Saturday, April 22, 2017

Concertina Book Structures
with Priscilla Spitler

June 10-11, 2017
9:00a-5:00p
10361 E 28th PL
Denver, CO 80238


Sewing a book text with a finely folded Japanese-tissue concertina was originally developed by conservators to protect rare book spines during their rebinding from direct contact with modern adhesives like PVA. Artist bookmakers soon incorporated this method when sewing their painted and decorated text pages or when using soft print papers to also avoid any direct contact with adhesives. Other attributes of this technique include better text opening and added spine swell, desirable for rounded spines.
Two books will be completed during this two-day class. On one book, the concertina is visible as part of the structural design with an exposed spine and sewn on decorative tapes or straps. The second book will use a thinner Japanese tissue concertina that, while serving its function, becomes less obvious during the binding process.


About our instructor
Priscilla Spitler received a BFA in Printmaking from the California College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland, and a Certificate of Craft Bookbinding from the London College of Printing (1981). She was edition bookbinder at the Palace Press, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe NM, from 1982-86 and at BookLab, Inc., in Austin TX, 1987-95. Her own bindery, Hands On Bookbinding, was established in Austin and moved to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, in 2007.

A renowned instructor, she was the 2009 and 2015 prize-winner of the Helen Warren DeGolyer Award for American Bookbinding. In 2015, Priscilla was given the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Guild of Book Workers.

Registration fee
$150/GBW members
$175/general
$20 materials fee (payable to instructor)
Questions: contact Martha  martha.g.rome.cambridge@gmail.com
Register online:  https://gbw.formstack.com/forms/concertinabookstructures
Limited to 10 registrants.