The School for Bookbinding Arts

FEATURED WORKSHOP

Gold-Leaf Tooling on Leather

This course will serve as an introduction to working with gold leaf and applying or “tooling” it onto leather using heated line pallets or decorative handle tools. The course includes instruction in all the basics to get you going: adhesive sizings to attach the gold to the leather, how to use the tools, where tools can be acquired, and the different types of gold. Most importantly, students will be doing their practice under the watchful eye of master gilder Sam Feinstein. No prerequisite.

FEATURED WORKSHOP

Marble & Make: The Perfect Pouch

This workshop moves students through the marbling baths for day one and then on to creating a finished, useful product with their marbling: The Perfect Pouch. Brittani has several adhesive methods for securing seams. Only a minimal amount of hand-stitching is needed to make this most perfect of pouches. No prerequisite.

FEATURED WORKSHOP

Gilding Book Edges Using Gold Leaf

Fine bindings almost always include one or more gilt edges in their design. Learning to handle the leaf and apply it to a book’s edge is a touch of elegance and a wonderful skill for a binder to have. By knowing how to gild edges, a binder can use this skill to give any book the “Midas Touch.” No prerequisite.

FEATURED WORKSHOP

Marble & Make: The Marbled-Edge Notebook

Customize the cover of a blank notebook, creating a masterpiece for yourself or to give as a gift. In edge marbling, dipping the edge of the book into a watery marbling tank seems like a recipe for disaster—but in fact it’s an artistic touch that takes a book from blah to breathtaking!

Under the expert guidance of marbler Brittani Locke, you will create a number of marbled sheets and then deftly marble the edges of a well-made blank notebook [proudly produced in the US by NewLeafPaper.com using 100% post-consumer recycled material]. The fruits of your labors will be used to create the glorious, marbled-covered notebooks you see pictured here—finished off with an elegant gold-tooled line. No prerequisite.

FEATURED WORKSHOP

Beginning Paper Marbling

Without decorative papers our world would be all the poorer. Marbled papers grace the covers of books and are used in many other crafts including box making, matting & framing, and greeting cards. You will learn many traditional patterns with their origins in early Turkey. These patterns later spread throughout Europe starting in the 1500s.

FEATURED WORKSHOP

Shell & Combed Shell Paper Marbling

Marblers, do not miss this workshop where you will be studying directly with the originator of the acrylic-pigment shell pattern. Prior to Robin Ashby’s development, the stone pattern could be made with acrylics, but not so the shell pattern (which required water-based pigments to form). By studying the historical formulas for the shell pattern committed to print in Fichtenberg’s 1852 book on marbling recipes, Mr. Ashby began his experiments (or spells, as some might say): Gall and oil, potash of chloride and metal salts, give up your secrets! The results are indeed nothing short of magical! For further excitement, students will learn the combed shell pattern which became prevalent starting in the late 19th century. No prerequisite.

FEATURED WORKSHOP

Marble & Make: Blank Album Construction

This workshop will have your engines revving from the first moment. You’ll begin at the marbling tank where you will marble the paper that will become part of your album cover. You will then move on to create the blank album pages and craft the album cover. The cherry on the top will be setting type and then letterpress printing it for the title label on the front of your album under the direction of printer John Johnson. Oh, Wait! There is also whipped cream: finish off your album with elegant, gold-tooled lines! No prerequisite. Join us.

FEATURED WORKSHOP

The Retchōsō: Dual-Needle Japanese Tassel Binding

Developed during the Heian period (794 – 1185 CE), the retchōsō was used to record literature, poetry, and traditional Noh dramatic chants. This style is useful today as a sketch book, field journal, or chapbook.

Lana will demonstrate the beauty of raw pigments as she turns them into specially-formulated inks for woodblock printing. Please join us for this workshop that follows the bookbinding process through many stages of artistry. No prerequisite.