YES, I'm still here!

Thanks to an alert customer in Melbourne who found my last post was in August 2020 I thought I should update you all, it is August the 4th 2021, yes the Pandemic is far reaching and soul destroying to a lot of people, if you have been affected by Covid in any way, from my wife Levella and myself we say we are so sorry.

Since August 2020 the month I found time locked down to get started on a new website, please forgive me, I do this on my own, I have done since 1998 after purchasing the domain bookbinding.com.au I was so fortunate with my timing to be able to purchase this domain and to then learn how to get my own website built and live online, and even though I have long breaks between updates this latest website rebuild is the best I have been able to do so far.

I have been very busy Binding & Restoring Books as you could imagine, I have hundreds of before and after photos to include in this website soon I hope, recently with COVID I have been busier than ever, people in their time at home in Lockdown I think have found the time to find an old book or two to have repaired and restored, and as there is not many of us Bookbinders left I certainly have been very busy and owe my customers many thanks for being so patient in having to wait for their book to make it to my Bindery bench for some love and care and bring it back to life again. Not only this but some bespoke bindings, some very unique like my customer Granddad Jacks Distillery, if you have not seen this please check out this You Tube short video where yours truely has been shown in my Bindery at work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrvHl6rdROY&ab_channel=GranddadJacksCraftDistillery

This year 2021 started off as busy as usual and got a lot busier and more personal. In May 2021 I finally found the time to visit my elderly mother in Ballarat Victoria for Mothers Day and also her 83rd Birthday, I am so glad I did when I did, my wife and I and my son Trent drove down and then across to my sister-in-laws 4000 acre Pistachio farm in South Australia, as we had never been before, but when we returned home (we rent our home), we had a letter to move out in 8 weeks due to renovations to the house, so we become homeless and for a Bookbinder, this was not good, so we frantically were looking for a new location, fortunately we found our new location in a beautiful place called Old Bonalbo NSW, which is 90 minutes drive west of Byron Bay.

Old Bonalbo is a town with less than 40 homes, and a friendly town that have certainly welcomed us with open arms, our new Home/Bindery fronts thousands of acre's of farm land, a beautiful peaceful place that is perfect for the new Bindery, unfortunately my mother passed away half way through our move and it was very distressing, I could not even go to the funeral as it was in Victoria, so it was a very sad time.

So I am still Binding books, I have a lot of very patient customers as some books have taken a little longer to complete because of all that has happened over the last 12 months. So please get in touch with me, if you have a book you need repaired please send me an email, I know we are further away from our local Gold Coast customers but I will be visiting the Gold Coast on a regular basis, so no worries there, but for the last 13 years since we moved from Ballarat in Victoria this is where 35% of my new customers come from, from all over Australia, Australia Post has been perfect, we use Express Post and highly recommend this service to our customers, but if you are local to the Casino or Tenterfield area, or you feel you need to visit us here in Old Bonalbo please feel free to arrange a visit to my Bindery here, you are more than welcome.

This is the view from my Bindery Windows, come anytime, all you need to do is send me a message and let me know your coming, other than that, if you want a book repaired or restored or a bespoke binding please email me and send me some pictures.

Stay safe and well through these times, all the best, for these hard future times, lets hope COVID goes away and the lock downs stop so we can call get back to normal.

Regards Milton & Levella Watkins.