About Us
Otter Bookbinding was established in 1993 by Marysa de Veer. Her workshop is located in Midhurst, West Sussex. The bindery is committed to keeping the tradition of craft bookbinding alive while also taking advantage of modern approaches to design, layout and print. We are a small, family business which enables us to offer a high level of personal service and attention.
"I just got back from a lovely long birthday weekend with my Dad. The book is so much more beautiful than I could imagine. Everything from the colour combination, the lovely red ribbon, gold embossing and the print quality on the beautiful textured paper - I love it! And as you can imagine my Dad was incredibly emotional and poured over it for hours. All the hard work that went into collecting the content couldn't have been represented in more of a beautiful physical object that we'll all treasure for ever so thank you, thank you, thank you!
The majority of our business comes from repeat customers and word of mouth - a testament to the quality of our work and the high priority that we put into meeting customer needs. The bindery has featured in local press and BBC Southern Counties radio as well as Tatler magazine and the BBC. Our clients include book dealers, students, private collectors, Lambeth Palace, The Royal Star and Garter Home, the former Chief Executive of the Bank of Abu Dhabi, Loseley House, Metropolitan Police, literary agents, and universities.
Noteworthy Media Mentions
Meet the Team
Marysa de Veer
Marysa is the inspiration and powerhouse behind Otter Bookbinding, and it is her enthusiasm and passion for the craft which is the driving force behind everything we do. She takes a hands on approach, bringing her flair for design and enthusiasm for her craft to all our clients' projects. She is particularly fascinated by those which involve innovative design elements and novel binding structures. She also specialises in the restoration of antiquarian books and has restored and/or conserved a number of early bindings for various institutions including Lambeth Palace Library and The Royal Star and Garter Home, Richmond.
Marysa trained at Guildford College with Maureen Duke and John Mitchell. Her time at college included a spell at Windsor Castle Bindery, and she was on hand during the great fire of 1992 where she formed part of the human chain that evacuated books from the Royal Library! She has won prizes and commendations for her work from both the Society of Designer Bookbinders and the Society of Bookbinders.
Marysa has taught at Godalming College Arts, Brooklands College Art Dept Monument High School in Woking and Historic Hampton Court Palace. In 2009 and 2010, Marysa attended monthly masterclasses at Atelier d'Arts Appliqués du Vesinet with Sün Evrard. She currently teaches at West Dean College and has students for monthly drop-in sessions, in the bindery at Midhurst, more on this here.
Aya Sun
Aya has been helping with all aspects of bookbinding and administrative tasks. She works on print and binding of books and magazines and organises the work that comes into the workshop. Aya initially came over from South Korea to have some experience in the bindery and ended up sticking around!
She studied "Art Collecting and Provenance" at the University of Glasgow. A one day bookbinding workshop during her study at uni initiated her desire to delve deeper into this craft.
Aya later took classes and courses at DAD Bookbinders, and the University of Edinburgh under the tutelage of Susie Willson subsequently at Atelier Boyoung Lee Atelier(Seoul).
Aya's other passion is coffee! She is a fully SCA qualified barista having trained with and worked with some of the finest coffee houses!
Lucy Daniell
Lucy has been assisting with the collation, sewing and binding of magazines. She also created a tidy system whereby all the leathers and clothes are in colour coded and size order making it a lot easier to find things! She's also been assisting in video creation for the Kitchen Table Bookbinder course and single handedly filmed, edited and made the voice over for the module on Concertinas.
Lucy joined the bindery as part of her work for her placement year from university where she studies illustration/animation at Kingston school of art.
Having completed some of her illustration projects with a focus on publication and bookbinding, she felt that expanding her knowledge and getting some practical experience at a bindery was the perfect next step!
While she will be returning to university to complete her final year of degree in September, she will continue to work alongside us virtually, by operating the Otter Bookbinding social media pages.
