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: canberra craft bookbinders
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 – 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
Guild 24 – Exhibition entry details for members
The CCBG Committee is so pleased to announce the entry details for Guild 24, our members only exhibition to be held Mezzanine level of the Civic Library in Canberra.
Find all the information on the website under Events and news. Deadline for entries 8 August 2024.
Image of a few of the 36 works in Guild 22 taken during ‘bump in’.
Embroidering on leather Sat May 11- Full
While many of us are familiar with stitching when binding books, embroidering the covers may be new to you. This activity is for those who have very little experience in embroidery. We begin by stitching samples on bookcloth and progress to embroidering on leather during the day.
Embroidered covers have been done by Hannah Brown, Sue Doggett and Erin Fletcher. There are a number of other artists, such as Anna Yevtukh-Squire and Adele Outtridge, who teach exposed and decorative stitching on the spines of books.
Cyril Davenport’s Book of English Embroidered Bookbinding s from Gutenberg is an interesting resource – which can be downloaded free in many formats.
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!
Make a ‘Ten Minute’ Slipcase – 9 July
At our next meeting Chris will introduce slipcases and chemises.
When: Saturday 9 July 2022, 9.30am – 12.30pm
Where: Room 3, (COTA) Hughes Community Centre, Hughes, ACT.
‘Ten Minute Slipcase’ – Make your own slipcase. It is quick to make, but takes 40 minutes or more to allow for accurate measuring and cutting.
What to bring:
- A bound book (hand bound or commercial) width 160mm or less
- Your bookbinding kit
- Bone folder
- Metal ruler
- Retractable sharp knife with snap off blades
- Cutting mat
- Fine pencil and notebook
- Big scissors
- Dividers if you have them
- Camera/phone to take images
All other equipment and materials will be supplied including card, PVA, rollers, paper strips for measuring. A few dividers will be available for sale.
During the morning we will explore:
- What is a slipcase ?
- Why do you want a slipcase ?
- A slipcase within a slipcase.
- Adding a ribbon to the slipcase design.
Show and Tell – We will also show and chat about other loose coverings for books such as chemises, wrappers and boxes – Please bring some to show if you have them.
Look forward to seeing you all there!
Guild 22 – Exhibition entry details for members
The CCBG Committee is so pleased to announce the entry details for Guild 22, our members only exhibition to be held Mezzanine level of the Civic Library in Canberra.
Find all the information on the website under Events and news. Deadline for entries 11 August 2022.
Image of a few of the 44 works in Guild 19 taken during ‘bump in’.
Guild 2020 we learnt how to use YouTube to showcase our members works to everyone. CCBG Guild 2020 exhibition – YouTube
Creating your own book cloth using fabric
At CCBG meeting on 14th May we were treated to a fun morning of instruction into the old technique but still popular today of creating your own book cloth with Nicky.
So not able to find papers to your liking for your bookbinding ? Making your own book cloth using fabric could be the answer.
Here is the technique used.
Materials:
- Japanese Washi paper approx. 60gsm was used on the day. This paper is extremely pliable and strong. This was used on the day and proved to be very cooperative. Your piece of backing paper has to be a bit larger than the fabric so it can stick down to stabilize the cloth in the drying process. Check the direction of the grain of the paper before starting. Note: If a heavier book cloth is required a good quality cartridge paper with no glossy finish can be used.
- Material of choice – Nicky decided to demonstrate using silk to make her book cloth.
- Choose one of these for the board glass or perspex sheet, or use the back of your cutting mat if it’s clean to lay fabric on to dry (possibly overnight).
- Plastic sheet to lay the paper on to apply the paste.
- Wide Flat Brush to apply the paste.
- Roller – sponge or use lino print roller.
Book cloth paste recipe:
If you are not going to use all the paste at once, sterilise the storage jars you will be using and put in the fridge. The paste will last about a week in the fridge, don’t use it once it starts to smell fruity. Dispose in the compost and NOT down the sink of course!
Use 1 to 6 ratio of flour to water.
Gradually add the water to the flour, first making a paste to reduce the chances of lumps and then continue gradually mixing in the remaining water.
Gradually cook the mixture, stirring it all the time until it is the consistency of mayonnaise. Ensure there are no lumps if there are use a sieve and filter them out before use.
Steps:
- Iron fabric thoroughly removing all creases. Place face down onto the dry board making sure there are no threads in the way.
- Use a squirt bottle with a fine spray to dampen the fabric, this sticks it to the glass, it swells the fibres of the cloth to help the paste bond.
- Place paper onto a piece of plastic that can be washed off.
- Apply paste to the paper spreading out evenly – first with a brush and then with a sponge roller.
- You can do this step by yourself by laying the pasted paper over a length of dowel. We however helped each other by holding the four corners of the pasted paper then laying it on the fabric from the middle slowly working out to the ends. Then from the centre of the work with a lino print roller and very gentle pressure, smooth the paste into the fibres of the fabric, ensuring the papers edges are also pasted to the board.
- Make sure that all of the fabric has been rolled out with no creases or dry spaces.
- Leave to dry on the board.
- Remove dried cloth off the board. Carefully easing off the corners of the paper using a blade, to safely lift the corners.