Instructors

  • Pietro Accardi

    Pietro Accardi is native to the Italian city of Turin, where he established “La Legatoria del Sole,” a modern bookbindery steeped in the ancient traditions of paper marbling, restoration and bookbinding. After lengthy service to Turin’s Municipal Archives, Main Public Library, and University Libraries he is now enjoying his second life as a well-loved book arts teacher at the Center for the Book in San Francisco as well as teaching workshops throughout the West.  His teaching style is generous and kind with an endearing Italian accent.

  • Meri Brin

    Meri Brin was born in Chicago, Illinois and moved to the Bay Area in 1994. She received her BFA in Printmaking from Academy of Art University, and has taught for them since 2006. She has shown locally and nationally, including a solo show at Oaklandish. Group shows have included Junk Mail at The Soap Gallery, and the Print Zero Exchange in Seattle, Washington. Her prints are in private collections, as well as the Library of Congress. She has contributed artwork to Good Mail Day (Quarry Press) and Stoner Coffee Table Book (Chronicle Books). Brin is a member of Southern Graphics, and is on the publications committee with the California Society of Printmakers.

  • Michael Burke

    Michael Burke studied bookbinding with Dominic Riley and paper conservation with Karen Zukor. He lives in the Lake District, where he teaches bookbinding. In recent years he has taught and lectured at Society of Bookbinders conferences and seminars, and at Guild of Bookworkers meetings in the USA, as well as teaching tours in Australia, New Zealand and Brazil. Each year he teaches summer school at the San Francisco Center for the Book and across the USA. Michael researches the structures of ancient and medieval bindings, and has a Masters degree in the History of the Book from the University of London.

  • Elaine Chu

    Elaine G. Chu has taught students of all ages throughout the Bay Area. Her work has been featured in “Greencraft” and “Somerset Studio Gallery” magazines and “1000 Artists’ Books.” She co-authored “Wood Paper Scissors,” a how-to crafts book. Elaine received a B.F.A. in graphic design from University of the Arts and B.A. in music from Yale University. A selection of her art can be viewed at EGChuHancrafted.etsy.com and on Instagram: @egchu1

  • Juliayn Coleman

    Juliayn Coleman has been a professional bookbinder since her graduation from the North Bennet Street School bookbinding program in 2003. Her private practice encompasses all levels of book repair and conservation, custom portfolio and enclosure making, teaching, and being a good ambassador for the craft of bookbinding in general. Some of her creative and professional projects can be seen at  www.bookislandbindery.com.

  • Rea de Guzman

    Rea (pron. RAY-uh) Lynn de Guzman is a San Francisco-based interdisciplinary artist working in painting, print media, and sculpture. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She has exhibited work in the US, and internationally in Australia, India, and the Philippines. She was Kearny Street Workshop’s APAture Visual Arts Featured Artist in 2017. In 2019, she curated "Wander Woman," a group show series featuring Bay Area-based, immigrant, women artists of color. She has been featured in the Asian Journal MagazineHella PinayKQED Arts, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications.

    She teaches art at the de Young Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, City College of San Francisco Extension, San Francisco Center for the Book, and Root Division, where she served as the organization’s first Filipina Teaching Artist Fellow in 2017.

  • Brian Ferrett

    Brian has a printing degree from MATC and worked in offset web and screen printing. In 2008 he joined M&H Type as a typecasting apprentice under Lewis Mitchell. These days he co-manages M&H's daily operations, maintains the historic casting machines and presses, casts type and prints for the various Arion Press publications. Brian is a member of the Northern California chapter of the American Printing History Association, the American Typecaster Fellowship, and volunteers with San Francisco Public Library's annual Valentine’s Day broadside event. In his spare time he plays around with his Vandercook 219AB, C&P New Style 10x15, and his two Kelseys.

  • Paula Gloistein

    Paula Gloistein has an MA in Humanities from Dominican College which really has very little to do with her work as a photographer, designer, and letterpress printer. After more than ten years in the wedding biz, she recently opened a small shop, big day design lounge, that showcases handmade wedding accessories, custom invitations, and workshops for crafty couples.

