The School for Bookbinding Arts
2160 Cedar Grove RoadWinchester, Virginia 22603 |
540-662-2683workshops@cattailrun.com |

Offering Diverse Workshops in | Bookbinding & the Kindred Arts |
We are pleased to offer our 2021 line-up of courses. There are many bookbinding courses from which to choose, and the descriptions and particulars of these are to be found below. We’re sure you’ll find something to appeal to your inner bookbinder.
We are delighted once again to host Carol Barton teaching her “Pop-Up Structures” class that is essential for anyone wishing to include pop-ups in their work with bookbinding and paper arts. We are also pleased to have Jamie Thurman on board for the “Book Repairs for General Library Collections.” We know that our students will benefit much from Jamie’s expertise in dealing with the repairs needed on circulating collections.
It is our plan from here on to arrange an annual series of workshops around a single topic, and this year’s theme is Silk Road Arts, designed to highlight the arts and wares that were ferried along that storied series of east-west trade routes. The courses within the Silk Road Arts Series are found in our Kindred Arts Workshops which you will find below.
The Silk Road was series of east-west land and sea trade routes in existence at least by the first century AD but are not known to have had any contemporary name associated with them. It was in the 19th century that German explorer and geographer Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen coined the name “Seidenstrasse” (Silk Road) to describe these early routes that transported all manner of goods from eastern Asia to as far west as Rome.



Bookbinding Workshops
Scroll down for course descriptions & instructor bios
Book Repairs for General Library Collections
July 12 (Mon) 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. $205
Introduction to Book Restoration
July 15 – 16 (Thurs – Fri) 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. $265
OR
August 12 – 13 (Thurs – Fri) 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. $265
New Cloth Binding Construction
September 30 – October 1 (Thurs – Fri) 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. $295
Book Sewing Intensive
October 13 – 14 (Wed – Thurs) 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. $295
Endbanding Intensive
October 15 (Fri) 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. $205
Introduction to Paper Repair
October 21 – 22 (Thurs – Fri) 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. $295
Advanced Cloth Binding Restoration: The Cloth Reback
October 28 – 29 (Thurs – Fri) 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. $295
Descriptions:
Bookbinding Workshops
This useful course is designed for librarians & library staff but is open to all.
Book Repairs for General
Library Collections
July 12 (Mon) 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. $205
Librarians take pride in the care they have traditionally offered the books within their libraries. This workshop is intended for librarians and library staff although is open to all interested students. The course will allow you to expand your expertise in the area of library book repair, teaching you to mend damaged joints and spines and to repair texts that have become loose or detached at the inner hinges. Tips for repairing damaged pages will also be included. The emphasis on these refurbishing techniques is structural so that the repaired books can hold their own while receiving heavy use. Even so, these practical and economical repairs are designed to deliver a neat, professional result. No prerequisite.
Instructors: Jill Deiss and Jamie Thurman
Jamie Thurman began her studies in book repair while in Richmond, Virginia, and has expanded her repertoire in Frederick, Maryland. She has studied book repair both on her own and through courses offered by The School for Bookbinding Arts. Over five years ago, she began volunteering in her county’s middle school library, offering her services as a book refurbisher. Jamie now works in book repair in multiple libraries in her county’s school system and also teaches repair techniques to other librarians. Librarians have been pleased by how Jamie’s work has noticeably helped stretch their library book budgets, and Jamie calculates that repairing books instead of replacing them saves a library between $10 and $25 per book.[/expander_maker]
This is a good first class to take if you are interested in learning how to restore books.
Introduction to Book Restoration
July 15 – 16 (Thurs – Fri)
9 a.m. – 5 p.m. $265
OR
August 12 – 13 (Thurs – Fri)
9 a.m. – 5 p.m. $265
Shabby books need not be relegated to the dustbin! In this class, learn to repair damaged corners and tattered endcaps and to stabilize splitting joints on both cloth and leather books. Dyeing and toning-in of your repair work, reducing the effect of stains and discoloration on a book’s cover, and the polishing of leather bindings is included. The class also includes tutorials on how to reattach texts that have come loose from otherwise sound covers. This course is designed for those who are interested in learning how to refurbish antiquarian books and for anyone who wants to move on to our more challenging Advanced Restoration courses. For book dealers in particular, this class introduces many simple techniques that they or their staff can easily perform on ailing books, greatly increasing the shelf presence of treated volumes. No prerequisite.
