Upcoming Classes
Learn how to make your own journal with a decoratively stitched leather or ‘washable paper’ spine, which includes space for an integral pencil or pen. This is a beautiful, interesting and versatile book structure that opens flat when in use. There will be a variety of coloured threads and a range of cover papers available to choose from including some hand marbled paper.
This workshop is suitable for everyone whether you are a beginner or are looking to learn a new technique.
All equipment and materials will be provided along with step-by-step demonstration and practice.
Stapleford Granary has easy parking and is within walking distance of Shelford railway station.
These beautiful and versatile structures are a perfect place to start, or continue, your bookbinding journey.
This long weekend course takes you, step by step, through four new structures: Long stitch binding, Islamic style, Wrapper (suitable for use on old and damaged or new books) and Posh Paper, all held together in a lined and lidded box. These books make gorgeous gifts and, as with Beginning Bookbinding, the techniques and skills are interchangeable allowing you to develop your own creative finishes.
The class is designed for beginners and it is not necessary to have any previous experience. This series focuses on more 'artsy' structures whilst Beginning Bookbinding focuses on more 'everyday' styles. The classes can be taken in any order.
Stapleford Granary has easy car parking and is within walking distance from Shelford Railway station.
Doug Mitchell, a highly experienced book conservator, will lead the day, under his guidance and tuition you will learn the basics of book repairs using a variety of cloths, papers, tissues and adhesives. Through a mix of demonstration and practice you will learn how to: Deconstruct a book in a safe and systematic fashion, repair both individual pages and sections, prepare your book should it require resewing, replace the end papers, undertake any repairs to the
cover in order to allow new material to be added.
To get the most out of this one day class I would recommend that you have some bookbinding experience and that you have made a 'cased in' book, to enable you to understand how to deconstruct your book for repair.
All materials and equipment will be provided, but you will need to bring with you one or two hard cover cloth bound books, no bigger than A5 and with a stable book block, (as time is limited), that you are happy to replace the end papers on.
During this one day class you will explore the possibilities of the wonderful Crossed Structure binding. You will have the opportunity to make 2 books one with a leather, or a vegetarian alternative, cover and one with a robust paper cover. The spine stitching is visible on this binding and you can add decorative stitching to personalise the covers. This is a very versatile book structure as it lays completely flat when open making it ideal for a variety of uses. All materials and tools are provided along with step by step demonstration and practice.
This class is suitable for beginners.
Stapleford Granary has easy car parking and is within walking distance of Shelford Railway station..
Create your own map and turn it into a pop up book
In this one day workshop inksmith and mapmaker Chrissie Nicholls will take you through the journey of making your own unique map.
This workshop is about the art of telling a story in a map; recording an area, a memory, or a made up location. Using traditional and new mapping techniques and elements you will bring together your thoughts to create a very personal piece of work. We will begin with a discussion about maps and their importance to us in our everyday lives. You will design and draw your map working towards a finished piece, when finally you will use a traditional fold to transform your flat map into a pop up one and bind it into a cover.
The day is full of instruction and information as you journey with your map. You’ll be able to bring together drawing, lettering and collage techniques with support, guidance and humour throughout the day. You don’t need to be confident with your drawing or lettering, all that’s needed is just a curious and open mind.
The materials for the workshop are supplied but you are very welcome to bring your own colour pencils, watercolours or pens. We will be in touch a fortnight before the workshop with information about what to bring with you as reference on the day. We have fun in these classes and discussion is encouraged at points through the day so we can learn and be inspired by each other.
More information about Chrissie can be found here: www.inkpotandpen.com Instagram @inkpotandpen
Stapleford Granary has easy car parking and is within walking distance of Shelford Railway station.
Learn how to make the Elbum, designed by Ben Elbel, a fun and clever album structure which holds its pages by gripping them into a series of articulated narrow pockets. This is a treasure of paper engineering, this project is also a great introduction to concertina folding by hand as it requires precision folding. There will be an opportunity to practice with making a prototype before moving onto your finished Elbum. This is ideal if you are looking for a book structure that will hold individual pages.