  • Madison Gordon

    Madison is a bookbinder living in Oakland, CA, currently working at the Key Printing & Binding and Zukor Art Conservation. She is fascinated by paper, and loves making and repairing practical, fun, accessible, and well-made structures for the use and enjoyment of the everyday people. Madison is also trained in letterpress printing and has worked previously with Small Editions in Brooklyn, NY.

  • Alan Hillesheim

    Alan Hillesheim has been wrenching around printing presses for 35 years. Printing presses need to be moved, oiled, inked, cleaned, and maintained, in short they need attention like a six year old. Maintenance is a dirty business, but a necessary one for beautifully printed anything. Alan has a passion for the mechanics of the print studio and enjoys encouraging others to roll up their sleeves and grab a wrench. His 35 years in the letterpress business and “all-ten-fingers” count speak for themselves. Join him and wear old clothes.
    Oh, and once the press is in fine order, Alan has a few secrets to divulge about perfect inking and stellar printing.

  • Billy Ola Hutchinson

    Billy's passion for lettering began in pre-school with the assistance of Mommy Billie.  Billy and Billie spent hours shaping letter forms day in and day out. Later in life, Little Billy parlayed that lettering passion into a calligraphic profession, creating a petit line of stationery, penning custom lettering for clients, designing a line of porcelain for San Francisco's luxury speciality store, Gump’s and of course as an instructor at SFCB—taking students through those first step Little Billy took with Big Billie.  Start your new journey with Little Billy at SFCB.

  • Li Jiang

    Li Jiang is a Berkeley-based letterpress printer, graphic designer, bookbinder and print maker. After receiving a Bachelors Degree in Graphic Design she found her way to letterpress printing and continues to gain as much arcane knowledge as possible about the craft from Bay Area printing masters. She regularly prints with a variety of presses such as platen presses, various cylinder presses and 19th Century iron hand-presses. With 15+ years of letterpress printing experience, Li looks for new ways to break the rules.

  • Chad Johnson

    Chad Johnson (he/him) is an artist, printer, bookbinder, and teacher who has been living in the Bay Area for the past two decades. After earning an MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, he has worked in conservation labs, letterpress shops, and libraries. He has experience conserving historic books, analyzing collections of rare books, working with artists and authors, printing professionally on many different letterpress machines, and teaching and sharing his love of books and printing. As SFCB's Studio Director | Resident Instructor, he brings knowledge and experience fueled by passion and enthusiasm for the art and craft of making books by hand. From digital typesetting to steamroller printing to fixing presses to talking about letterpress history, Chad is always happy to help students and artists learn to express themselves through the powerful medium of the handmade book.

  • Stephanie Jucker

    Stephanie Jucker is an exhibiting artist who uses mixed media and printing techniques in her paintings, books and art installations. Originally from London, where she earned her BFA, Stephanie has an MFA from Syracuse in painting printmaking and ceramics. With 25 years of teaching experience, she currently runs art classes at College of Marin, University of Pittsburgh Art Gallery, and Art Works Downtown in San Rafael.

  • Kate Laster

    Kate Laster is an interdisciplinary printmaker. Born in Anchorage and raised all over Alaska from Utqiagvik to Juneau, a sense of place is tethered to her practice. She received a Bachelor of Arts at Evergreen State College in 2015 and in 2019 a MA+MFA in History & Theory of Contemporary Art and Studio Art with an emphasis in Printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute. 
    Collaboration is an essential heartbeat to Laster’s practice. She has worked with Woosh Kinaadeiyí, the SF Poster Syndicate, Palace of Trash, Resolana & with her collaborator, Steph Kudisch as Hevra Kadisha. She has shown work in California, Washington, New Mexico, Vermont, Alaska and Pennsylvania as well as internationally in Berlin and Osaka. Laster has recently been an A.I.R. at the Vermont Studio Center, In Cahoots (as part of Hevra Kadisha) & at the Open Windows Cooperative. 
     

  • Brian Lieske

    Brian wandered into SFCB several years ago and continues to haunt the place. He completed both the bookbinding and letterpress cores as well as several of the summer historic structure classes. He enjoys making fully hand-sewn books and still fights to not over-tighten his kettle stitches. He’s lived in San Francisco for more than 20 years having arrived shortly after completing an MFA at the University of Texas at Austin.

