If you've been looking for a book with a nearly indestructible cover, or just a unique binding, this is your answer! 

Featuring an indestructible cover inspired by Italy’s 1970’s solution to broken Yellow Pages bindings in public phone booths, this 360-degree flexible binding offers many advantages because it bends and does not break! This binding style offers visual and tactile delight, employing strips of articulated hard board covered with marbled fabric made by the instructor.

In this workshop, the instructor will guide students through the art of this rare binding technique. Students will create an articulated blank journal that can beautifully withstand the ravages of time.

Prerequisite:
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:
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.

Create a multidimensional book using interlocking accordions and a piano-hinge fastening. Using simple folding techniques we will build two paper concertinas that can be combined together to create a honeycomb structure. This can then be further developed with paper cutting techniques and pop-ups. Color, pattern, and detail will be added with inks, stamping, and collage materials.

A piano-hinge will be attached to the covers and fasten the book closed. When the pin is removed the whole piece will open out to reveal a detailed and playful design on both sides of the book. Abstract or more figurative themes adapt well to this structure. Students will be guided in how to create a sense of narrative using purely visual motifs, or wording, or both!

Prerequisite:
None

Tools/Materials to bring:
Optional: decorative papers or ephemera to use for collage.

About the Instructor:
Stephanie Jucker (she/her) is an exhibiting artist who uses mixed media and printing techniques in her paintings, books, and art installations. Originally from London where she earned her BFA, Stephanie has an MFA from Syracuse in painting, printmaking, and ceramics. With 25 years of teaching experience, she currently runs art classes at College of Marin, Kala, and Art Works Downtown in San Rafael.

Revive your manual pasta maker by learning how to use it to create small drypoint prints. This technique uses the pressure that normally rolls out the pasta dough to print artwork.

Students will learn how to use different materials to create a plate including milk cartons, Tetra Paks, and Akua plate material. They'll learn how to ink up the plate, add packing to the pasta maker for the perfect impression, and pull prints to make a small edition.

The small-format prints created in class will be up to 4” by 6”. Prints will be made using a drypoint needle and a cutting knife and will be printed on Rives BFK paper with different kind of inks. The materials fee includes a drypoint needle, chipboard & felts as well as printing paper that students will be able to take home to continue making prints on their own pasta machines.

*The pasta machine does not get any ink on it, so using it for pasta AND printing is perfectly fine. Oil based etching ink will be used during class; the instructor will demonstrate how easy it is to clean up without any heavy cleaning solution.

Prerequisite:
None

Materials to bring:

- Hand-crank pasta maker if you have one - only the basic maker is needed, we do not need the cutting or ravioli parts!

- Empty milk cartons and/or Tetra Paks for printing (Tetra Pak is a type of packaging used for store-bought soups, broth, nut milks, etc. Google it for examples.)

- Ideas for small prints - come with sketches

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.

Learn to make knotted and beaded bindings with flair!

This workshop will cover five different exposed stitches to spice up a simple blank pamphlet, with a variety of embellishments for added fun.

Prerequisite:
None

Tools/Materials to bring:
None

About the Instructor:
Dorothy Yuki (she/her) studied to be something other than an artist. She began as a fashion designer immediately after college but soon she became a partner of a manufacturing company, In Good Company, from 1965-1976. She designed and manufactured kitchen soft goods and linens. Later, as a production and design consultant, she worked with many identity and music production companies, as well as new startups.

Now in her 80s and living in San Francisco, she is engaged in many volunteer activities, Ruth’s Table, Artseed, SCRAP-SF, San Francisco Center for the Book, and FabMo. She also mentored at Bay High School in their Senior Program. She was past President of Friends of Calligraphy and has been a Master Educator for the Macy’s Fashion Incubator San Francisco.

She still has the time to do ‘art’ and has worked on projects for MMOCA, Flax Art and Design, Kalligraphia, Ruth’s Table, FabMo and SCRAP-SF. She is a recipient of Honorable Mentions for her artwork at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art Altered Book Show 2014 and 2015. To find out more about Dorothy's work, visit her blog www.dotsrainbow.com

Let’s embellish old photos with colorful thread! Learn the basics of sewing on paper to transform photographs, postcards, or design your own image from scratch.

Using a PDF provided by the instructor, we will start with the basics of embroidering on paper while thinking about drawing, linework and simple fills. We will use these stitches to build patterns on the page. Stitches will be demonstrated with time allowed for practice.

For the last hour, we will bring our new skills to vintage photos and postcards, while considering planning a design and how to mail your creation.

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

Prerequisite:
None

Materials/Tools to bring:
- 1-2 embroidery needles
- 3 colors of embroidery thread
- needle tool or awl
- at least 1-2 postcards or photos (on photo paper, not copies)
- scissors
- ruler
- pencil
- cardstock for printing out PDF (and access to a printer!)
- Optional: tracing paper

About the Instructor:
Hope Amico (they/them) is a visual artist, writer and educator who believes we could all use a creative practice. Through classes, collage meetups and the Keep Writing postcard project, they are excited to share ways we can work together and support each other creatively. Co-founder of the New Orleans Collage Collective and previously known as gutwrench press, they relocated to Portland, OR in 2020. They teach online and in-person through the MCBA, SFCB and privately through their own studio.

Learn bookbinding basics while exploring hand-embossed techniques.

We’ll use beautiful momigami papers, design and cut out our own focal elements for the covers, then sew an exposed stitch on the spine—both aesthetic and functional.

Great keepsake for notes and sketches!

Prerequisite:
None

Materials to Bring:
All tools and materials are 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 at EGChuHandcrafted.etsy.com and on Instagram @egchu1.

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.