Come and say hello to us at Crafting Connections.
Sat 28 March, 10am – 12pm at the Fitters Workshop, 21 Wentworth Ave, Kingston.
View a display of members’ work and watch demonstrations of bookbinding techniques.
Category Archives: bookbinding
Drum Leaf Binding, 12 July 2025 – Fully booked
Transit (Orange) by Avril Makula
Drum Leaf Binding – suitable for all levels
Drum leaf binding is an adhesive book structure made up of single folded folios.
Pages are ‘drummed’ at the spine and foredge, then the spine and cover are attached. Only one side of each folio is visible when the book is bound, making it a great structure for binding prints, drawings and the like, when only one side of the paper has been used. This is a book with no stitching, allowing full page spreads uninterrupted by rows of thread in the centre folds. It can be made from a wide range of paper types. This binding style lies quite flat and is fairly easy to construct.
This book structure is great for binding existing artwork, or you can also use blank pages readying it for making your mark.
Tutor: Avril Makula – A book artist, book designer, bookbinder and owner of Alphabet City Press. In her current practice, she prints and binds books using both new and old technologies, takes discarded books and restructures them into new forms, and makes prints using letter shapes. While much of her work explores the book as art using typography, geometry and colour as content, she finds herself increasingly influenced by the natural
To book a place, please register at canberrabookbinders@gmail.com
A list of what to bring in your kit will be provided following registration.
Date: Saturday 12 July 2025
Time: 9.30am – 4.30pm
Venue: Room 3, Hughes Community Centre, Wisdom St, Hughes, ACT
Fee: $120 for Canberra Craft Bookbinders Guild members ($160 for non-members).
Cancellation policy
Refunds are given on any cancellations up to 12 hours before the course and for substantial grounds on the day of the course.
GUILD 24 on YouTube
GUILD 24 – an exhibition of recent works by members of the Canberra Craft Bookbinders’ Guild has wrapped up. There were 19 exhibitors and 38 bindings/constructions. If you or others would like to look at all those wonderful books again, then that is possible now and into the future.
A YouTube video (4.51 mins and a catalogue, have been created as artifacts of the exhibition.
Access it via GUILD 24 YouTube or search Canberra Bookbinders YouTube Guild 24.
View the online catalogue via National Library of Australia, TROVE.
GUILD 24 – exhibition 6 Sept – 2 Oct
GUILD 24 – an exhibition of recent works by members of the Canberra Craft Bookbinders’ Guild.
19 exhibitors and 38 bindings/constructions of fine, contemporary, sculptural and artist creations.
6 September – 2 October, 2024.
More about the exhibition at Home – Libraries ACT
Civic Library opening hours – Monday to Friday 10am – 5.30pm – Saturday 10am to 4pm
BIND25, Auckland, NZ
Exciting announcement.
Association of Book Crafts(NZ) have confirmed BIND25!
The conference will take place at the Auckland University of Technology(AUT) over the weekend of 12-14 September, 2025.
They are pleased to have this quality venue confirmed and now that they have the dates pinned down, planning can begin in earnest.
And there is much to organise!
At the beginning of April they will be calling for papers and workshops and also identifying the two keynote speakers. website abc-nz.org.nz
Exhibition ‘Reflections of a Philosophical Voyager’ 3 – 20 Aug 2023
In partnership with the Bookbinding Guilds of ACT & NSW,
The Sutton Village Gallery will present the unique exhibition of fine bindings titled
‘Reflections of a Philosophical Voyager’.
This exhibition will showcase 18 bookbinders from around Australia, highlighting the varied approaches to the text, comprising Nicolas Baudin’s 1802 letter written to Governor Philip King. The letter was reproduced by the State Library of South Australia in 2016 and is a fascinating account by the French navigator of the French laying claim to King Island.
The exhibition will run from 3-20 August, 2023, with the official launch taking place 1:30pm, 5 August.
All welcome.
Bind a Leather Journal with Joy Tonkin – 12th August
Bind a custom leather journal, ‘Tegumentum’, 15th century style with master bookbinder Joy Tonkin.
The workshop is being held at the Sutton Village Gallery, Saturday 12th August, 1 -4pm.
Workshop participants will be making a traditional 15th century limp leather journal.
For more info and to book a place …
Origata Binding Workshop with Glenn Malkin – 10 July
The Queensland Guild have an amazing range of courses adjacent to the Bind 23 conference in Brisbane which are once in a lifetime opportunities to learn from Masters!
We don’t get many opportunities here in Australia to learn from these international teachers so don’t miss this one-day course on the 10th July with Glenn Malkin from the UK teaching us the Origata Binding in Brisbane. This is a great course for beginners, artists and also those with bookbinding experience.
This is a relatively new book structure devised by Julie Auzillon in Paris, France.
It is ideal as a conservation binding as the book block itself can be removed easily without damage given there needs be very little glue used.
This structure also lends itself to a wide number of variations in terms of design elements and materials used and can be used for single section books or thicker multi-section books.
Register now at Workshops – Bind23 Queensland Bookbinders’ Guild (qbg.org.au)
Creating a Medieval Binding – 12 Nov
When: Saturday 12 November 2022, 9.30am – 12.30pm Where: Room 3, (COTA) Hughes Community Centre, Hughes, ACT. Over the next four or so “Saturday Meetings” we will be exploring the binding structures of a Medieval book. By physically reconstructing the … Continue reading →
Taking a book apart – 10 Sept
At our next meeting with Chris we will be taking the binding of a book (s) apart which is called ‘Pulling’.
When: Saturday 10 Sept 2022, 9.30am – 12.30pm
Where: Room 3, (COTA) Hughes Community Centre, Hughes, ACT.
Pulling books – taking the binding apart
One source of books to bind is old books pulled apart.
The best books to start with are ones that are section-sewn and hollow back case bound (you can see the ends of the sections and can see light down between the spine covering and the bookblock when you open the book out).
Also good are paperback books that are section-sewn with a glued paper spine (such as pre-1960s Penguins), ideally where the glue is starting to crack apart. Some section-sewn paperbacks have old cracking glue and can be gently scraped clean; more recent books are hot glued on the spine, but most of these are single sheet. Removing the hot glue is possible but not as easy as older glues, and single sheets are rarely as good to bind as sections.
Book sources: bookshelves; little street libraries; Lifeline and other book fairs; second hand bookshops.
What to bring:
- A book or two or three to pull apart in preparation for binding
- Your bookbinding kit
- Bone folder
- Retractable sharp knife with snap off blades
- Boot knife or kitchen bread and butter knife with straight edge to be used for scraping
- Cutting mat
- Fine pencil and notebook
- Camera/phone to take images
During the morning we will explore:
- Extracting the book from its case by cutting or detaching the tapes or cords from the cover
- Scraping off the spine linings either dry or dampened
- Cutting threads
- Gently pulling apart sections that are tipped together
- Endpapers
Look forward to seeing you all there with your books!