This historic and beautiful 'coptic' binding workshop will be held at the wonderful Sir John Soane's Museum, for more details and booking please click here. 

The session begins with an exclusive visit to the Museum’s Reference Library and Archive where Dr Frances Sands, Curator of Drawings and Books, will show you some different examples of bindings from Sir John Soane’s collection. 

Returning to Art Room, you will complete and stitch a multi-sectioned, adhesive-free book. Your completed book lies flat when open and is popular amongst other things as a journal, travel book or artist sketchbook.

Suitable for beginners.

 Sharp tools are essential to our bookbinding and     during this  three-hour session you will make your own leather handled paring knife from a blank and a strop to take away with you.

Paring knives are an essential tool for using with leather and I will be offering a day learning how to pare leather later in the year.

Richard will teach you to sharpen your own tools using the techniques and holding devices demonstrated during the session.

All materials and equipment will be supplied and you will leave with your own knife and strop.

Stapleford Granary has easy car parking and is within walking distance of Shelford railway station.

Learn to pare leather with Doug Mitchell and then go onto use your thinned leather to make your own quarter bound hard-backed notebook. 

A thrilling achievement in a day and could be a great gift if you can bear to part with your finished book! You will learn through a mixture of demonstration and practice.

This class is best suited to those with some previous experience of bookbinding.

Stapleford Granary has easy Car Parking and is within walking distance of Shelford Railway Station.

Learn how to make the Elbum, designed by Ben Elbel,  a fun and clever album structure which holds its pages by gripping them into a series of articulated  narrow pockets. This is a  treasure of paper engineering, this project is also a great introduction to concertina folding by hand as it requires precision folding. There will be an opportunity to practice with making a prototype before moving onto your finished Elbum. This is ideal if you are looking for a book structure that will hold individual pages.

This class is suitable for beginners as well as those with some bookbinding experience. 

Stapleford Granary  has easy car parking and is within walking distance of Shelford Railway Station

The Sewn Boards Binding, brought to prominence by American binder Gary Frost,  is the subject of many conversations and variations and with good reason. As well as being an adaptation of ancient Ethiopian binding techniques it also looks 'bang up-to-date' with its crisp edges and streamlined opening ability. It is a great extension to existing binding skills and is also a very helpful starting point for new binders as it does not require the traditional casing-in process! As with other classes, this workshop is taught so that you can repeat at home.

All equipment and materials required will be provided along with step by step demonstration and practice.

Stapleford Granary has easy car parking and is within walking distance of Shelford Railway Station.

These beautiful and versatile structures are a perfect place to start, or continue, your  bookbinding journey.

The  5-week programme takes you, step by step, through four new structures: Long stitch binding, Islamic style, Wrapper (suitable for use on old and damaged or new books) and Posh Paper, all held together in a lined and lidded box. These books make gorgeous gifts and, as with Beginning Bookbinding, the techniques and skills are interchangeable allowing you to develop your own creative finishes.

The class is designed for beginners and it is not necessary to have any previous experience. This series focuses on more 'artsy' structures whilst Beginning Bookbinding focuses on more 'everyday' styles. The classes can be taken in any order.

Stapleford Granary has easy car parking and is within walking distance from Shelford Railway station.

Most classes teach techniques for binding a number of signatures into a book but of course there is often the need to bind single pages too, particularly amongst artists and printmakers.

During this one-day class you will learn how to prepare and make a ‘loop’ binding. The chief value of this binding is that it hold single pages in a traditional book format. It lies flat when open and is a beautiful structure in which to present prints, photographs or other flatwork. It is also popular as a journal, travel book or artist sketchbook. It is a structure which can be made at home with minimal equipment, and makes a fabulous gift. Once you've done this class it will be possible to bind anything 2-dimensional into a book form -  tiles, slates, sheets of perspex or balsa wood; even paper!

Suitable for beginners.

Stapleford Granary has easy car parking

Learn how to make this wonderful curved sided box with a lift out tray designed by Richard Renouf. Richard will guide you through the processes to make this challenging but beautiful box, which could be used for storing  jewellery or other precious bits and pieces. 

A selection of decorative papers and buckrams will be available for you to choose from. Over two days you will learn through demonstration and practice the all important skills of measuring, marking angles and cutting both board and paper, in the steps required to make this box.

All equipment and materials will be provided along with step-by-step demonstration and practice.  

This course not suitable for complete beginners.

I'm delighted to introduce this class which will be run by Doug Mitchell.

Doug  will cover:Making cores, flat and round

Sewing a primary headband with a round core using a back-bead technique

Sew a primary headband with a flat core in two colours 

Islamic chevron headband (primary and secondary sewing)

*Please bring two flat backed paperback books (or handstitched and glued book blocks) with you, that you can sew your headbands onto.  All other materials will be supplied.

Doug Mitchell, a highly experienced book conservator, will lead the day, under his guidance and tuition you will learn the basics of book repairs using a variety of cloths, papers, tissues and adhesives. Through a mix of demonstration and practice you will learn how to: Deconstruct a book in a safe and systematic fashion, repair both individual pages and sections, prepare your book should it require resewing, replace the end papers, undertake any repairs to the

cover in order to allow new material to be added.

To get the most out of this one day class I would recommend that you have some bookbinding experience and that you have made a 'cased in' book, to enable you to understand how to deconstruct your book for repair. If you need further advice please do not hesitate to email me.

All materials and equipment will be provided, but you will  need to bring with you one or two hard cover cloth bound books, no bigger than A5 and with a stable book block,  (as time is limited), that you are happy to replace the end papers on. 

Slight controversy over the title of this binding as the inventor (Anne Goy) wishes it to be known as CrissCross Binding but let's not split hairs or threads. This one is a beauty combining the best of western and Japanese bindings resulting in a closed but exposed spine which lies flat when open; a very versatile book that can be used as a journal, sketchbook or even photograph album. 

This workshop is suitable for everyone whether you are a beginner or are looking to learn a new technique. All equipment and materials will be provided along with step-by-step demonstration and practice.  

Stapleford Granary has easy car parking and is close to Shelford railway station.

In February 2021 I was asked by the David Parr House to design some limited edition books for their crowdfunding campaign. The finished books were created with an inlaid design, based on one of the painted wall patterns in the house. This 2 day workshop will give you the opportunity to learn to create your own individually designed inlaid book cover, using a range of coloured buckrams, which you will then make into a hardbound book.

This workshop is more suitable for those with some previous experience of bookbinding as it requires quite advanced cutting skills.

All tools and materials will be provided.

 A Tight Back binding is a historical binding where the book has a leather spine that is adhered directly to the spine, meaning that the covering material flexes as the spine is opened and closed.

During this 2 day  weekend workshop you will be guided by Doug Mitchell and myself to stitch your book block onto cords, form the covers, pare the leather for the spines. before rounding the spine and completing your book. All materials and tools will be provided  along with step by step demonstration and practice.

This course is not suitable for complete beginners.

Stapleford Granary has easy car parking and is within walking distance of Shelford Railway station.