SELECTED SHORTS: 3 VALUABLE TECHNIQUES IN ONE WEEK
MAY 28 – JUNE 1 | DON GLAISTER | $800
There are areas of bookbinding study that require years, even decades of study and practice. Thankfully, there are also techniques that can be learned relatively quickly and can be performed successfully right away. This class covers three such techniques that are essential to the education of a well rounded bookbinder.
Montage Sur Onglets is a French term that literally means mounting on tabs. Pages are glued or sewn to flexible paper structures that provide hinges. It is a technique that makes it possible to flexibly bind a book whose pages are in the form of folded signatures but are too stiff to open otherwise; are cut in single sheets of paper or other materials; or need to be removed at a later time without ruining the binding. Students will be shown and will explore variations of this technique to fit many applications. This is very versatile technique that can be used in deluxe fine binding, edition binding and conservation binding as well.
Sometimes bookbinders are requested to bind books that are not appropriate for a full leather, fine binding treatment. This can be either for reasons of time, budget or the very nature of the text. The second project of the week’s class will help to fill that niche. Students will make elegant, reinforced paper bindings for their texts from the montage sur onglet portion of the class or other books of their choosing. They will be guided through the process step by step and will be shown various valuable techniques and tricks associated with binding, especially in paper. This binding structure is relatively simple, quick and very elegant. It is highly adaptable to a variety of binding situations.
Most handmade books require protection from damage due to accidents, environmental factors and normal wear. The third project of the class will be to fill that requirement as students will build a custom fitted, archival clamshell box to fit the paper binding previously made in class. The box will be made of binders’ board and book cloth, and will be lined with protective felt. The clamshell box is often used not only for book protection, but portfolio presentation and housing collections of small objects and documents. It too is a very adaptable structure that helps to greatly broaden the scope of the binder’s expertise.
This class is open to those interested in bookmaking and binding, though some experience with binding materials, tools and processes will be helpful.