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.

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 3: Limp Paper Binding

In centuries past, books were sometimes sewn onto cords and then laced into soft covers before being bound for a specific collection or library. Often covered with calfskin, these limp vellum bindings became an important structure all their own. In this class students will bind a book using these bindings as a model but employing thick paper as the folded and laced wrapper. Students will learn to use a sewing frame and the skill of sewing headbands.

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:
Bookbinding Core 1 and 2

Materials to Bring:
None, all tools and materials are provided.

About the Instructor:
Erika Lindensmith (she/her) has been a book conservator for almost 30 years. She trained in library and archives conservation at the University of Texas and worked at institutions in Wales, Scotland and New York before settling in California. Her interests are historical book structures and repair. She is excited to share her love of making books.

Using vibrant paints, we will experiment with free-form mark-making on covers. Option to add perforated texture with a rotary tool.Learn or review basic bookbinding terminology. Then we’ll fold inside pages and sew them into our covers. Exposed stitches are simultaneously functional and decorative. Great journal to keep or gift.

Basic sewing knowledge helpful, but not required.

Prerequisite:
None

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

About the Instructor:
Elaine G. Chu (she/her) has taught students of all ages, in person and online. Her work has been featured in “Greencraft” and “Somerset Studio” magazines as well as “1000 Artists’ Books.” She co-authored “Wood Paper Scissors,” a how-to crafts book. Elaine received a B.A. in music at Yale University and a B.F.A. in graphic design at University of the Arts. View more on Etsy and on Instagram @egchu1

Spend the day at SFCB making miniature book ornaments! In this class we will sew single signatures that will then be cased into decorative covers. Variations on covering will include full paper, full cloth, and quarter cloth bindings. Gold foil labels of the current year, 2025, will also be available to place on the front cover.

These miniature books make great gifts and decorations and can even be used to note special memories from the past year.

Prerequisite:
None

Materials to Bring:
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. 

Learn how to print on the Risograph, a machine that combines the ease of a photocopier with the stencil concept of silkscreen.

A Risograph creates a stencil for each layer, printing a single color at a time. Inks are semi-opaque, so when layered two colors can create a third overlay.

In this class you’ll create two image layers by hand, and each student will print a 2-color poster in an edition of 20. Come ready to turn sketches or drawings into your poster. If you would prefer not to draw, consider bringing clip art, traced designs, stamps, or collage elements to make your design.

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

Materials to bring:

• Sketches, drawings, photographs, or collage imagery no larger than 10” x 16” on paper or clear acetate (spot imagery smaller than 10” x 16” will work as well).
• Pens: black ink, all kinds of tips/types (sharpies, markers, brush pens, felt tip, different sized nibs, etc.) Faber Castell's PITT pens or Micron's are examples where you have different sized nibs. You can also bring pencils (especially softer/darker ones if you want more hand-drawn imagery). Essentially anything to make a drawn mark with! Colored markers in yellows and pinks won't work well, though.
• Photos can be fun. Make sure they aren't precious in case you want to cut them up. Grayscale with a wide value range work the best, rather than color photos. You can print out or photocopy what you want to play with and bring that, rather than the original.
• Collage materials: papers with patterns, tapes like washi, templates or stencils for making shapes, black or dark construction paper for cutting out shapes.
• Stamps/stamp pad and letter/number stickers are great if you want to work with text.Scissors or X-acto knife; glue stick or clear tape; eraser.
• Please print out any digital imagery before class, no larger than 11" x 17", with a 1/2" border all around.

About the Instructor:
Meri Brin (she/her) has been teaching Printmaking around the Bay Area since 2007. Besides teaching at SFCB, she has taught Silkscreen at Mission Grafica, and was full-time faculty at Academy of Art University for a decade. Her prints have been exhibited in local, as well as national shows. She has a print in the Library of Congress, and also exhibits as Fixated Press at San Francisco Zine Fest. Her artwork examines the complexity and visual noise of the everyday world, or she just wants to show you some cats.

Meri is a member of the California Society of Printmakers, and is the Printmedia Studio Manager at California College of the Arts.

This year, wow your friends and family with the gifts you present. Learn how to wrap them beautifully in this one-night workshop.

Topics include how to measure the right amount of paper, how to wrap boxes with and without tape, and tips for tying the perfect bow. You'll experiment with ribbon alternatives and Japanese-inspired creations. Beautiful materials and a spot of tea will be supplied.

You'll end the night with sample gift wrappings to take home for use as decoration, or to un-wrap and re-use the gorgeous materials supplied by Billy. Your new gift-wrapping superpowers are also yours to keep.

You are welcome to bring one actual gift you wish to wrap, time permitting, but please bring your own materials (paper, ribbon, etc) for that project. 

Prerequisite:
None

Materials to Bring:
All tools and materials will be provided. Students who want to bring one actual gift to wrap should bring enough materials (paper, ribbon, etc) for that project.

About the Instructor:
Billy's passion for lettering began in pre-school with the assistance of Mommy Billie. Billy and Billie spent hours shaping letterforms day in and day out. Later in life, Little Billy parlayed that lettering passion into a calligraphic profession, creating a petit line of stationery, penning custom lettering for clients, designing a line of porcelain for San Francisco's luxury speciality store, Gump’s and of course as an instructor at SFCB—taking students through those first steps Little Billy took with Big Billie. Billy's lettering has been featured in magazines, wedding invitations, place cards, monograms, and brand identities.

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 4: Classic Rounded Back Cloth Binding

The final class in our Core Bookbinding series (taught in two sessions) 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. This binding style points to many historical structures that came before it, making it an ideal structure for anyone interested in learning to bind books with leather, or learning to repair books.  More terms, more tools, more techniques: such are the rewards of the skilled bookbinder!

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:
Bookbinding Core 1, 2 and 3

Materials to Bring:
None, all tools and materials are 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.

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.