Instructors: Jill Deiss and Susan McCabe
Susan McCabe Susan McCabe is a bookbinder at Cat Tail Run where she prepares texts for rebinding or restoration. Traditionally this position is called a “Forwarder” because the processes leading up to the point a book receives its cover are known as “forwarding.” In addition to text sewing, the working of endbanding, paper repair, and the application of various linings and hingings that books require. Susan also marbles some of the decorative papers that are used in our bookbindery.[/expander_maker]
Why this course? Japanese master Nobuo Okano says it best: “There’s no way to fix a book unless you know how to make one.” And in this class, you will learn to make a variety of new covers.
New Cloth Binding Construction
September 30 – October 1 (Thurs – Fri)
9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
$295
Crafting new covers is an essential component of hand bookbinding. Historically, the making of new covers constituted the primary endeavor of a bookbinder and is no less important today. In this class, you will make a rounded-spine cloth, hardcover binding on a book of your own. Additionally you will learn to set type and gold-stamp your own titling layout for the spine of your book. Students will be taught two additional book structures: the flat-spine hardcover and the flexible cover.Emphasis will be placed on introducing the necessary bookbinding tools and their appropriate use. No prerequisite.
Instructors: Jill Deiss and Rowland Kirks
Jill Deiss established Cat Tail Run Hand Bookbinding, host of the School for Bookbinding Arts, in 1991. She studied bookbinding and restoration first in Northampton, Massachusetts, then at Cornell University’s Department of Library Conservation and in the Smithsonian Institution’s Conservation Laboratories. She holds a B.S. in chemistry and received a Master of Library Science degree from Syracuse University, where she specialized in the study of archives and rare book collections.
Rowland Kirks studied studio art as an undergraduate and serves at Cat Tail Run as a papermaker, inventor, and bouncer. He studied papermaking with Jacques Brejoux of Moulin du Verger in Puymoyen, France.[/expander_maker]
We affectionately call this class “Sewing with Susan.” Susan McCabe is a kind and patient teacher…and strict! You will definitely learn the rudiments of book sewing in her class, and these fundamentals will see you through myriad of sewing problems you might encounter.
Book Sewing Intensive
October 13 – 14 (Wed – Thurs)
9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
$295
Knowing how to sew pages together to make a text is essential information for bookbinders. Susan is an expert at sewing texts, and her high standards and carefully designed course will allow you to learn numerous sewing methods over the two-day class. You will learn how to sew on tapes, sunken cords, raised bands, and split thongs all while using a traditional sewing frame (your own or one of ours). The workshop includes sewing new texts as well as the resewing of older texts (which can be tricky to do). Students will also learn how to determine when damaged sewing can be repaired and how to make those repairs. Students will learn how to string up a sewing frame and will receive instruction on single-sheet sewing, whip-stitching, and overcasting. Prerequisite: SBBA’s Introduction to Book Restoration OR New Cloth Binding Construction.
Instructor: Susan McCabe
It’s difficult to learn how to create endbanding from a book or video. This one-day class will start you on your way, and then things you read and watch online will be much easier to follow.
Endbanding Intensive
October 15 (Fri)
9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
$205
Endbanding is at once an elegant and purpose-filled element of a bound book. These lovely accents are not mere accessories but perform an important role in strengthening a book’s structure. In this class, Susan McCabe will teach you to make a variety of styles of wrapped-core endbands and sewn—or “worked”—endbanding as well as how to repair damaged endbands. The course culminates with her interactive demo on the très elegante French Double Endband (the endbanding equivalent of ice skating’s Double Lutz). Prerequisite: SBBA’s Introduction to Book Restoration OR New Cloth Binding Construction.
Instructor: Susan McCabe
You’ll need this class, too, if you want to learn to restore books because the pages of books are often damaged.
Introduction to Paper Repair
October 21 – 22 (Thurs – Fri)
9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
$295
Book repair work by necessity has to include repairing damaged pages, as it is difficult if not impossible to restore the cover of a book if the pages—the very foundation of the book—are tattered and torn. This course teaches non-invasive surface cleaning techniques, tear repair using wet and dry techniques, and removal of pressure-sensitive tape (or how to accommodate it when it cannot be removed). In addition, student will learn how to humidify and flatten rolled or crumpled pages. No prerequisite.
Instructors: Jill Deiss and Susan McCabe
Susan McCabe Susan McCabe is a bookbinder at Cat Tail Run where she prepares texts for rebinding or restoration. Traditionally this position is called a “Forwarder” because the processes leading up to the point a book receives its cover are known as “forwarding.” In addition to text sewing, the working of endbanding, paper repair, and the application of various linings and hingings that books require. Susan also marbles some of the decorative papers that are used in our bookbindery.
