There are many considerations for the preparation of paper and press set-up in order to successfully print in a variety of situations where partial or full bleeds are required. This class will focus on patterns, images, and texts which bleed off some or all the edges of the page, and planning for post-trimming, along with choosing inks for overprinting.

Additionally, we will discuss printing jobs which will be sent to another printer or service bureau for foil stamping, die cutting, or photographic insertion.

The class will use both Vandercook and platen presses; students who are only experienced on the Vandercook presses are welcome.

Ample time will be given to questions and show and tell from both the students and the instructors.

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):
Students must have completed the Cylinder Core certificate program, or have equivalent printing experience. Please email us with your qualifications if you are new to SFCB.

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

About the Instructors:
Alan Hillesheim (he/him) and Lisa Rappoport (she/her) will team-teach this new series of workshops for intermediate printers.

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.

The four structures are:

Bookbinding Core 1: Coptic Binding
Students will craft one of the earliest structures in binding. In addition to coming away with a finished book made by hand, students will also make their own decorative pastepapers to be used on their book. Basic practices and equipment will be discussed as students familiarize themselves with both skills and safety measures needed for working in a bindery.

Bookbinding Core 2: Flat-Back Case Binding
Students will create what most of us refer to as a hardbound book. In bookbinding terms, it is known as a case binding; where a sewn textblock is glued into a separate structure known as a case. 

Bookbinding Core 3: Limp Paper Binding
Students will bind a book using limp vellum bindings as a model but employing thick paper as the folded and laced wrapper. They will learn to use a sewing frame and the skill of sewing headbands.

Bookbinding Core 4 :: Classic Rounded Back Cloth Binding (two sessions)
This final class uses skills learned in each previous class to create a beautiful and classic rounded back cloth binding. After sewing, the book will be rounded and backed before the boards are attached and covered.

The Weeklong Intensive rate is discounted $100 off the individual workshop fees.

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. The scholarship for this session has been awarded; more sessions and scholarship opportunities will be posted in July.

Prerequisite:
None

Materials to Bring:
All tools and materials are provided.

About the Instructor:
Beth Redmond (she/her) was first introduced to making books in the photography program at San Jose State. She loves binding books for their perfect marriage of functionality and creativity.  After learning the basics of a well-made book at SFCB she went on to study fine binding at the American Academy of Bookbinding in Telluride, CO. She works primarily with leather to create bindings for public and private collections. Her work can be seen at https://bredmond.weebly.com.

In this introductory class, students will gain a basic understanding of the history, techniques, tools and styles of European marbling.

Students will get hands-on experience of all aspects of Western marbling techniques from paper priming and preparatory mixing of water medium and paints, to the creation of classical patterns. Specific attention will be given to learning how to obtain particular designs using a diverse array of rakes and combs. Students will have ample time for experimentation with guidance from the instructor and will leave with a sampling of papers they've marbled themselves.  

*Please note that paper marbling is a wet process and papers made in the workshop may not be dry at the end of class. Students may return to SFCB after the workshop to retrieve any papers left to dry at the of the day or request mailed returns. 

Prerequisite:
None

Materials to bring:
All tools and materials will be provided. Please wear comfortable shoes for standing that you don't mind getting wet.

About the Instructor:
Pietro Accardi (he/him) owned a Bookbindery in Turin (Italy) for 12 years. He worked for Turin’s main Library, Municipal Archives, and University Libraries restoring and binding documents and books. He also runs his own paper marbling and decorative box making business. Now he lives near Lake Tahoe with wife, cats and a studio. He is currently working for the library of special collections of University of Reno doing restoration work and teaches workshops.

Developed in the Renaissance for studying perspective, the tunnel book is sometimes called a 'peephole book.' It is truly an adapted accordion with multiple panels bound on both sides, to be viewed from the front giving it a 3-D effect.

Students will collage the various layers out of their own postcards and photos to create a unique and personalized book. After attaching the pages to the accordion fold that holds them, the tunnel book will be glued into a simple cover for a more finished look.