This class is suitable for beginners as well as those with some bookbinding experience.
Stapleford Granary has easy car parking and is within walking distance of Shelford Railway Station
A beautiful and elegant binding developed by Ben Elbel in 2007 the outcome of him studying the opening function of hardback books.
Dos Rapporté, roughly translated as 'hooked on spine' is a binding with a refined method of board attachment resulting in a perfect flat opening. This makes it ideal as a journal, travel book or a sketch book. During the day you will learn, through demonstration and practice, how to prepare the pages for binding, stitch the sections onto buckram tapes and make the cover, before completing your own beautiful and very practical hardbound book.
Suitable for beginners.
Stapleford Granary has car parking and is within walking distance from Shelford Railway Station.
The Sewn Boards Binding, brought to prominence by American binder Gary Frost, is the subject of many conversations and variations and with good reason. As well as being an adaptation of ancient Ethiopian binding techniques it also looks 'bang up-to-date' with its crisp edges and streamlined opening ability. It is a great extension to existing binding skills and is also a very helpful starting point for new binders as it does not require the traditional casing-in process! As with other classes, this workshop is taught so that you can repeat at home.
All equipment and materials required will be provided along with step by step demonstration and practice.
Stapleford Granary has easy car parking and is within walking distance of Shelford Railway Station.
Slight controversy over the title of this binding as the inventor (Anne Goy) wishes it to be known as CrissCross Binding but let's not split hairs or threads. This one is a beauty combining the best of western and Japanese bindings resulting in a closed but exposed spine which lies flat when open; a very versatile book that can be used as a journal, sketchbook or even photograph album.
This workshop is suitable for everyone whether you are a beginner or are looking to learn a new technique. All equipment and materials will be provided along with step-by-step demonstration and practice.
Stapleford Granary has easy car parking and is close to Shelford railway station.
Over this full weekend of bookbinding you will learn the techniques to complete four beautiful book structures along with a lined slipcase to hold your treasured prototype collection. All of the skills you will learn can be 'mixed and matched' so that you have a myriad of design possibilities after the course. You will make a Quarter Bound Single Section, a Hard Bound Journal, along with a Japanese Stab stitch book and a Concertina binding, finishing the weekend with a lined slipcase.
All materials and equipment are included in the fee and you will also be provided with most of the the materials to reproduce these books at home.
Stapleford Granary has easy car parking and is within walking distance from Shelford Railway Station
Would you like the opportunity to work on your own project but struggle with motivation or space at home? Or just want some company of like minded bookbinders?
If so, this is an ideal chance to spend time in my studio where you can use my tools and equipment to work on a project of your choice using your own materials. However if you would like me to prepare any boards for you do let me know in advance and I can advise you of the cost.
There are a range of presses and sewing frames available to use as well as my usual tools kits and cutting mats.
I will be on hand to offer some guidance but this is not a teaching session - as I am likely to be working on my own project, or preparing for forthcoming classes alongside you.
Sharp tools are essential to our bookbinding and during this three-hour session you will make your own leather handled paring knife from a blank and a strop to take away with you.
Paring knives are an essential tool for using with leather and I will be offering a day learning how to pare leather later in the year.
Richard will teach you to sharpen your own tools using the techniques and holding devices demonstrated during the session.
All materials and equipment will be supplied and you will leave with your own knife and strop.
Stapleford Granary has easy car parking and is within walking distance of Shelford railway station.
The 5-week programme takes you, step by step, through four new structures: Long stitch binding, Islamic style, Wrapper (suitable for use on old and damaged or new books) and Posh Paper, all held together in a lined and lidded box. These books make gorgeous gifts and, as with Beginning Bookbinding, the techniques and skills are interchangeable allowing you to develop your own creative finishes.
During this one day class you will learn how to make your own A5 soft leather long stitch sketchbook, filled with Fabriano paper complete with either a leather tie closure or a metal stud. You will have a choice of stitching patterns to make your book more individual.
