Alchemy is more than just turning lead into gold. Trace the history of the process, learn about its applications and identify ways that you can use alchemical influences in your own art in this 4-hour workshop.

If you've been looking for a book with a nearly indestructible cover, or just a unique binding, this is your answer! Straight out of a 1970s Italian phone booth, this 360-degree flexible binding offers many advantages because it bends and does not break.

Need a bit of storage in book form? Created by Hedi Kyle, the blizzard book is useful for holding coupons, recipes, business cards and many other small treasures.

The San Francisco Center for the Book celebrates the craft and art of bookbinding. Our Bookbinding Core Certificate Program introduces students to four different binding models, leading them through the history and evolution of bookmaking. It provides students a comprehensive foundation to delve into the practice of binding and qualifies them work in our bindery.

In this second Core Bookbinding class, students will create what most of us refer to as a hardbound book. In bookbinding terms, it is known as a case binding; where a sewn textblock is glued into a separate structure known as a case.

The final class in our Core Bookbinding series uses skills learned in each previous class to create a beautiful and classic rounded back cloth binding.

Protect prints and books in elegant clamshell presentation boxes. Day 1: Students will construct a full cloth clamshell box from a provided template. Day 2: Students will design and construct a custom clamshell to their own specifications and using their own materials if they choose.

Discover the possibilities of brush lettering. By learning some of the fundamental techniques and principles of letter formation, sign writing, and calligraphy, students will learn how to create their very own letter designs using watercolor and gouache painting methods.

Drawn to lettering and design? In this workshop you will pattern with punctuation, boil letters down to the bare essentials and get to know the full range of potential of dots and lines so that these marks contribute to your message and are never left to chance.

Looking for a new way to express yourself? Why not take your words, cut them out, and fold them up? Learn basic paper cutting and folding techniques in this evening workshop.

Dig in to the tradition and history of letterpress printing and get your hands dirty. Learn about the process and practice of setting type, mixing inks and pulling impressions. In this class you will learn how to print your own cards!

The four class Cylinder Core Certificate Program allows students to move quickly through the press basics while also addressing relief printing in general. After this class students are qualified to rent press time as well as move on to more advanced classes and techniques.

Build your letterpress skills: learn advanced justification, typesetting, and composition. Put it all together to print a broadside of your own design.

Design and aesthetic. Increase your letterpress versatility: learn to set up the press, refine you registration skills, and run an edition. Learn more about packing, roller height, and make-ready. Come ready to run an edition of your own small poster!

Bring digital back into analog in this final core course and learn to print from photopolymer plates. Apply your letterpress skills to artwork created digitally to make fantastic plates for printing. Walk away with a stack of stationery printed from polymer plates.

If you’ve been seeking an interesting and elegant way to house your book and paper structures or you’re just looking for a beautiful, non-traditional box for storing things, this workshop is your answer. Spend a day learning to construct a charming and functional hatch-top box with a bottom drawer.

The traditional method of binding books in Ethiopia survived relatively unchanged for over a thousand years. Learn this binding style and leave with a versatile book that lies flat when opened.

Explore the ethereal nature of parchment in this advanced bookbinding class.

In this 2-day workshop, learn a variety of inlay and onlay techniques for use on leather bindings. Techniques demonstrated will include: backpared, feathered, flat and sculptural onlays; inlaid and incised lines; raised, flush and recessed inlays.

Do you love the alchemy of printed words and images that mix and grow with the turning of pages? Do the complex layers of meaning that can arise within a book fascinate you? If so, the Artists’ Book is a medium worthy of your exploration. Begin to delve into this rich and expanding format in this one-day class that introduces the history, basic structures, and an overview of the practices used by book artists. Bring your own quotes, short poems, or images and craft a book during the day to get a taste of the joy that is the making of Artists’ Books.

Learn basic bookbinding structures and stitches that every book artist should know in this three-hour workshop. If you’ve ever been curious about how to make a book, Introduction to Bookbinding is the place to start. One workshop, five booklets!

Learn basic bookbinding structures and stitches that every book artist should know in this three-hour workshop. If you’ve ever been curious about how to make a book, Introduction to Bookbinding is the place to start. One workshop, five booklets!

Learn basic bookbinding structures and stitches that every book artist should know in this three-hour workshop. If you’ve ever been curious about how to make a book, Introduction to Bookbinding is the place to start. One workshop, five booklets!

If you're familiar with "book arts basic concepts" but not quite ready to jump into SFCB's Bookbinding Core series, this is the class for you! In this four hour class, students will build basic bookbinding skills with a focus on sewing multiple signature bindings.

