The term “handcrafted” has a way of meaning different things to each one of us. For some it may mean the acknowledgement of a high price tag on an item imported from another country. Others may envision someone working on their craft in a small booth at a craft fair. It may bring a memory to mind of someone gifting you a handcrafted item with intricate details which highlights the talents and abilities of the gift giver. For some, such as myself, the term “handcrafted” found on a product label or website description perks my interest because it’s personal.

Hello, I’m Autumn Riley, the publisher of this article and the granddaughter of Dennis and Lee Deneau who started this ministry. They began this ministry with a burden of preserving the King James Bible for my generation and it has since then extended into their great grandchildren’s generation. Why does this little bit of history matter or pertain to the topic of handcrafted you may ask? Because down through time the items and products which have lasted and retained their value are usually the ones with quality craftsmanship. Many of these items were handcrafted and have the signature of their maker. When you put this background to an item and say its handcrafted it turns into a personally defined term. I’ve worked in the bindery for 10+ years and helped in the ministry of Church Bible Publishers intermittently since my teen years. I can tell you with confidence – each Bible that comes through the bindery is unique. Truthfully, there are no two alike and it’s a defining character for our products. Almost every step in the operation of Bible making is free-hand crafting with the help of our tools and jigs to hold the Bibles in place while we work on them. Much the same type of work as you would see a carpenter doing with jigs and hand tools to accomplish their goal for each piece of wood they shape into a work of art the bindery does with the Bibles. The bindery is among the last of its kind. The use of hand tools, measuring the mesh and headbanding material for each book and/or text style individually, making sure the pages of your Bible open nicely when you receive it, cutting the ribbons and inserting them into each Bible by hand…the list goes on, and it’s all done by hand. My point is that between the bindery and the ministry of CBP, quality matters. Hand crafted quality is a true art in any field of expertise. We take the time to learn more about our craft and experiment with new products to test their quality and help ensure we have the best supplies available to work with in our craft. At the end of the day one thing matters most to us – did we do our human best to craft a product of quality worthy of being on a Bible? You, as our customers, cannot see the hours of work that goes into each Bible, see the frustrations over having inferior product sent to us which has to be replaced, or the stress of delayed parts for machinery and/or packaging. It’s all part of the handcrafted process – its personal.

The quality which is presented in our Bibles is a representation of the varying abilities within the staff of CBP and the bindery. Using the tools of our craft, we take this privilege and turn it into dedication to bring you Bibles that will last. The next time you see the term “handcrafted” on a product consider what may have gone into the making of it, the person(s) behind it, and the talent they were brave enough to share with you in delivering the quality of said product. This is what handcrafted means to us – what does it mean to you now?