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 2: Flat-Back Case Binding

In this second Core Bookbinding class, 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. Students will learn more about the mechanics of books as they build on skills from Core 1 and expand both their vocabulary and capabilities in and around the 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:
Bookbinding Core 1

Materials to Bring:
All tools and materials will be provided. Students are also welcome to bring any leftover pastepapers from Core 1 that they might want to use on their book.

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.

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. Click here to apply.

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. 

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 2: Flat-Back Case Binding

In this second Core Bookbinding class, 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. Students will learn more about the mechanics of books as they build on skills from Core 1 and expand both their vocabulary and capabilities in and around the 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:
Bookbinding Core 1

Materials to Bring:
All tools and materials will be provided. Students are also welcome to bring any leftover pastepapers from Core 1 that they might want to use on their book.

About the Instructor:
A life-long love of working with her hands led Megan Gibes (she/her) to study bookbinding at the North Bennet Street School in Boston. Upon graduation in 2015, she went to work in Santa Barbara as the Head Bookbinder for Heirloom Bindery, followed by an apprenticeship at the Arion Press in San Francisco. Now the Lead Bookbinder, she is responsible for running day-to-day production in the Arion bindery. An active member of the Guild of Bookworkers and board member of the Hand Bookbinders of California, she also creates her own work as Long Arrow Bindery. She still loves making books every day.

There are two machines commonly used to title books using heated type and dies: the Kwikprint and the Kensol. SFCB is fortunate enough to have both in our bindery! Combining heat with pressure, stamping machines can produce a lovely shiny image on paper, bookcloth, and leather.

Students will learn how to safely set up and operate both styles of stamping machines. Each one is best suited for either type or magnesium dies, and students will get a complete overview of both. They'll also learn the operational differences between the machines, and why they're used for different applications. Most of all, students will learn to troubleshoot a poor result.

This is a great class for anyone interested in stamping with metallic or matte foils on paper, bookcloth or leather; hot stamping can be used on anything from notecards to notebooks to boxes to fine leather bindings. For anyone interested in learning how to do gold tooling on leather, this class is an excellent introduction to the guiding concepts behind how to get a crisp, even impression.

Prerequisite:
None

Materials to Bring:
Please bring an example of something you'd like to stamp, and we'll at least discuss how to get the result you're looking for. Time permitting, we may even stamp it!

About the Instructor:
Juliayn Coleman has been a professional bookbinder since her graduation from the North Bennet Street School bookbinding program in 2003. Her private practice encompasses all levels of book repair and conservation, custom portfolio and enclosure making, teaching, and being a good ambassador for the craft of bookbinding in general. Some of her creative and professional projects can be seen at bookislandbindery.com.

Clamshell presentation boxes are a staple of the binder's trade.

In this class, students will learn to construct a clamshell box from pre-cut parts. By focusing on construction and covering, the focus of this class will be on building hand skills and gaining a general understanding of the clamshell box structure.

Students will learn critical aspects of tray construction, cover making, casing in, and options for labels and inlays. Also addressed will be various alterations and enhancements of the clamshell structure. 

Students in this class will not have the opportunity to make a custom-sized box. They will be working from pre-cut pieces, but will complete the class with some understanding of how to approach boxmaking on their own. More experienced students who wish to learn how to measure and cut for a custom box should watch for Advanced Box Making classes in the future.

Prerequisite:
None

Materials to Bring:
All tools and materials will be provided. Students are welcome to bring their own hand tools.

About the Instructor:
Brian Lieske (he/him) wandered into SFCB several years ago and continues to haunt the place. He completed both the bookbinding and letterpress cores as well as several of the summer historic structure classes. He enjoys making fully hand-sewn books and still fights to not over-tighten his kettle stitches. He’s lived in San Francisco for more than 20 years having arrived shortly after completing an MFA at the University of Texas at Austin.

While bookbinding and book repair share many skills and techniques, they are also distinct pursuits. This course will introduce the student familiar with bookbinding to key practices within basic book repair.

This will include how to mend various tears, losses, and splits with different types of Japanese paper as well as an introduction to localized humidification and flattening. Key items discussed in this class will be a brief history of book conservation, the difference between conservation and restoration, and how to choose the proper adhesive and Japanese paper in different scenarios.

Through both discussion and hands-on practice, students will get the answers to these questions and more in order to start to appreciate the challenges and rewards of book repair.

Topics addressed/activities will include:

• The history of book conservation
• Conservation ethics
• How to distinguish different types of adhesives used in conservation; students will discuss and touch various papers used in conservation
• Various types of paper mending and strengthening with kozo tissue and paste
• Humidification and flattening
• How to make a custom-fitted conservation enclosure

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.

Prerequisites:
None, though some bookbinding experience or experience in the safe handling of fragile items is recommended.

Materials to bring:
All tools and materials will be 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. 

Buttonhole books come with personality on the spine and cover. Set your glue aside – these easy-to-learn non-adhesive bindings are great for writing and sketching in.

Students in this workshop will examine various examples of this binding structure and make their own buttonhole journal, using various decorative papers and cover cutouts.

Prerequisite:
None

Materials to Bring:
All tools and materials will be provided

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. After its sale, she worked as a production and design consultant with many identity and music production companies, as well as new startups. While living in Tequisquiapan, she became involved with the Sierra Gorda Ecological Group and taught small communities to become self-sustaining. Now in her 80s and living in San Francisco, she is engaged in many volunteer activities. She was past President of Friends of Calligraphy and has been a Master Educator for the Macy’s Fashion Incubator San Francisco. To find out more about Dorothy's work, visit her blog at dotsrainbow.com.