If you're familiar with "book arts basic concepts" but not quite ready to jump into SFCB's Bookbinding Core series, this is the class for you! In this four hour class, students will build basic bookbinding skills with a focus on sewing multiple signature bindings.

Step up your mixed media techniques and new layers of content to your collage and book arts projects with this introductory course to image transfers. Students will learn a variety of transfer techniques and leave with samples to take home and incorporate into their own art processes.

From fibers to formed sheets, students in this workshop will learn to make thin yet strong paper in the Japanese tradition.

This class introduces the process, the materials, the machines, and the satisfaction of printing by hand on a Cylinder proof press.

This class introduces the process, the materials, the machines, and the satisfaction of printing by hand on a Cylinder proof press.

This class introduces the process, the materials, the machines, and the satisfaction of printing by hand on a Cylinder proof press.

This 4-hour version of our popular Introduction to Letterpress class introduces the process, the materials, the machines, and the satisfaction of printing by hand on a Cylinder proof press with more hands-on time for students to work with typesetting and printing. Come play with us!

For any student interested in using handmade paper to create sculptural forms with armatures, this is a class for you!  Students will learn building methods for armatures and ways to wrap and dip their armatures in handmade paper prepared in a way that is called "high shrinkage".

Gather your drawings and get ready to transfer your imagery into scratchboard illustration. Learn the basics of this accessible direct engraving technique in this one-day workshop.

Learn the ins-and-outs of the Risograph, a marriage of silkscreen meeting photocopier. In this class you’ll create and edition print a 2-4 color poster.

Learn the ins-and-outs of the Risograph, a marriage of silkscreen meeting photocopier. In this class you’ll create and edition print a 2-4 color poster.

In this introductory class, student will gain a basic understanding of the history, techniques, tools, and styles of European marbling.

Get comfortable with handling the broad edged pen and start making some beautiful Italic letters! Open the doors to a new world of writing possibilities in this two-day workshop that offers an excellent introduction to the structure and fluid rhythm of Italic letterform.

Imagine networking with handmade letterpress business cards! Take this beginning-level class and walk away with letterpress skills and a handful of attractive business cards.

Learn the basics of letterpress printing and analog design as you create and bind simple notebooks to gift or save.

In this technical workshop, we’ll explore the possibilities of letterpress as a means for producing successful four-color continuous tone imagery.

Evening Open Studio is an opportunity, for those who qualify to work on their own projects with an experienced instructor on hand.

Evening Open Studio is an opportunity, for those who qualify to work on their own projects with an experienced instructor on hand.

Weekend Open Studio is an opportunity, for those who qualify to work on their own projects with an experienced instructor on hand.

Evening Open Studio is an opportunity, for those who qualify to work on their own projects with an experienced instructor on hand.

Evening Open Studio is an opportunity, for those who qualify to work on their own projects with an experienced instructor on hand.

Evening Open Studio is an opportunity, for those who qualify to work on their own projects with an experienced instructor on hand.

Have you been dreaming of honing your marbling skills but are unsure of doing it on your own? This workshop will allow you to do just that! Guided by Italian marbler Pietro Accardi, students will have a day to practice techniques learned in SFCB’s Introduction to Marbling workshops and leave with a stack of their own marbled paper.

Learn the fundamentals of digital design for letterpress! Students will learn key skills for software applications like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. We will explore best practices for handling photographic and vector images as well as setting digital type for photopolymer plate production.

Discover how to combine the simple structure of an accordion book with the playful elements of pop-ups and collage. Here's the opportunity to combine content and form to communicate your unique vision.

Learn the alternative printing technique of pressure printing on the cylinder proof press. Students will create one of a kind designs from a variety of handmade plates.

Explore the complexities of this challenging area of book restoration.

After completing the Introduction to the Risograph Class, you can now work on your own Risograph project. Consider a poster or series of postcards, pamphlet zine or single-page structure.

Fill your empty books in 2 evenings of sketchbook play! Explore color through various mixing techniques, add imagery with simple image transfers, combine texture and text using collage, and work with prompts for creating imagery and writing.

This class will present a brief history of Surrealism and discuss the principles and techniques of the Surrealist methods as a “way of working” that can “crossover” and be applied to your own arts projects. Each participant will create a collage/assemblage using the principles and practices of Surrealism identified in the class.

The Ideal Sketchbook is modeled on the those used by Wordsworth and Ruskin as they wandered the Lake District to draw and write. Strong, elegant, and pleasing to use, it was the 'daybook' of choice for all the great Romantic poets and artists.

Make a lovely, layered, 3-dimensional book in this course. Learn another use for the accordion fold, and create an in-depth scene using postcards and photographs.

Print illustrations like it's 1789! Learn to engrave a wood block in the classical style from the 1780’s.