Bookbinding II: Intro to Hardcover – Fall 2021

Event Info

This workshop takes place across five sessions:

• Tues, Sept 14 , 6–9pm ET
• Tues, Sept 21, 6–9pm ET
• Tues, Sept 28, 6–9pm ET
• Tues, Oct 5, 6–9pm ET
• Tues, Oct 12, 6–9pm ET

This class will take place in-person at Center for Book Arts. There are only eight spots open in this workshop due to our limited capacity in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. All staff, artists, students, and guests are required to wear a mask during the entirety of the class. If you do not have a mask when you arrive, one will be provided for you. Please call ahead at 212-481-0295 if you have questions or needs.

In this beginning hardcover bookbinding class, students will learn to make hardcover case bindings for pamphlets, flat back books, and a book with a rounded spine. You will learn about the structure beneath the boards and how to use book cloth to cover it. Some of the sewing strategies that will be taught include sewing signatures together with link stitch.

*Prerequisites: Bookbinding 1 or equivalent

If you cannot comfortably pay tuition but are interested in taking this class, please consider filling out our financial assistance application here. We will notify you of your scholarship status before the start date of the class.

Required Materials

• Pencil and paper for note-taking
• Bookbinding awl *
• Bone folder *
• Olfa silver knife and blades *, or exact-o knife

All other materials and tools will be provided. *Materials with an asterisk next to them are available for purchase at the Center.

About the Instructor

Elizabeth Castaldo is an artist, printmaker, and bookbinder living and working in Peekskill, NY and New York City. She received her MFA from SCAD Atlanta where she was a Dean’s Fellow in Printmaking and her BFA from the School of Visual Arts. Elizabeth works with printmaking, drawing, and collage to make works on paper and artists books that explore nature and the body. She has completed residencies at the Center for Book Arts, NYC and Printmaker’s Open Forum. In 2019 Elizabeth’s work was included in the traveling exhibition, “Freed Formats: The Book Reconsidered”. She organized the exchange portfolio “Earth/Mother” for the SGCI 2020 conference “Puertografico”. She teaches printmaking and book arts at Parsons, Nassau Community College and the Center for Book Arts NYC. Elizabeth’s work is held in many private and institutional collections including at Savannah College of Art and Design, Carnegie Melon University, Yale University.

All images courtesy of the instructor.