Workshop Fee (includes materials fee): $350
Scholarship available; click here to apply.

This is an in-person workshop. As of January 2023, masks are encouraged but not required unless otherwise indicated. 

The Presentation Album was developed as an answer to a question: how to create a simple album which can house photographs in an elegant embossed page without swelling the book. A great class for beginning binders, this album can be made on the kitchen table with a few tools. 

The album is very handsome, with pages made from a good quality card. Each page has an impressed panel to house the photographs, made using an ingenious technique which is far simpler than you could imagine. The finished panels resemble the impression of an etching plate. The pages are hinged together on the inside with thick paper strips, and a small amount of PVA is all that’s needed to hold it all together — no need for sewing. The album has cloth joints for strength and an attractive cloth cover, and like the Sketchbook, opens beautifully flat.

If time allows, students will tool their finished binding with creative lines and circles, using traditional finishing tools and both carbon and colourful metallic foils.

As an added bonus, you can eliminate one of the steps and create a concertina instead, ideal for creating an album suitable for display.

Beginning bookbinders are welcome. 

>> Prerequisite: None <<

Materials to Bring: None. All tools and materials will be provided.

Date & Time: Saturday & Sunday, August 19 & 20, 2023 :: 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 three days prior to the start date of the workshop to allow the instructor time to prep materials for class. 
 

About the Instructor | Michael Burke (he/him)

Michael Burke studied bookbinding with Dominic Riley and paper conservation with Karen Zukor. Michael lives in England, where he teaches bookbinding as well at events across the UK. He is a past chair of the North West and North Wales region of SoB. He has taught for diverse book arts groups in the USA, including Los Angeles, Seattle and Salt Lake City. In recent years he has taught at the Paper and Book Intensive, travelled to São Paulo to teach for the Brazilian group ABER, and in 2011 presented Byzantine binding at the Seminar of the Guild of Bookworkers. Michael researches the structures of ancient and medieval bindings and received his Masters degree in the History of the Book from the University of London in 2011.

Michael and Dominic are co-founders of Book Camp, an immersive residential bookbinding experience which aims to teach new generations of binders.

Past Student Reviews:

"Michael is a patient and thorough teacher. He knows his stuff. He's funny and personable. And, in the process of showing us this structure (which he and Dominic created!) he passed on all sorts of general binding "best practices" and hints that I'm excited to have.”

“Friendly, knowledgeable, wonderful teaching style and great sense of humor.”

“Michael was a very good teacher and my completed project that I was totally happy with was the proof.”