The Soleil Bookbindery
The Soleil Bookbindery first opened its doors in 1976 in an old restored 1890‘s firehouse by Master Bookbinder, Susan Soleil, in Rochester, NY. The bookbindery is located in the United States in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and is celebrating its 40th year of business. Susan Soleil began as an apprentice to a Florentine Master Bookbinder in Florence, Italy. For three years from 1971-1974, Soleil apprenticed, graduated, and was certified “Florentine Master Bookbinder”.
“Living in Florence was absolutely wonderful. I'd bicycle to this fascinating bindery where I was the only apprentice. I learned how to select archival materials specific to the needs of each book brought in for repair or restoration and how to examine a book’s condition by looking for the steps that the original binder used to construct the book in order to return it to it’s original condition.”
