Book of the Month 2/2026
Discover the art and craft of making books by hand in this monthly workshop series.
Book of the Month Club
Thursdays from 6:00pm-8:00pm
Each session introduces new techniques and materials, building skills to expand your creative and technical repertoire. Along the way, students will learn to handle papers, adhesives, threads, and cover materials with confidence, while gaining insight into both traditional and contemporary bookmaking approaches.
Students will also have the opportunity to discuss upcoming topics and materials during each session, ensuring that everyone is well prepared for the next month’s project. Whether you’re a beginner drawn to handmade books or an experienced artist looking to refine your binding skills, this series offers a rewarding exploration of craftsmanship, creativity, and the timeless beauty of the book form.
Instructor: Greg Loselle
Ages: 16 and up (slightly younger artists may be accompanied by an adult)
Cost: $25 per class. Pre-registration required. Registration available online, in person or over the phone. If you are redeeming a gift card, please call the office to register.
Workshop Topics:
Feb. 19 - One-pagers: Cutting and folding single-page books and accordion books. This class will show students the simplest ways of producing a book: cutting and folding a single, large page to make an accordion-like structure that can be placed between two board covers. Three different types of books will be modeled first with simple typing paper, then attempted at the students’ choosing in larger or more elaborate forms that will fit into board covers. Students will leave the class with at least one finished book and instructions for making a few more for themselves in the future.
Mar. 19 - Sewing 1: Pamphlet-stitch booklets and fan binding. Two types of bindings will be taught in this session: the pamphlet stitch, suitable for a small journal with a decorative paper cover, and a fan binding, similar to the binding of a commercially made paperback, a easy technique for binding together a loose stack of similar pages. Students will leave the class with two books, one sewn and one glued.
Apr. 16 - Sewing 2: Stitching a signature: constructing a simple covered text-block.This class will review covering board covers (taught in the first class) with decorative paper before setting those covers aside to dry while we form text-blocks of pages, fold them into signatures and sew them together—an ancient technique for binding. Finally, students will bind these text blocks in their newly made covers, creating a substantial book for sketching or journaling.
May 21 - Sewing 3: Coptic stitch books with sewn bindings. The oldest sewn binding method is the Coptic stitch, dating to the late Roman Empire, which produces a book with an open spine and decorative rows of stitching. Students will first make covers (as in the first and third classes), then arrange signatures into a text block before learning to sew them as medieval bookmakers did. Everyone will leave with a Coptic-bound volume.
Jun.18 - Under the covers: Butterfly and Turkish Map folded books. Butterfly and Turkish Map books are art-books: intricate objects made to surprise and delight as they unfold—works of book art! Students will learn and practice two methods of folding pages and gluing them into an expandable structure before attaching covers. (We will review covering book board first, so that we can create the insides of the books as the outsides dry, then attach everything.) Students will leave class with at least one book that unfolds to reveal a hidden, inner pattern.
Jul. 16 - Over the covers: Constructing book slipcases. Working with book board and decorative paper, students will learn to make a protective slipcase for a treasured book. Please bring to class a book you’d like to make a slipcase for—students will leave with a slipcased treasure.
Aug. 20 - Constructing a spine: Folders and organizers. Students will use the basics of cased bindings, most of which have been covered in previous classes, to make portfolio folders for storing papers or works of art—anything flat and stackable. Time permitting, we will discuss and perhaps designs for pockets and other ways of securing contents. Students will leave the class with a small portfolio, useful for keeping notes and papers handy and organized.
Sep. 17 - Restoring and Recovering: Replacing covers on case-bound books with cloth and paper. If you have a treasured book that is falling apart, this class will teach you to strip it of its old cover, replace or recover the old, and then rebind the book afresh. Please bring an old book, one you’d like to give a new life! Students will leave with a newly-recovered book.
Supplies: Students bring their own supplies.We will provide larger items like guillotine cutters.
Students should invest in a bookbinding kit, glue, a few Exacto knives, and a self-healing cutting mat—all available from the Jupean Company, or through Amazon—which will be more widely used as the sequence of classes goes on. At the very least, students will need an Exacto knife, bone folder and mat for the first class. The least expensive kits generally have everything but glue and the mat—which is necessary to start with.
Examples of suitable kits can be found at: (Google Bookbinding Kit, cutting mat, and/or bookbinding glue at Amazon) Example: Amazon kit: https://bit.ly/4tfg8Qf
Local craft stores are likely to have Exacto knives and mats as well, and Elmer’s glue is all right to start with.
