Everyone is familiar with — and awed by — the gilded edge. But gilding takes many years of practice to master. However, book edges have been decorated by other methods for centuries, and these styles of edge treatments are, by contrast, extremely easy to learn. In fact, you can become proficient at all of them straight away!

Starting with the easiest technique, the splattered edge — also known as the newspaper edge — was used for centuries to decorate large bound-up volumes of newspapers and magazines. Next comes the solid red edge found on bibles, almanacs and journals, followed by the sprinkled edge common on less expensive books from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Students will next produce the more complex colored, sprinkled and waxed edge found on nineteenth-century leather bindings, and proceed to the classic German-style graphite edge, which gives a luxurious black sheen. Class will finish with the painted edge, used on design bindings, which allows for a more artistic interpretation of the overall book design.  

Materials to Bring: Plenty of plastic pots for mixing paint, 3 small kitchen plates, various sized artists’ brushes, cobbler’s knife, 4 new shoe brushes, old toothbrush. In addition students will be asked to bring plenty of paperback books to work on.

Workshop Fee (includes $20 materials fee): $320.00

Date & Time: Saturday & Sunday, August 4 & 5, 2018 :: 9:30am-5:30pm

Location: 375 Rhode Island St, San Francisco, CA 94103

Note: Please read over the SFCB Registration Policies before signing up for a class

REGISTRATION WILL CLOSE 3 DAYS PRIOR TO THE START DATE OF THIS WORKSHOP.

About the Instructor | Dominic Riley

Dominic Riley Is an internationally renowned bookbinder, artist, lecturer and teacher. He has his bindery in the Lake District, from where he travels across the UK teaching and lecturing. He spends part of the year teaching in San Francisco and across the USA. His work is mostly restoration and Design Binding, for which he has won many prizes in the Designer Bookbinders competition. He was elected Fellow of DB in 2008. His bindings are in collections worldwide, including the British Library, the Grolier Club in New York and the San Francisco Public Library. In 2013 he won first prize, the Sir Paul Getty Award, in the International Bookbinding Competition. Dominic is President of the Society of Bookbinders.

Past Student Reviews:

"Always an enjoyable learning experience!"

"Phenomenal teacher and very, very kind!"

“Dominic is a masterful teacher. Very good with ALL students.”

“Loved the class. Loved his humor. Loved his skills & knowledge.”