Private workshop INVITATION ONLY
March 26-30, 2026 | Five all-day, in-person sessions.
9:30 am-5:30 pm instruction, with open studio until 7:30 pm
Pare leather for and cover the two book blocks made in the fall 2025 Binding Fundamentals workshop
A partial list of required tools: Scharfix, spokeshave, paring knife + strop.
Workshop fee includes includes goatskin for covering, and materials for drawsheets and compensation cards.
This workshop requires a paring knife, spokeshave, and a Scharfix or Brockman paring machine.
This is an in-person workshop. Details on travel, lodging, and working in the studio in FAQs
Leather Binding Techniques: edge-to-edge doublure. In-person workshop. Chicago area.
Wait list only
June 2-7, 2026 | Six all-day, in-person sessions.
9:30 am-5:30 pm instruction, with open studio until 7:30 pm
The basic structure of a fine leather binding has changed little over the past 300 years. The text block is sewn onto supports, the spine carefully shaped, and the boards laced on. The book is covered in leather that has been precision-pared for protection, flexibility, and a sumptuous presentation.
Students will complete one full leather binding with edge-to edge doublures, double-core multi-color sewn endbands, suede flyleaves, and champhered boards. There are many ways to execute each of the steps required to craft a full leather fine binding. For this workshop our doublures will incorporate a leather hinge rather than the hinge being part of the endsheet construction. A temporary section will reserve space in the joint and for the thickness of the doublure.
A partial list of required tools: Scharfix, spokeshave, paring knife + strop.
Note: This is a fast-paced, advanced-level workshop for students experienced with traditional binding. Prerequisites: Leather Binding I: Fundamentals, II: Raised Bands, and III: Fine Binding or equivalent. Students should be making full leather fine lbindings independently, outside a workshop setting.
Please contact me if you are unsure if this workshop is the right fit for your current skills, or an appropriate stretch if you're ready for your next challenge.
Workshop fee includes a supply packet includes goatskin for covering, materials for the flyleaves and doubures, sewing supports and thread, endband silk, supplies for endband cores, book board, various paper and cloth linings, and a book in sheets comparable to those available on this site.
This is an in-person workshop. Details on travel, lodging, and working in the studio in FAQs
Payment in full is due at time of registration. See FAQs for refund policy.
Fishing in Canada. Montreal: Canadian National Railways, ca 1930.
Aspects of exposed structure are part of the aesthetic of this Even More Simplified binding. Boards covered in coho salmon parchment processed by the binder and dyed in indigo, pomegranate and cochineal. Parchment backed with Roma handmade paper, some visible on the rear board. Goatskin spine wrapper laced on with linen sewing cords made by the binder. Attachment of parchment to the boards is reinforced with salmon parchment tackets, these and the endcaps are painted with shell gold. Hahnemühle Ingres endpapers with Roma flexi flyleaves and pastedowns. Rolled leather endbands. Hand titled in 22 kt gold foil. Bound 2025.
8 3/16 x 5 x 7/8”
20.7 x 12.7 x 2.3 cm
The book, missing the original cover, which was scanned and printed from a similar edition, was a garage sale find, a gift from a colleague. A 1923 edition of the missing map was located online, printed on handmade Akbar paper, and sewn in on a guard. Map courtesy of the University of British Columbia Library Digitization Centre and its generous donors. <http://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0343188>