San Francisco Center for the Book

Learn how to repurpose a beautiful nineteenth century vellum document to create a robust and handsome case binding. 

For hundreds of years vellum, both calf and sheep, was used to make legal documents of all kinds — deeds, mortgages, apprenticeship agreements. They are commonly known as indentures. Many of them survive and are things of beauty. But being rather overlooked as archival material, they have been neglected, and are therefore ripe for re-use.

In this workshop, we will take an old vellum document, clean the surface, wet it and line it with Japanese paper. It is flattened overnight under blotters and weights, and, remarkably, the next day all the old creases completely disappear.

Then we’ll make the binding. We’ll sew and press the sections, then rough cut them in the board chopper to give a nice feathered edge. The book is sewn on tapes with linen thread, has red colored edges, and hand-made red cloth headbands. The book is rounded and backed and spine liners attached. 

The case is then made using the lined vellum for the cover. When dry, the binding is a like a brick: incredibly strong and durable. Vellum is indestructible.

Please note, the SF Marathon runs through our neighborhood on the second day of this workshop, July 26. Students will need to park two blocks away and walk to our building. 

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):
Bookbinding Core 2 plus additional experience sewing books, Core 4 preferred.

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:
Dominic Riley (he/him) is an internationally renowned bookbinder, artist, lecturer and teacher. He has his bindery in England, from where he travels across the UK teaching and lecturing. He spends part of the year teaching in San Francisco and across the USA. His work is mostly restoration and Design Binding, for which he has won many prizes in the Designer Bookbinders competition. He was elected a Fellow of DB in 2008 and is Patron of the New Zealand Association of Book Crafts. His bindings are in collections worldwide, including the British Library, the Grolier Club in New York and the San Francisco Public Library. In 2013 he won first prize, the Sir Paul Getty Award, in the International Bookbinding Competition. Dominic is a past President of the Society of Bookbinders. Dominic and Michael Burke are co-founders of Book Camp, an immersive residential bookbinding experience which aims to teach new generations of binders.

He has taught masterclasses in the USA, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, at the Centro del Bel Libro in Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Canada.