At Dorsoduro 3253, near Ponte Ca’ Foscari, Paolo Olbi’s artistic bookbinding brings leather, marbled paper and letterpress together. The practice dates to 1962, with notebooks, albums and other paper goods among its forms.
At Ponte Ca’ Foscari
Paper, leather and print
In the workshop, paper is printed by hand on a letterpress; leather and eco-leather are finished with gold hot stamping or blind embossing.1
Objects for the page
The book is made in layers; the visit is by appointment
Paolo Olbi’s Dorsoduro workshop brings binding, marbled paper and letterpress into the same object. Read a notebook in layers: cover material, decorated endpaper, sewn or bound text block, and any printed detail that the maker actually identifies. Those are questions for an exact Olbi book, not claims that every product uses every technique. Current operator access is by appointment only, so contact the workshop before travelling; the address alone is not an invitation to drop in.1,5
- Outside: cover material and construction.
- Inside: endpaper and text-block attachment.
- Access: appointment confirmed by the operator, separately from a product inquiry.
