San Francisco Center for the Book

For students who are Cylinder Core Certified, here's a chance to expand on the skills you’ve learned and try something new.

Learn to use strip rule - long, thin pieces of type-high metal - to build decorative borders to enhance your already interesting work. Borders can be functional, fun or both, and we'll try everything from a simple 45º angle to a bold and flourishing cornerstone.

Students will learn the difference between different kinds of strip material including brass rule, lead borders and rule, and wood borders. They'll create their own rule borders, combining strip material and decorative ornaments, and learn the painstaking process of mitering rule to get a 45-degree angle with the aid of a border box.

Students will leave class with an understanding of how to deploy a range of traditional decorative letterpress techniques to apply to their own projects.

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):
Cylinder Core 1-4 Certification or equivalent Vandercook/letterpress experience. Please email us with your qualifications if you're new to SFCB.

Materials to bring:
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. He currently manages M&H's daily operations, maintains the historic casting machines and presses, casts type, and prints 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.