Week One: we will begin by making laminated boards, made from millboard, card and handmade paper. These special boards are commonly used for the covers of high quality work. The materials for the binding will be selected from a wide choice of colored goatskin, suede and paper. We will create a planning board for all aspects of the design and technical steps. We’ll sew the book onto tapes, add the endpaper folds, trim the edges and color them with acrylic. Then comes the rounding and backing of the book, after which silk headbands are sewn on. Towards the end of the week the boards will be cushioned and sanded and laced onto the binding.

Week Two: begins with lining the laminated boards on the book, and adding the spine linings, which are then sanded smooth before the spine hollow is attached. Then it is time to put away the book and focus on the design. This will lead in turn to practicing many aspects of leather decoration, from back-pared onlays, feathered onlays, sanded leather, overlapping leather and more. This process will allow you to become familiar with the choices involved in creative leather work as you plan your design. During this week you will be encouraged to start the design itself, and decide which of the decorating techniques are going to be used on your finished cover.

Week Three: design execution and covering. This is where you get to finalize your design choices and start preparing the onlays, inlays, gold lines, etc., before the covering leather is pared. When everything is in place the leather will be pared and the book covered. Then comes the trimming out, filling in with card, more linings, lots of sanding, and the leather joints, suede flyleaves and leather doublures. Gold tooling may be started during this week…

Week Four: continuation and completion of gold tooling, both on the cover and the doublures. Plenty of time will be allotted to this stage, ensuring that you are relaxed and thoughtful as you slowly execute your final flourish to your designed binding. The rest of the week will be devoted to the boxmaking, three in all. We begin with the suede-lined clamshell, a handsome and robust box which has double walls for strength and buckram and suede for looks. The box will be titled and further decorated as befits a luxury binding. And because the box is now part of the design, a further protective slipcase will be made to house the clamshell which houses the book. And finally… a conservation acid-free corrugated cardboard wrapped box protects the whole thing for when the binding needs to be shipped off to that special show or competition.