cloth binding class

A few days ago I held a one day cloth binding class.  It was a flat back structure, the perfect introduction to bookbinding.

The students cut paper down from parent sheets (large sheets of paper), folded the paper into sections, trimmed them, sewed on tapes, made a case, stamped a title on the spine, put corners on, then decorated paper and finally cased the books in.  If you read that sentence very fast you'll be as winded as we were by the end of the day.

But it was one of the most enjoyable classes I've ever had.  The students were great, we had time to try stuff and probably did too much, but in a good way.  It's fun to have students who like having stuff thrown at them (metaphorically).

I have a few more classes this summer, as part of my "get out of the heat" program.  One more on books and a couple of box making classes.  They promise to be fun as well.  Christmas is only six months away, time to learn to make boxes worthy of your gifts.  (Well, probably not but it sounded good in my head.)

In the meantime here are the books made by the students.

Day Five!

Yesterday we had the last day of the cloth binding class.  Here are Francine and Judy working away!

It was a delightful class, mostly because the students were all such nice and interesting people.  It almost always seems to be that way, perhaps because folks who want to learn binding must be interesting and delightful people, perhaps?  These folks certainly were, it was a pleasure spending time with them.

We spent a day and a half on making fatback bindings, two and a half days on rounded and backed bindings and then the last day on serial bindings.  These bindings were used on binding of serials, like Time magazine.  It works on those serials which were folded in half and stapled together. They are quick, fun and have pedagogical value!

The students were talking about how that binding was a nice way to finish the class, since it's a bit easier than the rounded and backed binding.

What makes them so beautiful is the marbled paper.  The papers we used in this class all came from Chena River Marblers, our in Western Massachusetts.  Beautiful stuff!  I used to have lunch with them when they came by the school to teach and it was always really nice talking to them.  Again, nice people doing interesting work!

It can't all be about work, though.  There was, fortunately, time for this important task as well:

At the end of the day, as I was downloading the pictures I took I saw this, and thought it a nice conclusion to this post.  And a good descriptor of how I felt about the class:

Day four of cloth binding class.

We've finished the fourth session of the cloth binding class.  At this point they've made a flat back and a rounded and backed book.  They're the two most typical kinds of books.  This is the class I wanted when I was trying to learn binding, and so it's nice to be able to offer it.

The class covers traditional bookbinding techniques and materials. When I decided I needed to learn binding I bought Edith Deihl's manual of bookbinding and it made no sense to me at all.  One really needs to have someone show them the basics in order to be able to comprehend the good manuals.  Of course there are manuals aimed at those with no knowledge of binding but they generally don't cover bindings like these.  

Here is one of the students, Dana, working on the spine linings of her rounded and backed book.

Students in this class will do at lease one flat back, one rounded and backed binding (the books with the rounded spine) and one serial binding. But here is part of what Dana has done:

In all my classes students are encouraged to take materials home to work on between sessions. This class is held on five Saturdays so it was not difficult to find time to sew more books between sessions.  But I have had students during the Monday - Friday courses work on books in the evenings at home, or in their hotel rooms.  These classes can be a bit tiring ( they run from 8:30 - 4:30), so not everyone is up to putting in a few more hours in the evenings and that's fine as well.

For that reason in some ways it's easier, perhaps, to get more work done in the Saturday classes.  As with all skills like this, the more the students do the more they are able to learn.  I suppose it's because the more they do, the more mistakes they make and learn from.  Another benefit of longer classes, I think.

Here are two books Dana has finished.  In addition to these she has finished a full cloth flat back binding as well.

In the last session we'll finish up the unfinished text blocks and make a serial binding or two. It's been a fun class.

Book festival aftermath

Led Zeppelin.  I survived because of Led Zeppelin.

In 1977 I saw Zeppelin at the Kingdome.  Back in those days all concerts were "festival seating" meaning no assigned seats.  Clearly this was before The Who and Cincinnati.  The Kingdome was a huge concrete dome and the sound was going to horrible, the only hope was to be down front.  So I got there in the morning of the show and waited all day for them to let us in.

The point here is that when I got there everyone was having a great time.  I got my spot in line and sat down. When the line moved I went with them and sat down. When they let us in I ran down on the field and as close to the front as I could, and sat down.  By the time the concert started I was probably 30 yards from the stage.  And folks were dropping like flies from having been standing for over 12 hours.  A few songs in I was ten yards from the stage.

This scan shows the stub, just to prove I'm not lying here:

I should mention that it was so loud that I couldn't discern what songs they were playing until half an hour in when I think my ears got so numb that I could figure out what they were.  Still it was fun and I have great memories of that show.

The point is that I learned success is dependent on sitting as much as you can, I think in every aspect of life.  Unless you're a marathoner, then that might be difficult.  Maybe I need to revise the lesson.  Anyway, I did sit as much as I could this weekend and it was a good thing.

Here is a shot of the festival from the Arizona Daily Star:

They estimate that over 100,000 people attended.  I had the same booth I had last year and had a great time.  I pushed classes and repairs, and got a good response to both of them.  The strange thing is that I really won't know how successful it was until a few months.

I also had some stuff I made around Christmas when I got curious about how many jigs I could use and how I could organize the work more effectively.  More an exercise than anything else.  Still I sold several things, which was a bonus.

Here is a shot of the booth.  The weather was mid-70s each day.  Perfect.

In this picture are our friends Jim and Lynne Owens, owners of Thorn Books. They're pretending to be customers.  I'm pretending to help them.  Hopefully a casting director will read this blog and hire me for blockbuster movie role.  Notice how into character I am here, my "essence" is just pouring out of my pores, but not in an artificial or contrived way.  Just like Lawrence Olivier, John Gielgud or the guy who played Greg Brady on the television show.

Diane came by to bring me lunch, which was a nice improvement over last year.  I think you can see the difference between Diane and myself, she's playing a role where I fully inhabit a character. Can you see it?

A few folks brought damaged books by, which is always pretty fun.  But mainly it was a chance to talk about to people about books, which is always fun.

It was pretty smashed on Saturday, but slower on Sunday - especially Sunday morning.  Still, even though there were less people on Sunday, I ended up talking to about the same amount of people both days.  Gave out lots of brochures, cards and class schedules.  Really had a nice time.

It did occur to me that I should keep records during this, like count how many of each thing I handed out just to gauge interest from year to year.  I do think I gave out many more than last year, but have no statistical proof of that.  Doesn't matter on some level, but I'm kind of curious.  And I like statistics.  But the only stat that matters is how many people follow up.  

Day one of cloth binding class!

Today we had the first day of a five day book binding class.  It was a fun day.  It's gratifying to hear the students at the end of the day express amazement of how much we covered.  Today they forwarded a flat back binding.  Next week we'll make the covers for them and start on rounded and backed bindings.

I'm quite happy that we've gotten to this point, it's been a long time coming.  First we had to finish building the house and then turning this:

In to this:

Doing all that work made a class like this possible.  And so here are the students working away in a truly great space..

Does any bindery have a nicer lunch room than this?  I think not!

I'm very much looking forward to next week!