.

For further information and availability please contact the store.

2009 Diary Blocks

The time of year has come around already and we are proud to announce the release of the Shepherds 2009 Diary blocks. Available in two sizes, slimline and desk, these will be available to purchase from Friday 27th September.

These have been printed, sewn and trimmed and are ready to simply case-in. They feature the main UK, European, USA and religious holidays as well as pages for contacts at the back.

They will be available to buy on-line and quantity discount will be applied.

To reserve yours, please contact the shop.

All hands on Deckle

New to us and already extremely popular is this Deckle Edge Ripper.

Perfect for giving machine-made paper that handmade look, this product has already proven popular with film, theatre and TV props people, invitation makers and framers.

The Deckle Edge Ripper is made from thick acrylic, with the angled and sharp 'rough' edges precision machined. One edge gives coarse random tear, the other a finer tear. It is extremely sharp so please do not run your fingers down it to test it as you will cut your fingers.

You can find more information on the Deckle Edge Ripper here.

New Needle News!

We introduce to you Shepherds Bookbinders Needles, imaginatively called Small & Large.

Previously these were sold in packs of 25 and supplied in flimsy paper envelopes. We now sell them in packs of 10 and supply them to you in a solid, safety tube.

The smaller size needles are perfect for thinner thread (40/3 and 35/3) and the larger needles have been designed for the heavier threads (25/3 and 18/3).

For more information and to buy click here

Katie MacGregor Handmade Paper

We are delighted to introduce a new range of handmade papers from Katie MacGregor. These top quality sheets have been designed with a number of uses in mind; conservation, printmaking and bookbinding.

Her papers are made from cotton (muslin or denim), abaca or blends of these fibers. All colouring is done with aqua-dispersed pigments for light-fastness.

Katie is a one-woman band, working in a small village in Main where there is only one set of traffic lights! She has been making paper for many years and supplies conservators, printmakers and bookbinders throughout North America.

These will be of particular interest to conservators who are working with historical North American books and documents.

The papers are available in 5 different types; 2 blues and 3 naturals and all in laid and wove finishes and they measure 530x660mm.

This is a sheet of 'Sherman B', a blue-grey paper.

Each of these sheets are available in one medium weight, approximately 100-120gsm with a slightly NOT surface which makes them a great choice as endpapers for bookbinders, especially with the hard to find wove selection on offer.

You can see more Handmade Western Conservation Papers here.

Sew & Sew

Brand new in is this 50g deep red skein of Bookbinders thread from Coats. This has been made especially for Shepherds and has been very popular with our customers already.

It is ideal for exposed spine bindings and Japanese style bindings and is available in an 18/3 weight.

For a limited period of time we are pleased to be able to offer an online only price of £8 per skein. The in-store price is £10 each.

For more information please visit our web page.

Eye of The Tiger

Here at last - Beautiful new hand marbled paper from Robert Wu of Toronto.

This remarkable paper is called Tigers Eye for obvious reasons.

We are currently selling six designs from Robert's portfolio and we plan to extend this later in the year.

We are delighted to be selling his work in Shepherds Bookbinders and he joins another North American leading paper marble artist, Pam Smith from New Mexico.

This is a gold, grey and deep red French Shell design printed onto Hahnemuhle Bugra Butten.

We are very proud to be selling these papers as we feel they represent some of the finest sheets we have seen.

Shepherds are pleased to be able to offer introductory online savings on papers from both of these fabulous marbled paper artists.

For more details please take a look at our web page here