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: 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.

This hands-on introductory workshop provides participants with a foundation in basic book and paper repair techniques commonly used to stabilize damaged collection materials. Designed for librarians, archivists, collectors, and anyone interested in the care of books, the course introduces participants to conservation-minded approaches that prioritize the long-term preservation of materials.

Participants will learn how to prepare wheat starch paste, one of the most widely used adhesives in paper and book conservation, and gain an understanding of its properties and applications. Additional topics include surface cleaning techniques for removing loose dirt and debris, localized humidification and flattening of creased or distorted paper, and basic paper repair using Japanese tissues.

Through demonstrations and guided hands-on practice, students will develop practical skills while learning to evaluate when treatment is appropriate and when an item may require the attention of a professional conservator. By the end of the class, participants will have completed several repair exercises and gained confidence in carrying out simple stabilization treatments on books and paper-based materials.

Please note that this workshop provides an introduction to fundamental repair techniques and collections care concepts. It is not a substitute for formal conservation training or graduate-level conservation education, and completion of the course does not confer professional certification or conservator status. Reusable materials provided in this class should be retained for Repair Core’s II-III.

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 1-4 certificate. Interested students who do not meet this prerequisite may consider the Basic Repairs on Hardbound Books workshop instead.

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. 

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: 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).

This workshop will explore the potentials of placing a scroll in a codex bindings cover, considering the mechanics, past uses, and postulating new structures and applications.

Participants will make two 3x6 inch scrolling books that have a paper scroll text block wrapped around wooden dowels, mounted in wooden framework, then bound in a paper covered case binding.

Time will be allocated to decorate the bindings and add text to the scroll. Workshop attendees should come prepared with a short quote for a text.

Basic paper will be provided but it is suggested you bring interesting paper to use for the covers and scrolling text page. You may also want to bring paints, watercolors, pens, rubberstamps, images to collage, etc. to illustrate and add text to your books.

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: Some bookmaking experience is preferred.

Materials to bring: Students are encouraged to bring beautiful paper and art supplies to individualize their work, as well as their own bookbinding tools if they have them.

About the Instructor: Peter Thomas is a book artist from Santa Cruz. He works collaboratively with Donna Thomas, making both edition and one-of-a-kind books. They make the paper, print, illustrate and bind their books, combining the precision of the fine press aesthetic with the structural creativity found in contemporary artists' books. In 2004 Quarry Press published their “More Making Books by Hand,” between 2009-2019 they traveled the country as the "Wandering Book Artists,” and in 2022 The Legacy Press published Peter and Donna Thomas: Bibliography, 1974–2020. 

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: 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.

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. 

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: None

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

About the Instructor: Mimi Zycherman (she/her) is a Book Conservator at a Bay Area Institution. She graduated from the North Bennet Street School’s Bookbinding program in 2023. She also received a BA in Art and Materials Conservation from Columbia College Chicago. In addition to a fellowship at the Boston Athenæum, she has interned in conservation labs at Dartmouth, Harvard, and New York City’s Municipal Archives. She specializes in fine design bindings that have been exhibited throughout the U.S. Mimi is also a member of the Guild of Bookworkers and the Hand Bookbinders of California.

It’s fun, it’s elegant, it’s endlessly adaptable.

Created by German bookbinder and Bauhaus contemporary Otto Dorfner, this structure has been popularized and adapted by renowned binders such as France’s Jean de Gonet and Belgium’s Edgard Claes.

The Dorfner binding is a three-part structure characterized by an open joint. The boards are attached exclusively via the sewing supports. This leaves a deliberate gap at the joint and exposes a small area on both sides of decorative sewing supports. The open joint encourages the boards to be made from unusual materials.

The text block is rounded and backed so the boards fit into the shoulders. It has a leather spine with headcaps that is constructed off the book.

Students will work with leather and other materials to create this lovely versatile structure.

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: Experience binding books as well as working with and paring leather; Practical Leather Skills workshop or other leather binding workshops.

Materials to bring: All tools and materials will be provided. Students are encouraged to bring any of their own favorite bookbinding tools including paring knives.

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 bredmond.weebly.com.