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Core Workshops
Bookbinding Core 2: Flat-Back Case Binding
with Madison Halaby Gordon
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:
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).
Bookbinding Core 3: Limp Paper Binding
with Madison Halaby Gordon
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:
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).
Bookbinding Core 4: Classic Rounded Back Cloth Binding
with Erika Lindensmith
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.
Bookbinding Core 1: Coptic Binding
with Jane Knoll
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:
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.
Cylinder Core 1: Experience Letterpress!
with Alan Hillesheim
Cylinder Core Certificate Program
The four class Cylinder Core Certificate Program allows students to move quickly through press basics while also addressing relief printing in general. Students who finish the four Core classes are qualified to rent press time as well as move on to more advanced classes and techniques. Core classes must be taken in order, 1 through 4.
Click here to learn more about the Cylinder Core Certificate Program and how to receive a discount!
Cylinder Core 1: Experience Letterpress!
Dig in to the tradition and history of letterpress printing and get your hands dirty. Learn about the process and practice of setting type, mixing inks and pulling impressions. Students will design and print a small edition of a single-color folded greeting card using the type and cuts (images) in the SFCB collection.
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. Students can come with a few phrases/ideas for their greeting card.
Please note: Class projects are for learning particular skills and supporting class dynamics. Project ideas should be flexible, open to what class time and communal studio use will permit.
About the Instructor:
Alan Hillesheim (he/him) has been wrenching around printing presses for 35 years. Printing presses need to be moved, oiled, inked, cleaned, and maintained, in short they need attention like a six year old. Maintenance is a dirty business, but a necessary one for beautifully printed anything. Alan has a passion for the mechanics of the print studio and enjoys encouraging others to roll up their sleeves and grab a wrench. His 35 years in the letterpress business and “all-ten-fingers” count speak for themselves. Join him and wear old clothes. Oh, and once the press is in fine order, Alan has a few secrets to divulge about perfect inking and stellar printing.
Bookbinding Core 1: Coptic Binding
with Sarah Songer
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:
Nearsighted from childhood, Sarah Songer (she/her) learned to read at a young age because she couldn’t see anything twelve inches past her nose. Her love of books continued even after she got her first pair of glasses, and she earned a BA in Comparative Literature from UCLA.
She is the daughter of a printer and a graphic artist; in rebellion, she became a bookbinder. She spent ten years at Arion Press and trained many apprentices in edition binding. She is a longtime student of design bookbinder Eleanore Ramsey and was the proprietor of Bay Area Book Repair for several years. Sarah enjoys sharing the many bookbinding tips and efficiencies she's learned over the years, and finds her own personal projects most satisfying if they make her laugh.
Cylinder Core 2: Power of the Broadside
with Paula Gloistein
Cylinder Core Certificate Program
The four class Cylinder Core Certificate Program allows students to move quickly through press basics while also addressing relief printing in general. Students who finish the four Core classes are qualified to rent press time as well as move on to more advanced classes and techniques. Core classes must be taken in order, 1 through 4.
Click here to learn more about the Cylinder Core Certificate Program and how to receive a discount!
Cylinder Core 2: Power of the Broadside
A broadside is a single-sided printed sheet historically used for advertisements, proclamations, or other public announcements, though in modern times they're most often used for poetry.
In Core 2 you'll build your letterpress skills: learn advanced justification, typesetting, and composition, then put it all together to print a single-color 8 x 10" broadside of your own 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:
Cylinder Core 1
Materials to Bring:
All tools and materials are provided.
Students can bring some ideas for what to set as multi-line text, with the understanding that the instructor will have final say in what will be appropriate for this project. Poems, song lyrics, and pithy paragraphs are good candidates.
Please note: Class projects are for learning particular skills and supporting class dynamics. Project ideas should be flexible, open to what class time and communal studio use will permit.
About the Instructor:
Paula Gloistein (she/her) has an MA in Humanities from Dominican College which really has very little to do with her work as a photographer, designer, and letterpress printer. After more than ten years in the wedding biz, she opened a small shop, big day design lounge, that showcases handmade wedding accessories, custom invitations, and workshops for crafty couples.
Bookbinding Core 1-4: Weeklong Intensive
with Beth Redmond
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 BindingStudents 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 BindingStudents 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 BindingStudents 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:
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.