This masterclass, based on Carmencho Arregui's Crossed Structure Binding, will develop your capacity to deal with an unusual way of thinking in a perfectly balanced asymmetry, and your everyday practice will benefit of this extra understanding of books' motion.
The course is organized in two parts. During the first four days, we will deal with 9 different variations of the Crossed Structure Binding, making 9 sample books with blank pages and covers in handmade paper.
Then one day of pause is planned, to rest and let the acquired information sink in.
During the second part, lasting again four days, each participant will make some bindings on real books with the cover in leather or parchment.
Participants will have to identify the most suitable structure for their books, providing justification for the choice, which will be reviewed collectively.
The aim of the workshop is indeed to learn the techniques, but also to get able to discern which structure can better fit depending on which book has to be bound.
Furthermore, during the course we will also get to know the technique of lining the leather with hand-made paper, which will then be used to create the bindings.
For participants who the following week will attend Tracey Rowledge's class too, the leather bindings will be perfect to practice gold tooling.
"In the last years Cristina Balbiano d'Aramengo has worked with me, discussing technical matters as well as finding new solutions to different problems. Out of this friendship Cristina has developed her own ideas about the Crossed Structure Binding and is now able to present the structure in a more complete and complex form. Her interest in book conservation has led her to adapting the technique to the needs of old books and heavy volumes. Such matters will be treated during this workshop."
Carmencho Arregui, 2009
Linda Allard Forsman, who was a pupil of Cristina for several years, will be assisting tutor. She is a trained bookbinder & contractor and runs Pappersfrossa, a bookbinding- and paperworkshop in Dalarna. She has been a member of the Board of the Bookbinding Master’s Association between 2013-2019 and are also a member of the Bookbinding Society. Linda has a passion for paper and simple, fun bookbinding techniques.
This is a masterclass, therefore it is designed for experienced bookbinders, although not necessarily professionals. We will give for granted some basic bookbinding knowledge, about piercing, folding, cutting, measuring.