[playful horn music]
- Florian Bieschke: Do I read books?
[jolly laughter]
You betcha!
I've been asked if I read books.
That's my form of entertainment.
I'm not fond of screens.
I just like the page, so I read.
My name is Florian Bieschke,
and I'm a hand bookbinder.
[hammers gently]
[hums quietly]
We do a multitude of things here.
We do restoration of rare books,
we teach workshops, and we create books.
Originally, I'm from Chicago, but...
I have not been in a big city since I was 18 years old.
I prefer rural environments.
Right now, I live on a small tract of land
in Arbor Vitae, Wisconsin,
and my neighbors are deer, and squirrels, and chipmunks,
and we get along just fine.
None of it's really rocket science at all.
I mean, this stuff is 15th-century stuff.
This is a simple sewing frame,
but it's been around since the 15th century.
Nothing's changed.
The design is exactly the same.
And it works, that's why it's still here.
When we create a book,
we start with a packet of raw materials.
[pounding]
By the end of day one, the book should be sewn.
From there on out,
it's like watching different colors of paint dry.
It's all the same.
Time-consuming.
You have to like that.
You really have to like getting things just right
to be in this because if you rush it,
there's no hiding the fact that you did.
Challenges are presented minute-by-minute,
depending on what you're working on.
That means solutions have to come up minute-by-minute.
It requires patience and it requires an eye for detail
and the ability to anticipate disaster
because it's around every corner.
- So, the last thing that you did, I see,
is you took it all apart.
I was not here for that.
- Florian: And then, there's the preservation aspect.
Keeping the craft alive and passing it on
to other people.
A lot of times, the student's happiness
comes from the fact that
they didn't realize they could do such precise work
with a few simple tools
and "brother left" and "brother right."
And that's their pay-off, and then, they have their book.
They can always look at their book.
The thing about bookbinding is once you get bit by the bug,
there's no cure.
It's going to be terminal.
I've never met a binder
who let it go and just never came back.
And I've never met a sour one either.
They just seem to be very happy people.
There's something about it.
It's been around for centuries.
This will slow you down, and if you're a perfectionist,
this is for you.
*