The artistic possibilities found in nature are endless. In this course students will explore different organic techniques like onion and iron solutions to turn found pieces of flora into prints on paper. Each technique will have different results and with instructor guidance students will study the use of mordants, baths, steaming and simmering with lots of leaves, flowers, and other plant parts.

At the end of the first day, each student will have created a stack of eco prints full of artistic potential. Leaving the prints to dry overnight, on the second day the instructor will demonstrate how to use these prints to create simple books, boxes, cards and other paper art. Students will leave with a useful handout and numerous eco-printed goodies to share with family and friends.

Prerequisite: None

Tools/Materials to bring: Fresh or pressed plants/botanicals. The instructor will send an email a week before class with instructions.

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

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.

If you have heard about letterpress but are not really sure what it is or how it works, this class will allow you to peer inside the rich history and engaging techniques of letterpress printing.

This class introduces the process, the materials, the machines, and the satisfaction of printing by hand on a Cylinder proof press. Participants will learn the basics of setting type using SFCB’s vast collection of lead type and decorative ornaments as well as inking, locking up and pulling a print.

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: None

About the Instructor: Brian Lieske (he/him) wandered into SFCB many 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.

Learn how to create a unique artist’s book using textiles, stitching, inks and collage.

We will start by adhering a patchwork of fabrics and paper ephemera to freezer paper. When dry the resulting strip of material is peeled off the freezer paper and folded into an accordion. This can then be embellished with hand stitching, stamping, and ink painting.

Simple sewing and embroidery techniques will be demonstrated. The final fold out book will be attached to a textile cover that can also be decorated with these mixed media techniques.

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. You may bring fabric scraps and other ephemera if you wish.

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.

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, 2026, 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 will be provided. Students are also welcome to bring any of their own favorite bookbinding tools.

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.  

Small-format tabletop presses are limited in what they can print, but offer a ton of possibilities for printers with bite-size projects without taking up much space. Here's your chance to spend a few hours learning how these diminutive little guys work and to print your own vintage-inspired postcards.

The instructor will supply postcard blanks pre-printed with a charming postcard back. Students will delve into SFCB's drawers of type and cuts to design their own simple image to print on the front. Students will come away from class with an introductory understanding of letterpress and relief printing, small format printing and its limits, and a small stack of their own postcards (plus others, if classmates wish to share)!

An excellent class for those curious about letterpress in general, and tabletop presses in particular. 

Prerequisite: None.

Materials to bring: None. All tools and materials will be provided.

About the Instructor: Brian Ferrett (he/him) has a printing degree from MATC and worked in offset web and screen printing. In 2008 he joined M&H Type as a typecasting apprentice under Lewis Mitchell. These days he co-manages M&H's daily operations, maintains the historic casting machines and presses, casts type and prints for the various Arion Press publications. Brian is a member of the Northern California chapter of the American Printing History Association, the American Typecaster Fellowship, and volunteers with San Francisco Public Library's annual Valentine’s Day broadside event. In his spare time he plays around with his Vandercook 219AB, C&P New Style 10x15, and his two Kelseys.

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.

Students will explore the process of digital Risograph printing through hands-on practice. They'll learn the basics of preparing digital files and using the equipment. Color separations & resizing of images will be discussed using Photoshop. By the end of the session, they'll have a small stack of Risograph prints to take home.

This workshop focuses on the digital approach to printing with a Risograph. The Introduction to Analog Risograph Printing workshop focuses on printing from paper substrates laid on the glass (like a photocopier). Either class will suffice as the prerequisite for the Risograph Certification workshop, though students are welcome to take both. Successful completion of the certification allows students to rent time on SFCB's Risograph.

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

Tools/Materials to bring:

• REQUIRED: Laptop computer, ideally Mac (not an iPad), with Spectrolite software downloaded; Photoshop is not required but will be discussed. If you don't have a laptop, please sign up for the Analog workshop instead.
• A digital file you’d like to print, it does not have to be color separated. Print size will be 8.5 X 11" or 11 x 17". 

About the Instructor: Yasmeen Abedifard is an Iranian-American artist born in the San Francisco Bay Area and is currently based in Oakland. She holds an MFA from Cornell University. Her work is centered around storytelling mediums, including comics, illustrations, and animation.

She is currently teaching in the Comics program at The California College of the Arts (CCA), the UC Berkeley Art Studio, CCA Extension, and Dominican University. Her work has been featured in various spaces, such as the SF Art Book Fair, Rubenstein Arts Center, Shapeshifters Cinema, Jack Hanley Gallery, and San Francisco Center for the Book, and has received various accolades, including the Ignatz Award for Outstanding Minicomic for Death Bloom and the Mocca Award of Excellence for When to Pick a Pomegranate. She has taught comic workshops at BAMPFA, Mendocino Art Center, Secret Room, Kala Art Institute, Sequential Artists Workshop, and Black Mountain Institute. She has created several published comics, such as When to Pick a Pomegranate (pub. Silver Sprocket), Death Bloom (pub. Lucky Pocket), and Burnt (pub. Wiggle Bird Mailing Club).

She is also part of a comics collective called D.R.Y. with her peers, Daniel Zhou and Raul Higuera, aimed at fostering community and highlighting the Bay Area comics scene.

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.