UPCOMING EVENTS
Meetings are at the Hughes Community Centre, Wisdom Street, Hughes
Evening meetings are held at 7:30pm – 9:30pm on the second Thursday of February, April, June, August, October, and December.
Morning meetings are held 9:30am to 12:30pm on the second Saturday of March, May, July, September and November.
Meeting program for 2026:
10 December 2026 – Thursday, 7.30
Pop-up Exhibition – The Rivers Challenge
Pop-up exhibition and a Show and Tell session for all the Rivers challenge books. You can bring yours along or photograph it and share your photos if you can’t come to the meeting. Your book does not have to be finished. Members can bring works in progress and completed books. To encourage participation all entries on the night go into a draw for a special gift.
14 November 2026 – Saturday, 9.30
Workshop – Tacketed Stationery Binding, with Linda Roberts
Fully booked
Learn the historic technique of tacketed stationery binding in this hands-on workshop. Used for centuries, this method creates a book that is durable, flexible and elegant. With guidance from Linda Roberts, you will learn the primary sewing pattern, how to fold and prepare the cover, and how to attach it using the tacket method.
During the workshop, you will create a replica of an account book dating from 1736. While the original was covered in vellum, your replica will feature a paper cover. Materials supplied. Suggested tool list will be supplied with confirmation email.
October 8, 2026 – Thursday
Guest Speaker – Katharine Nix.
Topic – Paper in My Life
Kathy began working seriously with handmade paper in the early 1980’s. However, with a versatile artist mother as a guide, her love for and awareness of paper’s potential as a flexible medium for all kinds of ‘making’ started at an early age. Kathy describes her presentation as being about the paper journey from a small girl to the old woman that I have become, one still using paper, if not making it, as my main medium.
Kathy set up the paper making studio at the ANU School of Art ,many years ago. Kathy had an artists’ book in the exhibition Fold, Stitch and Bind at the Tuggeranong Art Centre, where Sharon caught up with her.
Although many of us use commercially made papers, understanding handmade paper and her involvement in artists’ books is important.
Kathy is mentioned in Michael Richards book on Alec Bolton, having made end papers from blady grass collected near Braidwood, for the The Idyll Wheel by Les A. Murray, illus. by Rosalind Atkins. A limited edition of 290 copies.
September 12, 2026 – Saturday
Activity – Bring and Buy Sale
So many great things for sale. If you are new to binding and haven’t bought a bone folder yet, here is your opportunity to buy one at $2. A beautiful wooden finishing press – well below the market price. Leather prices ranging from $50 down to $10 – plus a box of leather scraps. Decorative and plain papers and bookcloth – all priced well.
August 13, 2026 – Thursday
AGM: Please make sure your membership is current and discuss the achievements of your Guild and what’s in store in the year ahead.
Activity – following the AGM – Show and tell – hearing from some Interleave exhibitors who will talk about their work. The theme and process of the2026 Bind Challenge, which culminates at our last meeting of the year, will be explained a little further for our newer members.
July 11, 2026 – Saturday
Activity – Hard backed single section binding
Details and what to bring list will be emailed to members.
June 11, 2026 – Thursday
Guest Speaker – Michael Richards, a librarian (St Anne’s College Oxford and the National Library of Australia), an historian and a curator. He is an occasional letterpress printer (Vagantes Press) and author of the biography of Bolton, A Maker of Books, published by the National Library of Australia in 2023.
Topic: A Maker of Books: Alec Bolton and his Brindabella Press
May 9, 2026 – Saturday
Activity – Working with Wood veneer
Details and what to bring list will be emailed to members.
April 9, 2026 – Thursday
Guest Speaker – Dario Castello
Topic: The Architecture of the Backbone of the Book
Following on from the recent Saturday activity by Linda Roberts on supported sewing 3 ways, at our next meeting Dario will deal with the next step in the binding process: the architecture of the backbone of the book.
This will include discussion on project design, material constraints, and aesthetic choices as well as practical aspects of the construction, rounding and backing of the spine.
The demonstration of rounding and backing will incorporate the upfront design considerations, to ensure that the rounding and backing can indeed accommodate the binding style that you have in mind for your book.
March 14, 2026 – Saturday
Activity – Supported Sewing three ways
Details and what to bring list will be emailed to members.
February 12, 2026 – Thursday
Guest Speaker – Dr Claire Bolton, visiting from the UK
Topic – Petrus Mitte de Caprariis – his Books and Bindings
Claire Bolton’s talk is on 15th century bookbindings from Memmingen in southern Germany. Many of her examples are books, both printed and manuscript, that belonged to Petrus Mitte de Caprariis, a prolific commissioner and buyer of books from the 1440s to the late 1470s.
This collection offers a rare opportunity to study the methods, structures and finishing of books through this period, from the production of manuscripts to the new world of the earliest printed books.
UPCOMING EVENTS
November 14, 2026- Saturday
Activity – Workshop – Tacketed Stationery Bindings – Fully booked
December 10, 2026 – Thursday
Bind Challenge 2026 – Theme ‘Rivers’
Bind Challenge, pop up exhibition and talks by binders.
Who will receive the gift for participating in the 2026 challenge ? Members share their stories about the design, materials, binding style and the making of their entry in the ‘pop up’ exhibition.
WORKSHOPS & OTHER LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
Check out our dedicated Workshops page.