Bookbinding Core Certificate Program

The San Francisco Center for the Book celebrates the craft and art of bookbinding. Our Bookbinding Core Certificate Program introduces students to four different binding models, leading them through the history and evolution of bookmaking.  It provides students a comprehensive foundation to delve into the practice of binding and qualifies them to rent studio time in our bindery. Core classes must be taken in order, 1 through 4.

Click here to learn more about the Bookbinding Core Certificate Program and how to receive a discount!

Bookbinding Core 1 :: Coptic Binding

To paraphrase Lewis Carroll, we begin at the beginning. This, the first of our Core Bookbinding series, introduces students to the craft with the Coptic stitch, one of the earliest structures in binding. Students will spend the morning making their own decorative pastepapers, then use them in the afternoon when binding their book.

In addition to coming away with a finished book made by hand, students will also be introduced to the tools and terms of bookbinding. Basic practices and equipment will be discussed as students familiarize themselves with both skills and safety measures needed for working in a bindery.

SFCB's Windgate Scholarship Fund is dedicated to providing need-based financial support to individuals interested in learning bookbinding, letterpress printing, and related book arts. Click here to apply.

Prerequisite:
None. Beginners are welcome. 

Materials to bring:
None. All tools and materials will be provided.

About the Instructor:
Madison Halaby Gordon (she/they) is a bookbinder and conservator-in-training living in Oakland, CA, currently working at Zukor Art Conservation and the Walt Disney Family Museum. She is fascinated by paper, and loves making and repairing practical, fun, accessible, and well-made structures for the use and enjoyment of everyday people. Madison is also trained in letterpress printing and has worked previously with the Key Printing & Binding (Oakland, CA) and Small Editions (Brooklyn, NY).

Bookbinding Core Certificate Program

The San Francisco Center for the Book celebrates the craft and art of bookbinding. Our Bookbinding Core Certificate Program introduces students to four different binding models, leading them through the history and evolution of bookmaking. It provides students a comprehensive foundation to delve into the practice of binding and qualifies them to rent studio time in our bindery. Core classes must be taken in order, 1 through 4.

Click here to learn more about the Bookbinding Core Certificate Program and how to receive a discount!

Bookbinding Core 1: Coptic Binding

This class introduces students to the craft with the Coptic stitch, one of the earliest structures in binding. Students will spend the morning making their own decorative pastepapers, then use them in the afternoon when binding their book.

In addition to coming away with a finished book made by hand, students will also be introduced to the tools and terms of bookbinding. Basic practices and equipment will be discussed as students familiarize themselves with both skills and safety measures needed for working in a bindery.

SFCB's Windgate Scholarship Fund is dedicated to providing need-based financial support to individuals interested in learning bookbinding, letterpress printing, and related book arts. Click here to apply.

Prerequisite:
None. Beginners are welcome. 

Materials to bring:
None. All tools and materials will be provided.

About the Instructor:
Jane Knoll (they/them) was the San Francisco Center for the Book's 2025 Type Devil. After an undergraduate in writing and printmaking from Bennington College and a diploma in bookbinding from North Bennet Street School, Jane was awarded two fellowships at the Boston Athenæum's conservation lab and worked as Assistant Book Conservator at the Northeast Document Conservation Center. Currently preparing for a master's in book conservation, Jane studies the archaeology of the book, with special interests in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century structures, folk repairs, and personalized bindings, and has two publications on the American scaleboard binding.

Learn not only the Turkish Map-Fold but also the lesser-known Hungarian Map-Fold!

If you are old (like me) you may remember these awesome Turkish map-folds used for City pocket maps when traveling. Who did not get one of those maps while visiting Rome? And yes, it is still the Turkish map fold even though we are in Italy. And did you know that there was a Hungarian Map-fold, too? It is not really used for maps… but nevertheless it is a great fold for your artist books or mail art.

We will play around with different sizes of paper, how to connect the folds to make infinite long map folds become a garland, and how to make a cover and have two folds facing each other.

Prerequisite:
None

Materials to Bring:
All tools and materials will be provided. 

About the Instructor:
Bettina Pauly (she/her) lives in San Francisco and works as both a book artist and a letterpress printer with Kim Vanderheiden at Painted Tongue Studios, Oakland, California. She loves books and boxes both as physical objects and as containers of meaning. She is interested in a variety of folded, sewn and woven structures in which she can incorporate her printing.

Sashiko - which translates to little stabs - is an embroidery technique developed in the Edo period in Japan. It became not only a decorative practice, but one that was used to mend and repair clothing.

In this workshop mixed media artist, author, and educator Lisa Solomon will first walk you thru how to sashiko stitch, with some pointers on how to create your own patterns from a grid. There will be templates and scrap fabric for you to use and practice with. After a bit of warm up, Lisa will demonstrate how give your clothes a new life and extend their use.

The class will provide a quick overview of supplies and techniques, including interior and exterior patchwork as well as ways to incorporate traditional sashiko patterning from simple to more complicated designs. Participants will also be encouraged to reflect their own personalities in the way they mend. Bring a garment that needs to be fixed! This class will offer a great way to think about sustainability, slow fashion and working with your hands in a meaningful and creative way. 

Prerequisite:
None

Materials to Bring:
Bring a garment that needs to be fixed, and any other scrap fabric you'd like to experiment on.

