If you are interested in develop your bookbinding skills, I offer one-to-one tuition at a cost of £50 per hour, or a full day can be booked at £340. All classes take place at my fully equipped home studio. These sessions are for students with some prior bookbinding experience that wish to spend time working on specific projects or learning new techniques. Please contact me to enquire about more details.
Although I offer all these subjects on a private one-to-one basis, they are also available in the “Group Workshops” section. Recently, private one-to-one sessions have included the below subjects.
“Concertina Stub Binding”
(one day duration)
Level: Beginner to Intermediate
This is a popular subject for tuition and this is version one of two that is available on this binding structure.
Workshop Description:
Stub binding is a bookbinding technique that involves sewing book sections to narrow, folded pieces of paper, called stubs, instead of sewing the sections directly together. While not necessary for all books, stub binding can be a good solution for various problems.
Stub bindings are the perfect solution to binding books which are printed in the wrong grain direction, books with overly thick sections, miniature books, musical scores or books with illustrations that cross the gutter. The stubs allow each section to open freely and perfectly flat, also ensuring that no adhesive touches the actual book-block.
This structure involves folding long paper strips using aluminium folding gauges to create perfectly even concertina folds. Onto the concertina I’ll then show you how to sew on your sections and then the way to case the text block into a limp leather cover to create a notebook, which will open beautifully flat.
There are many ways to utilise stubs in bookbinding and I hope this gives the participants a foundation on which to experiment more. I use stubs often and will also show examples of other methods I have implemented in previous projects. If you are interested in learning this yourself, please get in touch!
An example of a binding where I have implemented this structure can be seen below: Venice by Barbara Dorf
“Creating a Stub Binding that can be Rounded and Backed”
(one/two day duration)
Level: Beginner to Intermediate
This is a popular subject for tuition and this is version two of two that is available for this binding structure.
Workshop Description:
Stub binding is a bookbinding technique that involves sewing book sections to narrow, folded pieces of paper, called stubs, instead of sewing the sections directly together. While not necessary for all books, stub binding can be a good solution for various problems.
Stub bindings are the perfect solution to binding books which are printed in the wrong grain direction, books with overly thick sections, miniature books, musical scores or books with illustrations that cross the gutter. The stubs allow each section to open freely and perfectly flat, also ensuring that no adhesive touches the actual book-block.
Where this session differs from concertina stub binding, is that each section is sewn to it’s own individual stub. Given the nature of the concertina stub binding with fixed folds, books sewn in this method can’t be rounded and backed. Where rounding and backing of a book sewn on stubs is desired, it is necessary to make individual stubs for each section so that they can still move independently of one another allowing the text block to have its spine shaped. If you are interested in learning this yourself, please get in touch!
Two examples of bindings where I have implemented this structure can be seen below: Walking Round Cambridge with William Blake by William Blake (below left) and Friendship by Ralph Waldo Emerson (below right)
“Embroidery on Leather for Fine Bindings”
(one day duration)
Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Workshop Description:
You can add very attractive surface decoration, texture and colour to bindings with simple techniques such as applying coloured leather onlays and sewn detail, both of which I demonstrate over this day-long course. From embroidered outlines to fully appliquéd sections, different stitches can be utilised to great effect.
The day starts by learning a variety of simple stitches and how to apply them to leather. In the afternoon there is an opportunity to test out these stitches on a simple design.
Two examples of bindings where I have implemented this embroidery method can be seen below: Winters Tale by Kitty Maryatt (below left) and Mayflies of the Driftless Region by Gaylord Schanilec (below right).
