[EKStationers] Bookbinding workshops

[Lyle H. Gray]

We just finished a bookbinding workshop this past weekend in
Bergental, held at the home of M. Lyle FitzWilliam (that's me)
and M. Elwynne Rowenna of Wentworth.  The class was taught by M.
Lyle, and there were four students, three of whom were local and
the fourth travelling up from New York state to attend.

Two binding styles were taught, both paste-free bindings:  An
Ethiopian binding without leather cover or end bands, and a limp
binding using soft leather covers and all-along sewing.  Several
closure styles for the limp binding were discussed, with the
final style chosen left to the students.

As the instructor was somewhat lacking in sleep prior to the
class, some steps had to be returned to once or twice to make
sure that what the instructor said to do and what the instructor
actually was doing matched. :-P

Feedback produced some suggestions on different methods to
present binding classes in general and these two in particular.
Most notable was a suggestion that a method used in some modern
craft shows might be employed:  Describing and demonstrating part
of a step in the binding, followed by showing an exemplar with
that step already completed (basically, having several exemplars
at various stages in the process at hand to show to the
students).  This would mean that instead of the teacher being
occupied with making his own binding, he would be free to walk
around the table and look over the students shoulders, to catch
any misunderstandings before the student has sewn much of the
book together...

Regards,
M. Lyle FitzWilliam

-- Lyle H. Gray
gray at cs.umass.edu -- text only, please
http://members.verizon.net/~vze3wwx7
 --
Shared knowledge is preserved knowledge.