About the Instructor:
Lisa Solomon (she/her) is a mixed media artist based in the Bay Area who moonlights as an author, professor, illustrator, and color enthusiast. She often questions and deconstructs the meaning of identity and personal histories through the use of mediums traditionally associated with domestic crafts. A “hapa” [1/2 Japanese, 1/2 Caucasian] she feels as though hybridization is consistently at play in her work. She exhibits her work both nationally and internationally and is known for her books A Field Guide to Color and The Color Meditation Deck. Lisa shares her home with her husband, a teenager, a bevy of pets and many many spools of thread. She continually works to bridge the gaps between being creative, living creatively and making a living as a creative. Find Lisa on Instagram at @lisasolomon.

Bookbinding Core Certificate Program

The San Francisco Center for the Book celebrates the craft and art of bookbinding. Our Bookbinding Core Certificate Program introduces students to four different binding models, leading them through the history and evolution of bookmaking. It provides students a comprehensive foundation to delve into the practice of binding and qualifies them to rent studio time in our bindery. Core classes must be taken in order, 1 through 4.

Click here to learn more about the Bookbinding Core Certificate Program and how to receive a discount!

Bookbinding Core 1: Coptic Binding

This class introduces students to the craft with the Coptic stitch, one of the earliest structures in binding. Students will spend the morning making their own decorative pastepapers, then use them in the afternoon when binding their book.

In addition to coming away with a finished book made by hand, students will also be introduced to the tools and terms of bookbinding. Basic practices and equipment will be discussed as students familiarize themselves with both skills and safety measures needed for working in a bindery.

SFCB's Windgate Scholarship Fund is dedicated to providing need-based financial support to individuals interested in learning bookbinding, letterpress printing, and related book arts. Click here to apply.

Prerequisite:
None. Beginners are welcome. 

Materials to bring:
None. All tools and materials will be provided.

About the Instructor:
Nearsighted from childhood, Sarah Songer (she/her) learned to read at a young age because she couldn’t see anything twelve inches past her nose. Her love of books continued even after she got her first pair of glasses, and she earned a BA in Comparative Literature from UCLA.

She is the daughter of a printer and a graphic artist; in rebellion, she became a bookbinder. She spent ten years at Arion Press and trained many apprentices in edition binding. She is a longtime student of design bookbinder Eleanore Ramsey and was the proprietor of Bay Area Book Repair for several years. Sarah enjoys sharing the many bookbinding tips and efficiencies she's learned over the years, and finds her own personal projects most satisfying if they make her laugh.

Suminagashi, aka Japanese Paper Marbling, is the ancient Japanese technique of decorating paper with inks. It is believed to be the oldest form of marbling, originating in China over 2,000 years ago and practiced in Japan by Shinto priests as early as the 12th century.

Suminagashi (sue-me-NAH-gah-she), which means literally “ink-floating” involves doing just that! We will explore the use of Japanese marbling inks and various papers to create our own unique, swirling beauties that take just a short time to dry and can be used for a multitude of creative projects going forward. Participants will leave with their own unique stack of marbled papers.

Prerequisite:
None.

Materials to Bring:
All tools and materials will be provided.

About the Instructor:
Molly C. Meng (she/her) studied literature with a personal minor in collecting other people’s lives. An obsession with old notebooks, vintage photos, and every single discarded book that exists, her work reimagines untold stories behind the otherwise forgotten items of everyday. The medium of collage in both paper and textiles is Molly’s dominant form of communicating. She teaches creative workshops around the U.S., and is currently living and working in New Hampshire. mollycmeng.com

This class will focus on developing and practicing skills and techniques needed to make leather bindings.

Students will experience the difference between abrupt and gradual paring for turn-ins. We will make corners and line boards to manage pull. Students will practice beveled and feathered paring with a knife and scalpel, and develop competence in use of Scharfix and spokeshave for paring turn-ins and reducing the overall thickness of a piece of leather. Finally, students will practice leather covering skills on plaquettes using the leather they have prepared and experience how leather preparation affects the final product.

Prerequisite:
Orientation to Leather

Materials to Bring:

• Leather paring knife from Orientation to Leather 

About the Instructor:

Learn basic bookbinding structures and stitches that every beginning book artist should know!

Students will learn five staple structures of the bookbinding world: pamphlet stitch, two versions of one-sheet wonders, accordion folding, and a Japanese stab binding. If you’ve been curious about book arts basics, this is a great starter class; in three hours, you’ll gain the know-how to start making books of your own.

Students also learn about local resources, bookbinding tools, and SFCB’s Bookbinding Core Program, as well as protocol for studio rental. 

SFCB's Windgate Scholarship Fund is dedicated to providing need-based financial support to individuals interested in learning bookbinding, letterpress printing, and related book arts. Click here to apply.

Prerequisite(s):
None

Materials to bring:
All tools and materials will be provided. Students are also welcome to bring any of their own favorite bookbinding tools.

About the Instructor:
Jane Knoll (they/them) was the San Francisco Center for the Book's 2025 Type Devil. After an undergraduate in writing and printmaking from Bennington College and a diploma in bookbinding from North Bennet Street School, Jane was awarded two fellowships at the Boston Athenæum's conservation lab and worked as Assistant Book Conservator at the Northeast Document Conservation Center. Currently preparing for a master's in book conservation, Jane studies the archaeology of the book, with special interests in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century structures, folk repairs, and personalized bindings, and has two publications on the American scaleboard binding.