Volume 1, Number 4
Apr 1976

May-June Bookbinding Classes

The next beginning class will meet for five Wednesday evenings 7:30-10:30 starting May 5 and will cost $44. Aside from the fact that it includes one more evening, it is the same as our usual classes: students take apart and resew their own book; trim, round an back it; make a cover; stamp it and case it in.

The class is limited to eight, must be prepaid, and there are no makeups. The first two meetings are at 209 S. State, the last three at 3225 Central in Dexter. "Graduates" may use the facilities of the shop on Tuesday nights and Saturdays for a nominal fee.

Four "advanced" classes follow, June 9-30 in Dexter, covering alternative methods of holding the pages together: sidesewing, adhesive binding (perfect binding, flexible binding), saving the old sewing overcasting, hand oversewing, and sewing on raised and sunken cords. This eries will cost $35. The beginning class or its equivalent is a prerequisite. Class size is limited to four.

Several lessons on leather binding and paper repair will be arranged on an individual basis in July, and are open to anyone who has had the basic course.

Prospective students may want to buy and study a text. No one book is adequate and most are out of print and use English terms rather than American, but the best, in my opinion, are:

• Laurence Town. Bookbinding by Hand, Faber 1963. Detailed and clear, but does not really cover case binding.
• John Corderoy. Bookbinding for Beginners, Watson-Guptill, 1967. Well written, humorous.
• Ivor Robinson. Introducing Bookbinding, Watson-Guptill, 1960. Good for learning case binding.
• Edith Diehl. Bookbinding, 2 vols., Kennikat Press (1975? reprint). A complete handbook for traditional methods.