Books! How much all of us owe them for the dissemination of knowledge that has made our world what it is (and what we are!) today. You love reading them, and you will love making them, especially in Maiikes ultra-simple, but substantial course for the first-time bookmaker. Learn the basic building block of most books, the one section “folio”, simple sewing tips, and see it all come together in a lovely book with a soft-cover attached by an easy folding technique. So easy, you can disseminate the knowledge of how to make it to all your friends afterwards. Serves as an excellent preliminary to other, more involved, courses.
Techniques learned: The use of basic tools, how to mark, score, fold and cut, and to make the pamphlet stitch, the mysteries of “grain direction.”

Some of you may remember seeing the 2008 Calendar we designed last year for sale at Au Papier japonais with small pieces of beautiful Chiyogami patterns. Well, why buy one, when you can make one? It occurred to us that some of you would enjoy the experience of making your own. Based on a similar idea, you will receive pre-printed calendar pages and during the evening make your own original collage for each page from a wide assortment of creatively inspiring sheets of coloured, textured and decorated Japanese paper from the store. An evening's creative exercise that will give you pleasure all year—or one of your friends to whom you wish to give a very special gift.

Every year we effuse about this classic, timeless book design, and every year more of you find out why! There's a reason why it remains one of our most popular and satisfying courses. You'll love its beautiful, exposed sewn binding, its exclusive double-page construction that eliminates show-through from the back of one page to the other, and its flexibility (you can roll it up and put it in your pocket!). Easily made at home, it's especially useful for notebooks, guestbooks, sketchbooks, or if you want to give a gift that will make your friends effuse!
Techniques learned: Use of the special properties of Japanese papers, measuring, cutting, and folding of interior pages, the Japanese procedure for piercing the pages and sewing them together to form the distinctive, exposed-stitched spine.

Time takes its toll on those dear friends on our bookshelves from our handling (no matter how lovingly) over the years. Learn how to apply time-tested cosmetic treatments (or more radical surgery if required!) to restore them to their original condition from the best friend a wounded book ever had, Maiike Zuderhoff. She'll teach you the techniques the professionals use to repair priceless books, work on one you bring along, and make an old friend into a new acquaintance again!
Techniques learned: Basic book structure and binding methods, recognizing the properties of paper and other materials in conservation and repair; identifying paper grain, use of tools and adhesives, safe paper-cutting practices.

This remarkable design is to books what those amazing “Transformer” toys are to kids. Introducing the book that changes its shape and looks like you can play it. Developed by American book conservator Hedi Kyle, it looks to be an elegant but simple structure with a spine held together by a baton of wood passed through exposed loops of paper. But lift out the baton, and the book transforms itself into something that Astor Piazzolla might like to play while at the same time a hidden image appears as the concertina spine is released! Great as a journal, diary or guestbook, as made here, or with heavy-weight pages, it's an equally great photo album.
Techniques learned: No-fault, concertina folding, select, cut, attach image panels, construct hinge-dowel mechanism, cut and sew content

The basis of this book is the questionably named “stab binding” (which tends to make some people think that it was invented by Tony Soprano). Not only is it extremely versatile and easy to use, but also quite harmless. It's actually the binding used on the much loved Japanese Soft Cover book, but here Elizabeth adapts the style for use with the firmer and thicker western style, 100% recycled cotton papers made by St-Armand. Students will be able to make three different models using waxed Irish linen thread and experimenting with variations on the traditional stitching method.

It's tough being homeless. That's equally true for that beautiful series of paintings, important grant presentations, or the original manuscript of your paper on Fermat's Theorem. What you need is this exquisitely practical and elegant Artist's Portfolio that you'll wonder how you ever lived without! Essentially, it is two heavy-weight cardboard covers covered with Chiyogami and a complimentary paper inside, held together with a spine formed from book cloth that can be made to the width you need depending on the contents, and held together with ribbons attached to the edge of each cover. Much more than “reasonable accommodation” for your valuable things.

Here the luxury and sensuality of leather and the high quality 100% cotton artist's papers from Montreal's own Papeterie St-Armand go together as beautifully as Mercedes and Benz. This high quality journal is thus equally good for watercolour as it is for recording what it's like playing extreme solitaire. The inside pages are stitched through the cover to a form a decorative spine, with a leather thong that wraps around a button to keep the book closed. While highly useful personally, it would also make a treasured, personal gift for someone special.

Ever since that delightful shock when the first Jack-in-the Box popped out at us, we've associated boxes with hidden surprises. Their biggest surprise, however, is not what's in them, but that they'
e so easy to make. Under Fran's skilful direction, you'll make a hinged-lidded box where the beauty of Chiyogami and washi's celebrated strength give the box both its decoration and means of opening and closing. Choose from a wide selection of Japanese papers supplied and learn many of the fundamental techniques which you can use at home to make more boxes like this or in more advanced projects.
Techniques learned: Calculation of materials, planning and cutting, box assembly and reinforcement, ensuring proper fit, tool use, factors in choosing adhesives, covering with decorated Japanese papers.

