Brien Beidler
Image courtesy of the artist
Image courtesy of the artist
Image courtesy of the artist
Image courtesy of the artist
Image courtesy of the artist
Image courtesy of the artist
With a charismatic candor, Beidler constructs tools, techniques and culture to create books at once approachably practical and intricately wondrous. Self taught and a craft polyglot, Beidler welcomes the energies of evolution by building off of centuries old traditions. A blank page can be far from empty.
-Ian CarstensBrien Beidler
From the beginning, Brien Beidler has been inspired by historic bindings in their ability to harmonize fine craftsmanship, quirky but elegant aesthetics, and evidence of the hands that made them. Beginning with this tradition as a baseline, Brien's bindings seek ways to create new compositions from these historic precedents. Brien also creates a limited assortment of specialized hand tools for bookbinding and its related trades. Brien has taken and taught a variety of bookbinding and toolmaking workshops, and is an active member of the Guild of Book Workers. In the fall of 2016, he and his partner in crime upped their roots in Charleston, South Carolina and set up shop in Bloomington, Indiana, where Brien works from his home studio with Wren, his curmudgeonly Brittany.
In addition to being a featured artist with Glass Breakfast you can find Brien's work at beidlermade.com and on Instagram, as well as on the Cut the Craft Podcast which Brien co-hosts with Amy Umbel.