Level 3: Rounded and Backed Case Binding
TUTOR: Monica Oppen
DATES: Next class in 2025
TIME: 9.30am – 4.00pm
COST: Members $290.00 Non-members $320.00
Next course: in 2025
Limited to 6 students
If you are interested in this course contact us on [email protected]
We will put your name of the pre-booking class list and contact you when bookings open.
Suitability: Basic bookbinding experience is highly recommended.
Course information:
The adventure continues. This course builds on the flat back case binding course, taking your binding skills to the next level. We will be sewing one thicker bookblock. The sewn bookblock will be rounded and backed giving it the form of the classic codex.
As with the flat back case binding a case i.e. cover, is made separately from the bookblock. You will learn to put a hollow on the spine to which the case will be attached prior to pasting down the endpapers.
You will able to choose your covering materials; full cloth, cloth and decorated paper, leather and decorated paper, leather and cloth.
The tutor will demonstrate various techniques, including:
• rounding and backing the sewn bookblock
• case making
• revise the use of the board cutter
• revise the use of the guillotine
• using a leather paring knife
• using the Brockman leather paring machine
Materials: All materials will be provided.
The Guild stocks a variety of unbound sheets ready for binding. Students may choose to purchase one of these unbound bookblocks to bind, instead of blank sheets.
Tools will be provided. The bindery is full equipped. However students can bring their own tools. A metal rule, a pencil, an awl, a sharp knife will be useful.
IMPORTANT:
Good eye/hand coordination and good dexterity are necessary for this course as sharp knives are used in the cutting of board and paper.
You will be shown correct procedure in the use of these tools but good co-ordination will assure accurate cutting and prevention of injury.
Please wear closed in shoes.
OTHER INFORMATION
The bindery will be open by 9am. Tea, coffee and biscuits will be supplied. There will be a lunch break of 30 minutes. It is recommended that you bring your lunch. There is a fully equipped kitchen adjacent to the bindery. Shops and cafes are not close.
About the tutor:
Monica Oppen has been binding books since the 1980s. For three years she worked and trained with Daphne Lera at DS Murray Bookbinders a hand bindery in Sydney. Her entry into bookbinding was through wanting to bind books of prints she was creating. From here her passion for the alchemical nature of bookbinding has engaged her in continuing to learn and improve her skills and knowledge of bookbinding styles and techniques. She continues to work as a printmaker and bookbinder. She regularly collaborates with artists on book projects bringing to the projects the bookbinding skills that her colleagues lack. Over the years she has come to understand that bookbinding, like other hand craft skills, is an embodied skill that requires dedication and endless practice to master. She welcomes students to start on this rewarding journey. She has been a member of the NSW Guild of Craft Bookbinders for 15 years.
