San Francisco Center for the Book

This class will focus on developing and practicing skills and techniques needed to make leather bindings.

Students will experience the difference between abrupt and gradual paring for turn-ins. We will make corners and line boards to manage pull. Students will practice beveled and feathered paring with a knife and scalpel, and develop competence in use of Scharfix and spokeshave for paring turn-ins and reducing the overall thickness of a piece of leather. Finally, students will practice leather covering skills on plaquettes using the leather they have prepared and experience how leather preparation affects the final product.

Prerequisite:
Ideally students will have taken Orientation to Leather, but it is not required.

Materials to Bring:
A sharp leather paring knife, if you have one

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.