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Hinesburg, Vermont - November 5, 2010

Marianna Holzer is part surgeon, part artist, and entirely devoted to books. "I love books. I really, really love books!" Holzer beams.

She's a bookbinder, doing most everything from slicing the pages of a book to rounding out the book's spine the old-fashioned way. "When you're trying to fix something that's old, you can't really just stick it in a sewing machine or you can't just stick it in a machine to come out new again-- you have to do it by hand," Holzer says.

She used to work for a large bindery, but now operates her own business out of her Hinesburg home. "It's often a family business," Holzer explains.

Holzer is a third-generation bookbinder. Her grandfather and dad did this, and she uses some of her dad's old tools. "I think he'd be proud of me," she says.

Patience is a job requirement; a steady hand, too. The artisan heats a special wheel and presses it against a mylar and metal sheet, rolling out decorative stripes of real 22-karat gold.

Reporter Jack Thurston: "If you messed up, that would be an expensive mistake!"

Marianna Holzer: "Yes! We try not to mess up!"

The finished products are often restored classics: books that may have been tattered and falling apart that Holtzer can make good again. She also does work for college libraries, and creates custom wedding albums, journals, and even cookbooks.

A custom binding project can run from around $100 dollars for a simple design to thousands of dollars for a complex restoration project with lots of gold work.

Holzer still has a library of her dad's work, containing stories he'd read to his kids.

Thurston: "So even in this era of iPads and electronic books, you think there's a nice future for real books?"

Holzer: "Yes, I do. The feel of a book is something you can't get just holding a little screen."

Marianna Holzer's craft connects her to her family history and to a time where human hands touched more of our consumer goods. At the Holzer Bindery, those days are still around; and a part of these one-of-a-kind books that are "Made in Vermont."

Click here for a link to the Holzer Book Bindery.

Jack Thurston - WCAX News - Made in Vermont