This will be ideal to start to fill tomorrow under the tuition of the very talented Chrissie Nicholls.
There will be a range of coloured leathers, as well as vegetarian alternatives, and coloured threads to choose from.
Stapleford Granary has car parking and is within walking distance of Shelford Railway station.
Sketchbook Diaries
With Chrissie Nicholls, the author of ‘The Diary of an Artist in Lockdown’.
Learn ways and tricks to document your life visually, using collage, hand lettering, illustration, maps and so much more.This packed workshop will give you the confidence to start recording not just the wonderful things that happen in life, but also the small details and the tricky moments.
We all know journalling is good for our souls and peace of mind but not everyone can sit and write, some of us want to include drawings and some of us speak in images rather than with words. We’ll also cover sketchbook nerves and how to overcome that first mark on the page.
If you can draw, think you can’t draw, haven’t drawn for a while, then this workshop is for you. All levels welcome, everyone will learn something and take away a sketchbook and head full of ideas!
Please bring one of your hand made books with you to use for this workshop.
We will spend the morning creating our cyanotypes. Cyanotypes are negative prints of an object, in this instance flowers/plants, in the recognisable ‘blueprint’ colour. Cyanotypes are produced from a camera-less photographic printing process developed in 1842 by Sir John Herschel, St. John’s College/Cambridge graduate.
Your favourite cyanotype from the morning will then be used as the covering material for your hardbound book made after lunch. This is a wonderful opportunity to create a unique one-off personal design for your book/s.
All materials are provided and you will leave with the skills to continue practicing your own cyanotype photography and to reproduce the style of book again at home. Stapleford Granary has easy car parking.
During this one-day class you will learn a 'speedy' leather or vegetarian ‘washable paper’ binding and then construct your own refillable journal with a mixture of papers, envelopes and pockets to suit you, finished off with an elastic closure.
This structure is ideal as a Travel Journal or Gardening Journal and would also make a fabulous Cookery Journal with places to pop all those quickly-jotted recipes from friends or the treasured notes from family. The choice will be yours on the day.
Lots of appropriate cover papers will be available but if you have a special one in mind, please bring it along.
Suitable for all, whether you are a beginner or wanting to learn a new book structure.
Stapleford Granary has easy car parking and os within walking distance of Shelford Railway Station.
Clamshell Box This is a beautiful enclosure to learn and use. It is practical as a casing for books but also for prints, drawings, photographs, music sheets and other flat items. It consists of two three-sided trays that fold elegantly into one another and when made, it is a delight to hear the air rush out of the box as you close it thereby leaving the contents safe and protected from dust.
During this one day class we will construct a clamshell box using a mixture of buckram and decorative papers, you will leave with your completed box and for 'homework' the materials to make a hardbound book that will fit into it.
This class is best suited to those with some previous experience of bookbinding or box making.
Over the two day weekend you will learn the art of Eco Printing with Jane Goodall. Eco printing is a contemporary printing technique that reveals the hidden colours, forms and textures of leaves and plants.
During the morning on Saturday you will learn the techniques that will enable you to transfer the natural pigments and tannins from the plants to create unique botanical prints on paper. One of these prints will then be used in the afternoon to create a unique, one -off personally designed hardbound book, taught by Helen.
On Sunday you will use these techniques to advance your skills and work with textiles, culminating in creating your own unique and beautiful silk velvet scarf.
This course is suitable for beginners and all materials, tools and equipment required will be provided.
Learn how to make this wonderful curved sided box with a lift out tray designed by Richard Renouf. Richard will guide you through the processes to make this challenging but beautiful box, which could be used for jewellery or any other bits and pieces you wish to store.
A selection of decorative papers and buckrams will be available for you to choose from. Over two days you will learn through demonstration and practice the all important skills of measuring, marking angles and cutting both board and paper, in the steps required to make this box.
This course is not suitable for complete beginners.
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