What a week it was! Thirteen students gathered at the Buescher State Park outside Smithville for long days of focused study on fine binding. Here are some scenes from the week.

Jane Ross (left) and Rose Harms prepare endpapers with leather hinges that match their covering leather.

Karen Hanmer constructs her endpapers using decorative paste papers and leather. Flexi-endpapers were executed for this workshop rather than the traditional “made” endpaper, where the decorative paper is pasted or laminated to a folded sheet of paper matching the text paper of the book.

Priscilla demonstrates sewing the endpaper onto the previously sewn text.

Olivia Primanis (left) helps Liz Hamel trim her book on a vertical plough.

Anna Embree sews a headband using paper flags to help find the center of a section before anchoring the thread. The text is tilted towards her so she can view the headband while seated. When standing, the textblock may be tilted the other direction for better viewing.

Jane uses an electric sander for “cushioning” or shaping her cover boards.

Gale Flax (front) and Jane Elder choose to hand sand their boards. Jane uses a ruler to examine the shape her boards are taking.

Jeff Hunt trims his sewing tapes after lacing on his boards.

Ingrid Karklins sets her boards in position by gluing down the tapes.

Craig Jensen demonstrates paring leather with a spokeshave, while student Sialia Rieke (center) observes and instructor Olivia examines a blade.

Liz Hamel pastes out her leather as Jane Elder guides her through the covering steps. The students teamed up in twos to assist each other during the covering process, which proved to be a valuable learning experience. It also allowed the instructors to circulate and jump in only when needed!

Sherry Barber applies pasted leather to her textblock and begins covering her book English style.

Ed Kopinitz turns the leather inside the cover boards.

Priscilla watches Rollin Polk cover his book with leather.

A day after covering, Jane drops a paper fill between her trimmed leather turn-ins. The fill paper helps to control the board warp by pulling the board back towards the inside after applying the leather with wet paste. The thickness of the paper fill should be flush to the leather turn-ins to prevent the turn-ins from being visible after the decorative paste down (endpaper) has been applied.

Anna examines her leather joint after trimming out and applying her paper fill.

At the start of the week, Houston student Ed Kopinitz presented each instructor with an orchid from his own greenhouse. By week’s end, chef Laura Thoms congratulated students with this cake.

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ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS:

PRISCILLA SPITLER studied printmaking at the California College of Arts & Crafts (BFA 1975) and received a certificate in craft bookbinding with Alfred Brazier and John Mitchell at the London College of Printing (1980-81). She attended a master class in design binding with James Brockman at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin in 1987. Priscilla was edition binder four years at the Press of the Palace of the Governors, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, from 1982-1986; followed by eight years at BookLab, Inc., in Austin, Texas. She established her own Hands On Bookbinding studio in 1995, now located in Smithville, Texas.

OLIVIA PRIMANIS is the Senior Book Conservator at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, in Austin, Texas. She was trained in hand book binding and book conservation through an apprenticeship with Jean Gunner at the Hunt Institute, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA where she also founded The Bookbinder (1976-1984), which offered artists’ supplies and bookbinding services. In 1984 she moved to Los Angeles, CA and continued teaching and conservation bookbinding in a private practice. At the Ransom Center since 1990, she performs conservation treatments, teaches, and specializes in the study and treatment of 19th century photo albums.

CRAIG JENSEN began his career as a library conservator, interning at the Library of Congress, Restoration Office, under Peter Waters, Don Etherington and Tom Albro. He was conservator at Brigham Young University in Utah and at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. In 1988, he founded the Jensen Bindery, which became BookLab, Inc. from 1988 to 1998. He now operates BookLab II in San Marcos TX.

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What is Fine Binding? Or Modern Fine Binding?

The English term of Fine Binding indicates that it is the finest style a bookbinder can offer. More labor intensive, it is always covered in either quarter, half, or full leather. It usually features a special endpaper that is sewn to the text and constructed with a leather joint. The spine is rounded and backed and always has a sewn headband. Most important, this style of binding has boards, usually cushioned (sanded to a fine shape and back cornered), that are laced on before the leather is applied.



The Fine Binding is elegant with a continuous contour from the spine area to the boards (no gutter); and, popularized in the 19th century, it utilizes a hollow tube attached to the text spine for better opening and for protecting gold tooling on the spine. The tight back binding of previous centuries had leather applied directly to the text spine, usually over the raised sewing cords.

The term “modern” was added to fine binding by the mid 20th century to mean that no raised bands were applied to the hollow to mimic the early sewing. The smooth spine lent itself to modern surface design using leather onlays, inlays, and tooling.



Fine Binding is not appropriate for ordinary text blocks. Serious consideration should be put into selecting or creating the text for a fine binding. The text chosen to be bound in this structure should merit the labor and materials spent on executing this method of binding. Usually, the book is finely printed and may feature original prints. It may be a limited edition book. It should be of quality paper, and printed or made with right grain paper. Old books can be taken down from broken bindings, the sections cleaned and mended (if necessary), and prepared for a fine binding. Or, one may choose to create their own text. If so, text pages should be printed, or made, to be folded into a series of sections (or signatures) that can be sewn through the center fold. Thin books can be finely bound but pose unique problems.

Texts created in single sheets are not encouraged and must be carefully hinged for sewing. Too much hinging can create an uncontrollable swell, so very thin Japanese tissue must be used. In this case, it is critical that the text paper is right grain to prevent cockling when the hinges are attached. A marble or paste paper of good weight is recommended for the endpapers. The preferred leather for this binding is a quality goatskin available in a range of colors.