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WESTERN AUSTRALIAN
CRAFT BOOKBINDERS 
GUILD

Promoting and exhibiting the art of hand-bound books

WELCOME

Welcome to the West Australian Craft Bookbinders Guild. We are dedicated to promoting the are of the hand bound book, through courses and meetings. We provide specialist tools and materials to our members, and encourage them to not only develop their book binding skills, but to participate in the Guild activities and  encouragement of others.

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Courses are held once per month for most months of the year, with a wide range of techniques available, targeted at all skill levels from beginners through to advanced and everything in between.

 

The Guild meets once per month in the suburb of Como, Perth, Western Australia. We offer advice, talks and demonstrations at our monthly meetings, as well as providing opportunities to show new works and techniques.

 

If you are interested in learning how to make your own books, or to repair your own books, we offer courses on a regular basis. Check out Events for the dates of our meetings and other events that we participate in, and Courses for all the details of our courses and when they are held.

LATEST NEWS

November 2024: Starting with our February 2025 course all of our courses will now be held in Como. This is a big move, as we will now have all our tools and materials in one place, and will be able to provide better services for all our members. Looking forward to 2025, and the big changes that this allows us to make.

 

September 2024: Our new storage facility in Como is nearly ready. It is looking great, and with a bit of fit out it will allow us to have all our materials and equipment in one place. This will make it much easier to prepare and run our courses, as well as providing easier access to tools and materials for our members. This has been a long time coming, but we are looking forward to it.

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May 2024: We celebrated our 40th Anniversary as a Guild this month. A small celebration gathering was held for members and invited guests at McDougall House in Como. We had 4 of the founding members present, which was an excellent turnout. Combined with real progress on our storage facility, it marked a major moment in the Guild's history.

 

March 2024: We are having a bumper year for courses. We have never experienced such a high level of demand, particularly for our beginners courses. We expect to run at least five of these this year, with many of them selling out within a few days of becoming available. If you cannot register, please bear with us as we try and cater for the unprecedented demand.

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November 2023: The year has almost wound up, we have had our last meeting for the year and the last course has been delivered. Overall a good year, lots of new faces and plenty of younger people keen to learn new skills. We look forward to taking a break over the hotter months, and spend some time planning the calendar, possibly some new courses and doing some new techniques.

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August 2023: We have had a huge demand for our courses at the end of 2023. Currently there are very few places left on any of our remaining courses. However, we will have another full year of courses starting in February next year. There will be plenty of opportunities available once we have our schedule worked out. Keep an eye on our course page for details once they become available.

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August 2023: The first big Craft Show in Perth for some years (post Covid) was held on 3rd through 6th of August. It was great to be back and having an opportunity to meet with new people interested in bookbinding.

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July 2023: The courses this year have now taken off. We are receiving lots of demand for our beginners courses, which is excellent. We have already had to schedule an additional one and that is already booked out. Hopefully this trend continues for the remainder of the year.

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June 2023: This year we introduced a new course, miniatures. We had a full course with everyone trying out making small books (less that 65mm) and boxes to keep them in. Although the techniques are almost identical to those used in larger books, the difficulties and challenges imposed by the size were interesting to discover and overcome. Overall, a very pleasant way to spend a cold weekend.

BECOMING A MEMBER

Annual membership fees are applicable from July each year. From 2023 our fees are as follows:

 

Individual membership $75.00
Family membership $120.00

 

The best and easiest way to become a member is attend one of our meetings, held on the last Monday of each month, and bring along your fees. We can sign you up immediately. See our Events page for a complete calendar of meetings, together with what demonstrations or talks will be held. 

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You can also click on the Contact Us button and let us know you want to become a member. We will be in touch with you.

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A discount for your fee may apply if you join in the last three months of the membership year, applicable to the first year only.

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There are many benefits for members: access to bookbinding supplies and specialist tools, discounts on courses, newsletters about binding and techniques and more.

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