In our view, clearly the most elegant and most pleasant to use of any photo album design, thanks to the originality of the Egyptian Copts who created this highly adaptable binding technique more than 1600 years ago. Though originally for books, Elizabeth has applied it to a photo album among whose virtues is the wonderful, relaxed action of the spine, allowing it to lie perfectly flat when open. Add to that its hard cover, covered in one of the many Japanese decorative papers provided, combined with its visible sewn spine, and you have an album fit for a family or a Pharoah.

Adored and used by the Japanese for hundreds of years, often taken to shrines, stamped with “chops”, and kept as a treasured souvenir, it is disting-uished by what it doesn' have : a spine. Nevertheless it works as well as a normal bound book (better if you count that it also lays flat when open), features double pages which eliminate show through, can provide artists with the possibility of making a continuous drawing that crosses many pages, whose covers remain parallel no matter how many things you stuff inside—and is easy to make by anyone. $55.00

Famous for paring down buildings to their essentials, Mies van der Rohe would applaud Elizabeth doing the same thing to what we think of as a “real” book, one with a hard cover, sewn binding. By machine it takes no time, but by hand, it's a long process. Elizabeth, however, has extracted the essentials of this enduring technique, “opening” it to being done in a day. A generous 8-1/2” x 11” size, with ample pages, she uses a soft instead of a hard cover, retaining the sewn binding which gives it strength and allows it to lie flat, and even includes a ribbon book mark. Perfect for a journal, notebook or for sketching Place Ville Marie.

Talk about a love-hate relationship. So many of us have used cerlux plastic binding, or metal spiral binding for many projects from proposals to theses, and while it's cheap and functional, in relationship to the significance of the document, it's a little like wearing sneakers with a tuxedo. What you really want is a perfect bound book, and now you can have it. Maiike's developed an efficient technique that gives you a finished product that looks like it was done that way in the first place. Bring along an already cerlux-bound manuscript or document that you want to look as good on the outside as the contents are on the inside, and trade in those sneakers for a nice shiny pair of Oxfords.

This is a book that can never make up its mind what to wear. And that's the beauty of it. It has so many options. The cover is designed to come off instantly, so you can have multiple covers of different colours or designs. Or leave the cover off altogether and admire the exposed, hand sewn binding. Hardly any other book design can be used with as much pleasure for so many purposes. This European design dates back to the 1800's, introduces you to several important bookbinding techniques, and produces a particularly beautiful book that also (and importantly), lays flat. Perfect for journals, sketchpads, notebooks, or for gifts.
Techniques learned: Basic bookbinding skills, measuring, cutting, assembling, tool use, dividing off the spine, and sewing procedures.

Wouldn' you like to teach your children how to make a book? Kate has made books with thousands of elementary school children and has given talks at many teachers' conferences and libraries. This course is primarily aimed at parents (and grandparents, too!), teachers and librarians, but it's also fun for anyone who wants to learn some quick and easy book structures.From star books and pop-ups to medieval pocket books, Kate looks at the book as vehicle for children's writing and drawings, or to illustrate aspects of grammar, math, history etc. You will go home with a lot of samples and ideas to try out, as well as a list of resources.
Techniques learned: Understanding paper grain, folding, minimal-mess gluing, designing pop-ups, techniques for bookbinding with children.

Don' leave home without it! This could be an even more important thing to take with you than your credit card. Whether that's travelling by car, train, plane, bus, or on foot or just in your imagination, you need a way to preserve your voyage. Irène's idiosyncratic mind has created a model that can be intimately personalized to reflect your own interests and style with collage, drawings, painting and images. Halfway between a diary and a souvenir album, it keeps safe your emotions, pictorial impressions, literature and souvenirs. Whether it's a trip to China, a museum, a Broadway show, or a flight of fancy, never lose a memory with Irène's perfect repository of your experiences.
Techniques learned: Different techniques of personalization; use of mediums such as collage, drawing, watercolor; principles of simple bookmaking and assembly.

Make a book with an entirely clear conscience (environmentally speaking)! Accumulate paper and cardboard from normal use for a two week period before the course with an eye to possible re-use, cut-up or folded up into pages of a regular sized book. Can be from no-good copies from your printer, unwanted promotional flyers, subscription forms, wrapping paper from purchases, (even Au Papier japonais bags) that can be used for inside pages; or magazines, promotional flyers, and catalogues with good graphics for use as visual elements in collage. Elizabeth has developed what she calls a “free-style” form of binding that can be used to wrestle these disparate materials into a book made out of materials that will not only be saved from being hauled off to the dump, but go on to a second life of usefulness

We'
e used to hanging art on walls. But why not hang it in a book instead? This dandy little design earns the right to be called a “Gallery Book” because of its unique ability to display multiple small pieces of art (or photos or text for that matter) on panels that fold out and stand up, beautifully showing the work in framed squares, and that can then be folded once again into a closed book. Aside from its mystifying structure and satisfying kinetic action, it can be scaled up for larger pieces and form the basis for a series of thematic books of related work. Let Sue teach you how to make this entertaining, multi-purpose book and become the curator of your own gallery.