Course Details
All our courses are held in Roleystone, at the Roleystone Family Centre on Wygonda Road. This is a very nice facility that is close to a range of amenities and provides a great environment for learning. For those unfamiliar with the location, get directions here.
For all our courses we provide high quality tools and materials to ensure that you end up with work you can be proud of, and that will last a very long time.
Whilst we try and run each course every year, it is not always possible. Most courses will only be run once in a calendar year. We also develop new courses in response to demand.
The beginners course runs a few times each year. It introduces standard techniques that you will use in all courses, such as cutting, folding, gluing and sewing. You will make a pamphlet style book, a hardback book, and a slip case to fit your hardback.
This is a great place to start your bookbinding, and the techniques can easily be adapted in many ways to provide unique and personalised books.
The books and slip cases are covered with buckram book cloth, which is a very easy to use, robust cloth that is ideal for beginners.
The intermediate course builds on the skills from the beginners course, although that is not essential. You will create a perfect bound book covered in buckram book cloth, and a half bound hollow back covered in book cloth and paper.
You will learn how to sew onto tapes for a stronger book, as well as rounding and backing to produce that perfect classic book shape.
The advanced course builds on techniques from previous courses, such as rounding and backing, and introduces leather binding and binding on cords. This also requires the use of traditional paste adhesives. There is nothing quite like the feel and smell of a leather bound book.
You will make one half bound book in this course with leather and paper, but also learn how to pare leather and work it for use in bookbinding.
The most technically advanced style of book we offer, the springback has a spring in the rounded spine that causes the book to snap open and snap closed. This book uses leather on the spine and book cloth in a quarter bound style.
This course takes place over two Saturdays rather than a single weekend, as the formation of the spring requires a substantial amount of drying time.
This is an excellent course if you want to take your binding skills to a new level.
One way to add a really professional look to a book is to put gold lettering and decorations on the cover.
This single day course introduces the tools and techniques for adding those finishing touches to your book, together with inlays and embossing.
You will take home a small A6 size book that has been embellished with your choice of techniques.
The Bradel style is a form of binding that makes the book look library quality. It is a rounded and backed book that is bound in cloth, but hides all of the normal trappings of binding. Rather than using single boards on front and back, each cover is made from two thin boards that sandwich all the bindings between them.
You will make a single Bradel style book in the weekend, as well as enhancing your rounding and backing skills.
Boxes are an integral part of a book binder's skill set. This introduces the various techniques used in two different types of boxes, and you take home both a shoe box (separate base and lid), and a Solander box. The Solander box is the ultimate box for archival purposes, and knowing how to make one is an excellent addition to your bookbinding knowledge.
The box-in-a-box style of box making opens up a huge range of options for box making. This course introduces the techniques necessary for this technical style, as well as going through decorative elements such as padded lids and inlays.
You will take home a single box-in-a-box, together with a fitted padded lid.
One of the earliest styles of binding, stab binding consists of a very visible stitched spine, and very little gluing. We cover both the Coptic style common in Europe, and the four hole Japanese style.
You will make a Coptic book, a Japanese four hole book, and a matching Japanese wrap around case.