  • Grendl Löfkvist

    Grendl Löfkvist, Education Director at Letterform Archive, teaches type history and theory in the year-long postgraduate Type West program in type design. Grendl also teaches the history of graphic design, book arts, calligraphy, and letterpress printing at City College of San Francisco, as well as several classes here at the San Francisco Center for the Book. 

    Grendl has ink in her veins: Löfkvist was a press operator for 13 years at Inkworks Press in Berkeley, a collectively owned, politically progressive offset printing company that recently closed its doors. She does letterpress and printmaking work under the imprints of Red Star Agitprop and Cloven Hoof Press, and she is currently on the Board of Directors of the American Printing History Association. 

    Her interests include the study of printing as a subversive “Black Art,” and she is always on the lookout for bizarre, unusual, or macabre print and type lore.

  • Leigh Mclellan

    Leigh McLellan typeset, letterpress printed, and hand bound letterpress books and broadsides from 1974 to 1990 under her imprint, Meadow Press. She has been an instructor at the San Francisco Center for the Book since 2002. She has also taught letterpress printing, bookbinding, and decorated papers at Mills College and the California College of Arts and Crafts, as well as workshops at the San Francisco Public Library, Stanford University, Pyramid Atlantic in Washington, DC, the Women's Graphic Center in Los Angeles, and the University of Iowa. Her work is in many library collections across the country, including the San Francisco Public Library, the University of San Francisco, Mills College, The University of California Bancroft Library, the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, and the Bodleian Library in Oxford, England, among many others. Her work has been exhibited widely. In a related field, she has been an independent commercial book and graphic designer since 1976, working mostly for publishers in the Bay Area. In both pursuits, she has won many design awards. See Leigh's Meadow Press work at http://meadowpressbooks.com and her commercial design work at http://www.leighmcdesign.com.

  • Rik Olson

    Born in Antioch, California in 1944, Rik received his B.F.A. from the California College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland, California in 1967. He has studied and exhibited work in Florence, Italy; Germany and the U.S.  Best known for his work in wood engraving, which he learned from Barry Moser and John DePol, he also works in scratchboard, pen & ink, and etching. The last 20 years he has been freelancing his Illustration work in the U.S. and abroad to corporate and publishing clients. 

  • Bettina Pauly

    Bettina is living in San Francisco as a book artist and working as a letterpress printer with Kim Vanderheiden at Painted Tongue Studios, Oakland, California. She teaches workshops at the San Francisco Center for the Book, the Academy of Art University and O’Hanlon Center for the Arts. She loves books and boxes both as physical objects and as containers of meaning. She is interested in a variety of folded, sewn and woven structures in which she can incorporate her printing.

    Read a short interview with Bettina here.

  • Lisa Rappoport

    Lisa Rappoport publishes poetry broadsides and artists' books under the imprint Littoral Press. Since 1998 she has produced a series of broadsides by the poets who teach at the Community of Writers; she has also printed poetry broadsides for Lawrence Ferlinghetti and City Lights Books, the Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival, the Northern California Book Awards, and many others (last but not least, the Poets Pulling Prints series of the SFCB). Her poetry has appeared in Nostos, Five Fingers Review, Literal Latte, and elsewhere. She is the winner of the 1998 Icarus Poetry Competition and the recipient of a poetry residency at Centrum. Her poetry collection Penumbra was published by Longship Press in 2019. Her book The Short Goodbye received the Alastair Johnston Fine Press Award and was a runner-up in the Carl Hertzog Award for Excellence in Book Design. Lisa has taught at the New College in San Francisco, at a middle school in Lafayette, and in her own studio. Her work has been displayed nationally and is in collections throughout the U.S. You can visit her website at http://littoralpress.com

  • Hanna Rashidi

    Hanna is a bookbinder and writer living in Burlingame. She has experience in papermaking, bookbinding, and printmaking from her studies at Brown University, and has exhibited work at the RISD Art Book Fair. She is drawn to the tactility of books, as well their ability to partner with text to bring life into the stories kept between pages. Most of all she is passionate about the craft of bookbinding and its respect for the materials it engages.

  • Beth Redmond

    Beth was first introduced to making books in the photography program at San Jose State. She loves binding books for their perfect marriage of functionality and creativity.  After learning the basics of a well-made book at SFCB she went on to study fine binding at the American Academy of Bookbinding in Telluride CO. She works primarily with leather to create bindings for public and private collections. Her work can be seen at https://bredmond.weebly.com.

