Shakespeare, Chaucer, and all the cool kids wrote in Secretary Hand! In this one-day workshop we will work on deciphering the quirks of this broad-edge pen script popular in Britain and Germany from the early 16th – 17th c. and look at modern uses from graphics for book art, to designs for cool tee shirts and tattoos.

Find out how to create a unique art book using textiles, stitching, inks and collage. We start by adhering a patchwork of fabrics onto freezer paper. When dried the resulting strip of material peels off the freezer paper and is ready to be folded into an accordion.

Enhance your collage skills and add a new twist to your finished pieces with beeswax. Working with various papers, imagery, and melted wax students will leave class with finished artworks ready to hang.

Looking to put your marbled papers to use? Learn to make three different projects from marbled paper in this daylong workshop.

This workshop explores the botanical contact printing process (eco-printing) to create images on paper with fresh and pressed plant materials. After creating an array of eco-printed papers students will put them to use as they learn four non-adhesive book structures.

While bookbinding and book repair share many skills and techniques, they are also distinct pursuits. This course is intended to introduce the student familiar with bookbinding to key practices within basic book repair.

While bookbinding and book repair share many skills and techniques, they are also distinct pursuits. This course is intended to introduce the student familiar with bookbinding to key practices within basic book repair.

To paraphrase Lewis Carroll, we begin at the beginning. This, the first of our Core Bookbinding series, introduces students to the craft with the Coptic stitch, one of the earliest structures in binding.

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.

In centuries past, books were sometimes sewn onto cords and then laced into soft covers before being bound for a specific collection or library. In this class students will bind a book using these bindings as a model but employing thick paper as the folded and laced wrapper.

Working from pre-cut materials students will learn three simple enclosures: Folded Paper Portfolio, Phased Box, & Slipcase.

Protect prints and books in elegant lift-top presentation boxes. In this class you will design and construct a custom lift-top box to your own specifications.

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.

Featured in the Crown Point Press publication, “The Magical Secrets of Chine Collé”, this workshop will introduce students to a 
contemporary approach to the traditional technique of gilding.

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!

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!

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.

Break out of the clamshell and slip case box for storing your bookish objects. Using binders’ board and marbled paper, learn to construct a decorative box with two drawers as an alternative storage option.

This unique invented structure is sewn over leather straps and combines both the structural and the decorative through the use of unconventional materials. Layers, color, and depth play a key role in the painted board covers, and the sewing supports give a nod to historical bindings with an artistic variation.

Are you longing to take your bookbinding to the next level? Then take this one day, beginner level class on the exquisite longstitch! Not only will you learn the ins and outs of this traditional German, non-adhesive, stitch pattern binding, but you’ll also learn to laminate decorative papers to create sturdy and malleable book covers.

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

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!

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.

Explore the fun and intuitive nature of collage in this introductory, 2-week workshop. We will navigate through this picture-making technique by composing and layering found images and other materials on a blank picture plane surface, with the option to combine painted or drawn marks.

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.

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.

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!

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!

Spend a joyful afternoon learning this centuries old process that produces exciting, intricate designs, and offers endless possibilities for decorating paper. Colorful and fun, this method is easy to learn and the papers created can be used for many purposes.

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.

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.

The accordion book is a versatile structure for artists of all mediums. In this all day workshop, students learn various tips and tricks for creating their own accordion books -- and leave with a variety of samples to inspire future projects.

Our planet's abundance of plants has provided food, shelter, and clothing for humans across cultures, from past to present. This course will focus on how specific natural materials were used in Korea to make lace from bark, rope from paper, color from fruit, and 2D/3D objects from hanji: Korean paper.

If you are interested in learning how and why to bind books with leather, this is the class for you.

Make your own decorative paper and amaze your friends and family! This workshop is a fun introduction to printing on a cylinder proof press, introducing creative techniques such as pressure printing, overlapping print runs, and ghost printing.

'Tis the season to send some cards! Spend an evening getting an introduction to letterpress printing on cylinder presses while creating personalized and original holiday stationery.

This marbling lab takes the art of traditional paper marbling to a new level by introducing metallics to the pigments normally used and experimenting with over-marbling techniques. The shining hues of copper, silver, bronze, gold and pearl will transform a sheet of paper into an iridescent wonder.

Create two charming miniature books, using the cross-structure and long & link-stitch bindings. Beautiful handmade paper will be used for sewing supports and watercolor paper interiors will make for a lovely little sketchbook.

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.

Weekend 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.

Weekend 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.

This introduction to the secondary track in leatherwork for bookbinding helps students cross the frontier of those remote and mysterious tools and techniques commonly used in leather bookbinding today.

Discover how to combine accordion folds, signatures, and a piano hinge spine to create a unique book with a playful hiding place.

After taking Polymer Core 1, learn how to make detailed, high-quality photopolymer plates from digital files and film for letterpress printing.

In this class students will learn how to make a working pop-up for any size card they have in mind. The finished product will be a fun, pop-up card that can be used as a greeting/note card.

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.

Developed by book conservator and book arts educator Gary Frost, the Sewn Boards binding is an elegant solution for “lay flat” books. In this day long workshop, students learn how to construct this particular binding, as well as necessary tips for recreating a Sewn Board structure outside of class.

Create a letterpress printed one page wonder. Single sheet books are made out of one sheet of paper and in this workshop students will design and print an edition of one-page folded books while learning to set type and print on a cylinder press.

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.

Learn the techniques involved in making beautiful inked, graphite, and gilt edges in this workshop.

Make your own meditation scroll, a unique design and process developed by the instructor. There will be a brief history of the scroll and an introduction to focused awareness and stillness in the making of art.

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.

Dip your toes into the Middle Ages with this beginning calligraphy course that features the beautiful Uncial script. Whether you have terrible handwriting or are a seasoned calligrapher, this script is easily learned, versatile, and attractive. Get Medieval!