This is a hard-core restoration class and is the class after which you will come out feeling like a bookbinder.
Advanced Cloth Binding Restoration:
The Cloth Reback
October 28 – 29 (Thurs – Fri)
9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
$295
This course teaches The Cloth Reback—the technique most often used in our bindery to restore cloth-bound volumes when the boards are detaching or have completely detached from the text. In a cloth reback, new matching material is taken under the original materials in order to make the binding usable again and to improve its presentation. Being able to reback cloth-bound books smoothly and with confidence is one of the most important skills needed by a bookbinder. Prerequisite: SBBA’s Introduction to Book Restoration.
Instructor: Jill Deiss
Scroll down for course descriptions & instructor bios
Silk Road Arts Series: The Art of Fabric Marbling
April 22 – 23 (Thurs – Fri) 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. $295 + $55 materials
OR
April 26 – 27 (Mon – Tue) 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. $295 + $55 materials
Pop-Up Structures
June 24 – 25 (Thurs – Fri) 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. $295
Silk Road Arts Series: The Art of Japanese Bookbinding
August 26 – 27 (Thurs – Fri) 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. $295 + $45 materials
Silk Road Arts Series: Suminagashi Marbling
September 1 (Wed) 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. $205 + $45 materials
Silk Road Arts Series: Spices from Along the Silk Road
September 2 (Thurs) 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. $75
Silk Road Arts Series: Beginning Paper Marbling
September 3 – 4 (Fri – Sat) 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. $295 + $45 materials
Silk Road Arts Series: Peek-a-Boo Coptic Binding
September 6 – 7 (Mon – Tue) 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
$295 + $45 materials
Silk Road Arts Series: The Essential Ebru (Turkish Marbling)
September 8 – 9 (Wed – Thurs) 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
$295 + $45 materials
Silk Road Arts Series: Bellissimo! Italian Marbled Paper Patterns
September 10 – 11 (Fri – Sat) 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
$295 + $45 materials
Descriptions:
Kindred Arts Workshops
The Art of Fabric Marbling
Silk Road Arts Series
April 22 – 23 (Thurs – Fri) 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. $295 + $55 materials
OR
April 26 – 27 (Mon – Tue) 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. $295 + $55 materials
Fabric marbling is an art and a passion for guest instructors Regina and Dan St. John, who will teach you how to turn blank cloth into marbled magic. This class affords students the opportunity to marble their own yardage of cotton, linen, or silk, and to purchase scarves and other finished goods on which to marble. No prerequisite.
Instructors: Regina and Dan St. John
Pop-Up Structures
June 24 – 25 (Thurs – Fri)
9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
$295
Students will learn a variety of pop-up structures—beginning with non-adhesive cut-and-fold pop-ups and progressing through a series of more complex, glued constructions. Students will receive instruction in folding and positioning techniques as well as suggestions for incorporating graphics into their pop-up designs. A slideshow of historical and artist-made pop-ups will be presented in order to provide models and departure points for the student’s own innovative new work. Students will be encouraged to explore new applications and to experiment with integrating visual content and text with their pop-ups. This is an ideal session for book artists, paper artists, art teachers, and graphic designers. No prerequisite.
Instructor: Carol Barton
Carol Barton is a book artist, curator, and teacher who has published several editions of artists’ books and has organized both local and national shows of artists’ books. Her work is exhibited internationally and has been acquired by numerous institutions including the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. She served as curator for the Smithsonian Institution’s exhibition Science and the Artist’s Book. She has taught at elementary, high school, and university levels as well as conducted adult workshops at art centers across the United States. She is on the faculty at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and the George Washington University’s Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, D.C., where she teaches courses in bookbinding and book structures. She has had residencies at the Bogliasco Foundation in Italy and the Sacatar Foundation in Brazil. Her pop-ups were featured in National Geographic Magazine’s July 2005 article Zip Code 20812: It’s Only A Paper Moon. Her instructional books, The Pocket Paper Engineer, Volumes 1, 2, and 3, are how-to guides on paper engineering.[/expander_maker]
The Art of Japanese Bookbinding
Silk Road Arts Series
August 26 – 27 (Thurs – Fri)
9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
$295 + $45 materials fee
The Japanese traditional aesthetic and culture embodies the concept that art is not a separate entity from life, and mindfulness in life has the potential itself to be a thing of beauty. This philosophical foundation is an integral part of the Japanese method of bookmaking. From the care taken in making rice paste to the cutting of the text paper, everything has a way and a purpose in the world of Japanese bookbinding. In this course, students will create their own Japanese-style bound books using traditional Nipponese methods. Emphasis will be placed on learning established book construction techniques as well as the historical uses for a variety of Japanese bindings. The class also features a demonstration on the preparation of book cloth, a material far different from its western counterpart. As a bonus, students will look in on a demonstration of traditional Japanese woodblock printing.