  • Taun Relihan

    Taun Relihan is a conceptual and book artist, poet, novelist, photographer, and playwright. She has a doctorate in Integral Studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies with a dissertation on renewal by vision. She also has a Masters Degree in Arts and Consciousness from John F. Kennedy University. She is fascinated by the role of wonder, vision, mystery and renewal in the creative process and in the completed art work.

  • Dominic Riley

    Dominic Riley is an internationally renowned bookbinder, artist, lecturer and teacher. He has his bindery in England, 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.

    He has taught masterclasses in the USA, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, at the Centro del Bel Libro in Switzerland, the Czech Republic, and Canada.

  • Gino Robair

    As a composer and visual artist, Gino Robair uses handmade paper and letterpress printing to create unique musical scores. He has an MA and MFA from Mills College and is currently working towards a PhD in Performance Studies at the University of California, Davis, developing performative models for improvised papermaking.

  • Solange Roberdeau

    Solange Roberdeau is a visual artist and freelance art educator and she works primarily in paper, sumi ink and with contemporary gilding in her own studio practice. Solange received a BFA in Printmaking from RISD in 2005 and an MFA in Studio Art from MICA in 2012. She teaches private classes as well as has taught workshops in contemporary gilding at institutions including locally at Kala Art Institute, Berkeley; nationally at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore and internationally at Cairo American College, Egypt. More information about Solange can be found on her website:

    www.solange-roberdeau.com

  • Trina Robinson

    Trina Michelle Robinson explores the relationship between memory and migration through film, installations, print media and archival materials. Her work has been shown at galleries and film festivals throughout the country including including the BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia, Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), a Smithsonian affiliate, the San Francisco Art Commission Main Gallery, Minnesota Street Project and Southern Exposure in San Francisco, New York’s Wassaic Project, and the Museum of Contemporary Art - Arlington. As a storyteller, she has told the story of exploring her ancestry with The Moth Mainstage on stages throughout the country including New York’s Lincoln Center and NPR’s Moth Radio Hour. She previously worked in print and digital media in production at publications and companies such as The New York Times T Magazine, Vanity Fair, California Sunday Magazine, and Slack and received her M.F.A. from California College of the Arts in 2022 where she was also awarded the 2020 Yozo Hamaguchi Award. She recently had a solo exhibition at MoAD, as part of their Emerging Artist Program 2022-23. 

  • Steph Rue

    Steph Rue is an artist working primarily with handmade paper and books as her medium. She is a 2015-2016 recipient of a Fulbright Arts Research Grant to South Korea, where she studied traditional Korean bookbinding, papermaking, and printing. She has a BA from Stanford University and an MFA from the University of Iowa Center for the Book. Her artist books and paper works have been exhibited both nationally and internationally. You can see Steph’s work on her website (www.stephrue.com).

  • Thea Sizemore

    Thea Sizemore has been a practicing artist for over 15 years focusing primarily on printmaking, bookarts, and illustration. As an east coast native, she has studied at the Cleveland Institute of Art and the California College of the Arts (where she received a BFA in printmaking with emphasis on bookarts). Her personal work tends to revolve around mixed media hand-bound book forms. Thea is also the founder and printer of Kavamore Press, a custom letterpress and design studio in West Oakland. In addition to private clients, Thea works with various SF Bay Area artists to create ephemera for projects. Recent projects include a Futurefarmers book produced for the Guggenheim and a collaboration with artist Libby Black for the SFMOMA. To read more visit http://www.kavamorepress.com/.

  • Clair Emma Smith

    Clair Emma Smith is a bookbinder specializing in repair located in Oakland, California. She found her love of bookbinding during an art conservation internship at a historical society in Indiana, and she has been setting up her dream home studio ever since. Clair Emma relocated to the Bay Area after graduating from North Bennet Street School's bookbinding program in 2019 and works in private practice for both herself and other conservators as Bouguereau Bindery

  • Sarah Songer

    Nearsighted from childhood, Sarah (she/her) learned to read at a young age because she couldn’t see anything twelve inches past her nose. Her love of books continued even after she got her first pair of glasses, and she earned a BA in Comparative Literature from UCLA.

