About Me

My career in the bookarts got a kick in the pants (a boost up) one day in 1974, as was walking across Riverside Avenue one rainy late-afternoon: a Metro Bus, taking a hard left, ran me down in the pedestrian lane. Taking the modest remuneration I was awarded as a result of this encounter, I enrolled in a comprehensive summer course on Calligraphy at the Minnesota College of Arts And Design (MCAD), following (more or less) in the footsteps of my older brother Don, an MCAD Commercial Design graduate. Immersion in things calligraphic grew into a strong interest in things bookbinderly. Books, after all, have historically been the primary vehicle for Calligraphy and Illumination; books and writing are what history is -- or was.

In 1983, after some years of building my skills as a handicraft binder, and then some instruction from a visiting London-trained bookbinder, I was appointed Book Conservator for the Special Collections Library at the University of Saint Thomas, in Saint Paul, Minnesota.  After 5-plus years there (with forays for special instructional workshops, and professional colloquia) I set up another workshop and began a three-year deployment as Special Collections Conservator for Carleton College, and Saint Olaf College (the Kierkegaard Library there), in Northfield Minnesota.

Since 1991 I have worked on my own, out of a workshop in my home in South Minneapolis, near Minnehaha Falls, where I am kept busy with book restoration for private, professional, and academic clients. I also accept commissions for custom bindings, box-making, small edition binding, and calligraphy, and I have made a small business of providing specialty Teflon implements, which I invented, and which have become extremely popular around the world (a number of suppliers have profitted by copying my designs and selling them to their own customers. I am happy for their good fortune!....But my own tools remain far superior to anything I've seen from the competition).  I also make and sell hand-cut goose quill pens ("The King of Writing Instruments!") to calligraphers (and others) around the world. You won't find a better functioning nor more beautiful quill pen made anywhere by anybody (probably).

I continue with strong enthusiasm in my persuit of the calligraphic arts, having a special interest in traditional tools and media, especially the glorious tradition of manuscript gilding (application of gold leaf in manuscript decoration).

The Workshop

click images to enlarge

Located in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA, my workshop is in my home near the Mississippi River: a one-man shop with several work areas that allow a variety of projects to be in progress at once, such as:

The workshop is populated largely by the many tools I have accumulated over time —quite a number of them made by me.

From my workshop I produce a small line of specialized Teflon tools that have become extremely popular among book artists around the world.

I supply hand processed, expertly hand cut goose quill pens to the calligraphic community (and others) in the U.S. and beyond.

Into my little workshop occasionally wanders the much-prized calligraphy project, always an exciting occurrance for me —having dived long ago into that bottomless well of art and technique. It was my love of calligraphy that launched me into the larger world of other bookcraft. The arts of manuscript illumination will always be my highest inspiration.

  For questions and answers please
  call: 612-729-7165
  write: 4512 31st Ave. S, Minneapolis, MN 55406
  or email:  denny@dennisruud.com