Bookbinding Workshop At Nova Community Arts
In July, I attended a bookbinding workshop at Nova Community Arts. It was a two-part class, during which each student created their own hardcover book.
Nova Community Arts is a community studio in Atwater Village. They have classes and workshops on the Risograph, screen printing, an bookbinding. Once you have taken a class (like on the Riso or screen printing), you can rent studio time to use the tools you’ve learned to use.
When I saw the bookbinding workshop on their calendar, I had the thought of making the signature book for my wife’s celebration of life. Which was the weekend following the second session of the class, so perhaps a bit ambitious, but I had a plan B.
I have been making simple pocket notebooks for a over a year now, but the thought of making a hardcover book was intimidating so I was glad to get some guidance on the process.
Mistakes were made, but it was a good to have a space to fail, and someone on hand who could give me advice. Gray, the instructor, studied book making in school, and they were very knowledgeable.
All the materials and tools were provided. There were a choice of colors for the book cloth, end papers, and ribbon, so everyone’s books were different.
I wanted the signature book to be an A5 sized book. For no good reason – I just think that’s a good size for a notebook. I created the text block (the paper part inside the book) ahead of time and I was able to create the cover and “case in” the book (adding the cover) in time for the celebration of life. I attached my favorite picture of Giselle taken by a photographer friend.
(Books like this are made up of a series of nested folded pages called “signatures,” which are stitched together, and then attached to the hard cover. Each signature is essentially made like the simple notebooks that I’ve been making. My Plan B was to create several such notebooks, pass them out to the various tables at the celebration of life, and then after the fact, sew the notebooks together and case in to make the final book. Fortunately, I finished the book in time and did not need to fall back on plan B.)
The book is not perfect, but it turned out very nicely, and it’s way better than my first attempt thanks to what I learned making the book in the workshop.
What did I learn? Making a book is not that difficult. Only basic tools are needed, and while there are a lot of steps that require attention to detail, but none of them are especially difficult. In the few days after the second class at Nova Community Arts, I was able to case in two text blocks I had made in time for the celebration of life. I treated the second book as a backup, and I gave it to my sister, who uses notebooks daily, and also prefers A5 sized notebooks.