    She is the daughter of a printer and a graphic artist; in rebellion, she became a bookbinder. She spent ten years at Arion Press and trained many apprentices in edition binding. She is a longtime student of design bookbinder Eleanore Ramsey and was the proprietor of Bay Area Book Repair for several years. Sarah enjoys sharing the many bookbinding tips and efficiencies she's learned over the years, and finds her own personal projects most satisfying if they make her laugh.
     

  • Tim Svenonius

    Tim Svenonius is a mixed-media artist whose work explores the intersections of history, memory and myth. A voracious reader and an avid researcher, his work is shaped by deep investigations into arcane knowledge and lore. He has worked for two decades in the museum field, as a designer, writer, and producer of digital media. In 2015 he self-published a monograph, A Book of Lost Latitudes, which explores the role of the whale in mythology and literature, through evocative drawings and found texts.

  • Nikki Thompson

    Nikki Thompson is a book artist (aka Deconstructed Artichoke Press) and poet. With an MFA from the California College of the Arts, her art explores architecture, feminism, and the politics of work through the mixed media of bookmaking, printmaking, and photography. Her work has been awarded First Prize at Gallerie Renee Marie and a Purchase Prize at 23 Sandy Gallery. She has also been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and received the College Book Arts Association Project Assistance Grant. She currently resides in Sacramento, California, with her husband and daughter. Her work can be seen at deconstructedartichokepress.com.

  • Patricia Wakida

    My media of choice are linoleum blocks, wood and metal type, and hundred year old letterpresses.

    Most of my life has been dedicated to narratives: first as a reader and thinker; then as a Japanese papermaker, apprentice bookbinder, letterpress printer, and now a linoleum block carver. I am an active supporter and participant in California’s thriving literary and artistic worlds, having either organized, volunteered, or participated in exhibitions, panel discussions, and workshops that promote and nurture the creation and flourishing of artistic and literary expression.

  • Dorothy Yuki

    Dorothy studied to be something other than an artist. She began as a fashion designer immediately after college but soon she became a partner of a manufacturing company, In Good Company, in 1965. She designed and manufactured kitchen soft goods and linens. Based in San Francisco, it became international and William-Sonoma was one of the main clients. In 1974 she received an award for Women in Business by Wells Fargo, Asian Inc. and NOW for her leadership as a woman of a successful company, In Good Company. The company was sold in 1976 and she became a Consultant to the Fashion Industry by request of the then President, Leonard Joseph. As a production and design consultant, she worked with many identity and music production companies, as well as new startups. While living in Tequisquiapan, she became involved with the Sierra Gorda Ecological Group and taught to help small communities to become self-sustaining. Now in her 80s and living in San Francisco, she is engaged in many volunteer activities, Ruth’s Table, Artseed, SCRAP-SF, San Francisco Center for the Book, and FabMo. She also mentored at Bay High School in their Senior Program. She was past President of Friends of Calligraphy and has been a Master Educator for the Macy’s Fashion Incubator San Francisco. She still has the time to do ‘art’ and has worked on projects for MMOCA, Flax Art and Design, Kalligraphia, Ruth’s Table, FabMo and SCRAP-SF. She is a recipient of Honorable Mentions for her artwork at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art Altered Book Show 2014 and 2015. She is also busy helping her two daughters care for her four grandchildren. To find out more about Dorothy's work, visit her blog www.dotsrainbow.com.

  • Nina Zeininger

    Nina Eve Zeininger is only truly happy when making art and helping others to be creative. Born and raised in New England, Nina Eve now lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. While earning a BFA in Photography from the San Francisco Art Institute, Nina Eve took as many book and printmaking classes as possible and has been taking pictures, making books, and printing ever since. Nina Eve’s work has been shown nationally and Nina Eve can be found at local craft fairs selling printed and bookish wares under the guise of neon sprinkles studio. A lover of words, books, letters, and grammar; their work is infused with nature, bright colors, fun, and sarcasm. Day-to-day Nina Eve spends their time teaching letterpress and book arts, making art, working in non-profit arts education, crafting yummy food and tasty cocktails, reading, and playing fetch with their cats. 

    You can view Nina Eve's work at ninaevezeininger.com and follow along in real time on Instagram (@ninaevezeininger).