Everyone is familiar with - and awed by - the gilded edge. But gilding takes many years of practice to master. However, book edges have been decorated by other methods for centuries, and these styles of edge treatments are, by contrast, extremely easy to learn. In fact, you can become proficient at all of them...
Movable elements can be found in books as early as the 13th Century. Lift flaps and volvelles were used in religious texts to chronicle pilgrimages and calculate dates for religious holidays. Over time movables, pop-ups and movable sculptural book forms have been used for a variety of purposes from education to entertainment, scholarly texts to...
The style of box provides ideal storage for various sizes and shapes of books and papers. The basic construction is a wraparound enclosure with a four sided box. This is a two-day workshop. Please ensure you can attend both dates. Materials cost: £37 for the Material Kit. Tools list will be provided March 2024. Instructor...
Flexible or limp bindings have been made widely in Europe for many hundreds of years. About one in ten medieval books had a limp binding. Limp bindings were made extensively for libraries and archives. Over the course of the sixteenth century, the covers of limp bindings became more commonly reinforced with pasteboard inserts but the...
Theoretically, leather inlays are a relatively simple way of getting your design onto a book,but it can be nerve wracking to make that first irreversible cut into the cover of a book that you have spent the last few days/weeks/months forwarding. And, in order for them to look smart, it is vitally important that they fit perfectly and...
In this practical demonstration Glenn will show a range of techniques used in contemporary bookbinding to decorate leather or cloth covers. He will talk about airbrushing, spraying and sprinkling to add colour to designs. Leather onlay techniques will be demonstrated as will impressed leather to create texture and pattern. And whilst he won’t talk in...
Working with local bookbinder Barry Clark you will make a hardback notebook suitable for writing or sketching. First, we will make the flat-back sewn book block, with tipped-on plain endpapers. We’ll add endbands and spine linings. We will then make a cloth and decorative paper covered case (the covers) incorporating a French groove. Finally the...
With Michael Burke, bookbinder and specialist in ancient and medieval bindings This lecture tells three stories of extraordinary ancient books that were lost for centuries and then found again. All three stories have in common that the manuscripts were deliberately buried underground. The various reasons for their burial, and the occasions of their discovery will...