Prerequisite:
None

Materials to Bring:
Several postcards (landscape orientation), old pictures, and/or magazines to cut up for images.

About the Instructor:
Bettina Pauly (she/her) lives in San Francisco as a book artist and works as 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.

If you have taken the introduction to paper marbling and enjoyed it, this advanced class provides you with the opportunity to try your hand at even more complex patterns, explore the color wheel and experiment more with your favorite palette. Pietro will skip all the introductory talks about paper marbling and, after a brief recap for rusty minds, start with some more advanced demonstration. Another main goal of this class will be the introduction of the use of metallic paint and give tips on how it could be “domesticated”.

Last but not least we’ll be talking about the many possibilities that overmarbling offers and you will execute 3 of such patterns. Also, this class is designed to accommodate the needs of special projects that students may have or envision (you can notify Pietro of your specific project in advance).

*Please note that paper marbling is a wet process and papers made in the workshop may not be dry at the end of class. Students may return to SFCB after the workshop to retrieve any papers left to dry at the of the day.  

Prerequisite:
Introduction to Western Paper Marbling, Pietro's Paper Marbling online workshop, Introduction to Fabric Marbling, or other marbling experience.

Materials to bring:
All tools and materials will be provided. Please wear comfortable shoes for standing that you don't mind getting wet.

About the Instructor:
Pietro Accardi (he/him) owned a Bookbindery in Turin (Italy) for 12 years. He worked for Turin’s main Library, Municipal Archives, and University Libraries restoring and binding documents and books. He also runs his own paper marbling and decorative box making business. Now he lives near Lake Tahoe with wife, cats and a studio. He is currently working for the library of special collections of University of Reno doing restoration work and teaches workshops.

Discover the elegance and functionality of the sewn boards binding, a modern structure popular today with bookbinders from various backgrounds.

In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn to sew text blocks onto integrated cover boards, creating a durable book that opens completely flat.

Prerequisite:
None

Tools/Materials to bring:
None. All tools and materials are provided.

About the Instructor:
Clair Emma Smith (she/her) is a bookbinder specializing in repair located in Oakland, California. She found her love of bookbinding during an art conservation internship at a historical society in Indiana, and she has been setting up her dream home studio ever since. Clair Emma relocated to the Bay Area after graduating from North Bennet Street School's bookbinding program in 2019 and works in private practice for both herself and other conservators as Bouguereau Bindery. 

This is a two-session online workshop. All times are Pacific.

The 20th-century Czech paper engineer Vojtěch Kubašta is known for many things: he was spectacularly prolific; he served as writer, illustrator and engineer for his books; and relevant to what follows, he favored a single approach to paper engineering—the cut-in structure. Cut-in pop-ups, a.k.a. kirigami, are generally formed by cutting and folding a single sheet of paper, yielding elegant and efficient structures.

Participants will build 12 no-glue/no-thread structures using a kit of pieces pre-cut from simple white cardstock. The focus is pure mechanism, but with some light application to suggest possibilities for use. Ultimately, the structures are gluelessly bound and tucked into a sturdy box.

This four-hour workshop is divided over two sessions, with time in-between for independent work.

This workshop uses a mailed kit of pre-cut pieces. Students will be required to provide a USPS-friendly mailing address for their kit. No international students, please, due to high kit shipping costs and transit times.

All SFCB online workshops are recorded. Video links will be available for eight weeks after class.

Tools/Materials to Bring:

- mailed kit of pieces provided by instructor

AND

- bone folder
- microspatula
- tweezers
- self-healing mat
- x-acto knife
- pencil
- ruler

About the Instructor:

Shawn Sheehy has been teaching book arts courses and workshops since 2001. His broadsides and artist book editions have been collected by such institutions as Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, University of Chicago, Library of Congress, UCLA, and Harvard. Sheehy’s trade pop-up books Welcome to the Neighborwood and Beyond the Sixth Extinction (both mass-market versions of previous artist books) were published by Candlewick and have won numerous awards. Sheehy served as director of The Movable Book Society from 2018 to 2023. He holds an MFA in Book Arts from Columbia College Chicago.