No prerequisite.
Instructor: Lana Lambert
Suminagashi Marbling
Silk Road Arts Series
September 1 (Wed)
9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
$205 + $45 materials fee
Suminagashi was developed in Japan at least by the 12th century AD, and its ethereal patterns are created from inks floating on water that are manipulated by the gentle forces of the artist’s breath or a cat’s whisker. (The bookbinding school is in possession of several very fine cats who are prolific producers of whiskers.) Suminagshi papers constitute art in their own right, but historically have been used as backgrounds for the written word and for images. Origami from suminagashi marbling is particularly beautiful, and a thousand years on, new and inventive uses for suminagashi continue to inspire and amaze. No prerequisite.
Instructors: Regina and Dan St. John
Spices from Along the Silk Road
Silk Road Arts Series
September 2 (Thurs)
10 a.m. – 1 p.m.
$75
Please join Chef Natalie Ramos as she takes you on a voyage of the senses that will enlighten your palate and bring to life the storied histories and uses of the rich and evocative spices that were transported along the historic Silk Road trade routes. Some of these spices are ones that today are commonplace in our lives, but in most cases we have become long separated from the history, danger, and mythology associated with the spice trade. Be with us for an unforgettable journey that will enliven your senses and reconnect you with history. No prerequisite.
Instructor: Natalie Ramos
Beginning Paper Marbling
Silk Road Arts Series
September 3 – 4 (Fri – Sat)
9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
$295 + $45 materials fee
Marbled papers grace the covers of books both inside and out and are used in countless other arts from box making to matting & framing to greeting cards. You will begin this class by learning how to set up to do marbling and from there embark on your marbling journey. You will learn many traditional combed patterns and how to use the marbling inks to bring forth your own decorative vision from the marbling tank. This course includes numerous extras such as instruction in marbling the edges of book pages and leather. The course culminates with students creating their own marbled-leather, edge-marbled journal. In addition to the journal, students may reasonably expect to produce 20 to 30 marbled papers during the class. No excursion through the arts of the Silk Road would be complete without a foray into the techniques that originated during the late Middle Ages in the marbling communities within countries including Persia and Syria. Feel the storied history of this art form come to life under your fingers. So long as we continue to learn and practice it, this knowledge will never be lost. No prerequisite.
Instructors: Regina and Dan St. John
Peek-a-Book Coptic Binding
Silk Road Arts Series
September 6 – 7 (Mon – Tue)
9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
$295 + $45 materials
This workshop features a signature-sewn text with its structural origins in the 2nd century among the Egyptian Christian community, the Copts. Coptic bindings continued to be made and used through the 11th century and today are recognized as an important foundation for all of modern, western bookbinding tradition. Dan St. John adds his own flair to this ancient structure by incorporating marbled paper that peeps out fetchingly from the sewing structure to give a modern touch to this historical style steeped in rich tradition. No prerequisite.
Instructor: Dan St. John
The Essential Ebru:
Turkish Marbling
September 8 – 9 (Wed – Thurs)
9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
$295 + $45 materials fee
Ebru, meaning “cloud painting,” has a long and venerated history within Turkish marbling tradition. The St. Johns have been honored to visit the workshops of numerous contemporary ebru masters and to learn about their philosophies, methods, and tools. This workshop will teach the principles of ebru using acrylic pigments while creating marbled patterns that embody the essence of this exquisite art that is uniquely Turkish. No prerequisite.
Instructors: Regina and Dan St. John
Bellissimo! Italian
Marbled Paper Patterns
Silk Road Arts Series
September 10 – 11 (Fri – Sat)
9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
$295 + $45 materials fee
This course will take you beyond the traditional Italian combed patterns (marmo pettinato) into the realms of challenging patterns such as peacock (pavone), snail (chiocciola), and stone (pietra). In their travels, Regina and Dan always make a point of visiting Italian marbling production houses both small and large. The knowledge shared through these contacts represents a legacy that continues on through the teaching of the craft. No prerequisite.
Instructors: Regina and Dan St. John
School for Bookbinding Arts
A division of Cat tail Run Hand Bookbinding
2160 Cedar Grove Road, Winchester, VA 22603
(540) 662-2683 | workshops@cattailrun.com | Follow us on Instagram @ctrbookarts