An Outpost For Parchment And Hides.

TALAS was about to close for its annual summer break, and Kimberly McClure made sure to get there before it did. She had driven across Brooklyn to this industrial block of east Williamsburg to pick up a couple of leather-cutting tools. They get dull quickly, she said, and her project -- binding a composer's score into a handmade 15-inch-by-15-inch hot-stamped calfskin notebook -- couldn't wait a week. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]