The book you will make

On the day each member of your group will make an exquisite hand-sewn A6 hardback book with cloth spine, ribbon bookmark, coloured headband, vibrant endpapers and a hand-painted cover. The book will have forty-eight blank pages of exclusive 20% cotton Italian paper and be suitable for use as a notebook, recipe book, journal etc. All the materials needed to make the book are included in the price and our aim is to teach you in one day how to make a sophisticated finished product that will amaze your family and friends.

Book-making is like alchemy: a few simple elements combine to create something magical - an object to be treasured.

Book-Making doesn't take up much space, it doesn't require a lot of expensive equipment and each book requires only small quantities of materials. We can supply everything you need to continue this fascinating hobby and those who have been on our course have access to our meticulous on-line tutorial and email support.

Making a book with printed contents ...

The type of book you learn to make is suitable for containing printed contents. If you are interested in self-publishing we can advise on appropriate home computer software to do this. On special occasions, for a suitable fee, we can page-set text for you. During the course we will show examples of self-printed books.

Glossary

A6

A6 is a quarter A4. After trimming, your A6 book will measure approximately 4.25 x 6 inches. We choose to make books of this size because the text block can be constructed from easily available long-grain A4 sheets, folded into four. However, the technique we show you is also suitable for larger books

Bone folder

This is a simple tool used to ensure a crisp fold when making text blocks and at other times during the book-making process.

Book cloth

Book cloth is specially woven to make a hard-wearing cover for books, or for use along the spine only. We will bring a wide selection of colours to choose from.

Endpapers

These are the decorative pages at the front and back of a book. One half of each endpaper is pasted to the inside front and back cover of the book.

Headband

The headband adds finesse and neatness to the top and bottom of the text block spine and is often striped or brightly-coloured.

Mull

Mull is loosely woven cloth used to form the flexible hinge of the book. A strip of mull connects the spine to the cover beneath the endpapers.

Scalpel

The scalpel is the knife used for trimming boards, cloth and text blocks. We will provide a scalpel for you, and bring an all-important supply of blades to ensure sharp cutting of materials.

Text block

Text block is the name given to the block of pages that forms the contents of the book. The block is glued inside the cover using thicker and often brightly-coloured or marbled single folded sheets called endpapers.