I learned bookbinding with Neale Wootton at the Canberra Institute of Technology vocational course in 2006. In 2010, I started training at the bench and by 2012 I had won the Kenneth Binns Travelling Fellowship to attend a course on historical bindings with Nicholas Pickwoad at the London Rare Book Summer School. This exposure lead to this investigation into the watermarks of the national collection in Canberra. I further trained with international teachers such as Dominic Riley (UK), Don Glaister (USA) and Dina Adamoli (ARG), as well as reknown Australian binders Joy and John Tonkin, Vicki Woolley, David Newbold, Rosemarie Jeffers-Palmer and James Elwing. I have also attended lectures by Cheryl Porter and Michelle Brown . With extensive writing experience in community newsletters, blogs, presentations at conferences and training manuals, my stories are compelling and inviting. I once was a woodworker and made secret boxes. I hold a degree in Art History and speak three languages. I firmly believe in lifelong learning, and take any opportunity to do so. It transpires that my great uncle Oskar was a bookbinder in Breslau before WW2 and my great-great grand- father was a bookseller and publisher in that same city in the late 19th century. I blog about bookbinding and tango and have written training manuals on both subjects.