Workshop Scholarship

Scholarship is closed for this round.

Applications will open in again in July.

Our chapter is pleased to offer two annual $350 scholarships to members on registrations for ANY book arts-related workshops.

An award of $350 will be made available for up to two chapter members per year. There will be two application periods each year with one person selected in each period.

Successful applicants will be required to write a report following the class which will be made available on the chapter website. See below for a report from Mel Hewitt.

The funds must be used within 1 year of being awarded.

Please note that the award will be paid directly to the institution or individual holding the class.

We look forward to seeing your applications!

Applications closed

Winter 2025 report - Mel Hewitt

Summer 2025 report - Katrina Kiapos

Past winners

Winter 2025 Winner: Mel Hewitt

Workshop: Decorative Techniques
Instructor: Karen Hanmer
Type: Online

I was very excited to take this online class from Karen. I have learned from her in the past and have appreciated her teaching style and candidness. In many instances we learn along with her in real time. The more than half of the techniques listed in the original workshop description on her website were techniques that I had never even heard of; I am always eager to learn things that I didn’t even know existed when it comes to bookbinding. When I had applied for the scholarship and then signed up for the workshop I was anticipating attending the Zoom classes live, but during the summer I was offered an adjunct faculty position that I couldn’t turn down. And of course my teaching schedule happened at the same time as the workshop. It ended up being a plus. Thanks to the workshop being held online and Karen’s belief in having it recorded for later reference, I was able to watch the videos throughout the week at my speed and with my schedule. Yay for being able to rewind!

Students were sent a package prior to the start of the workshop with materials meticulously sorted and coded for the various projects we would be doing. I appreciated the time and attentiveness that Karen put into this to make sure we would have exactly what we needed in order to be successful. From the package of materials I saw that some of the techniques originally listed were not part of the program and I ended up already knowing half of what she would be showing. However, I always find it helpful to see how other binders tackle a technique to hopefully pick up a new way of doing something better or more efficiently/ergonomically. Watching how Karen handled cutting for inlays was helpful and gave me a new way of adhering the acetate to the leather cover for clean removal (hello low tack double sided tape!). I had originally been taught to use a low tack spray adhesive but always found it messy and stinky.

Of the new techniques I learned I found two that were favorites and one that aggravated me not only physically but mentally. I was really interested in this technique that was listed called “lacunose.” Having never heard of it before I was really keen to see what it was and how I could implement it in my work. Lacunose is the building up of very thin scrunched up layers of different colored leather and then sanding the surface to reveal the different colors. It creates a very painterly feel that reminds me of The Impressionists. I loved the look of it when Karen showed examples. But I hated doing it. Sanding is my least favorite part in bookbinding. There is a lot of sanding and going through different grits of paper, and reapplying of leather bits as needed to keep holes from popping up. Unfortunately the constant sanding aggravated my thoracic outlet syndrome and I could only do so much. The lacunose that I was able to produce can be seen in
the top right light brown plaquette as the large black flower inlays. I may revisit lacunose again, but probably with an electric sander.

My two favorite new techniques were perhaps the simplest of those we learned, but I love simplicity and it is part of my particular aesthetic. Karen showed us how to set up leather and our printers for laser printing onto leather to be used for onlays. It seems so simple, but the thought of being able to print directly onto leather was something I had never even considered. I am not particularly adept at drawing, so being able to access open domain images to use for real life imagery in my designs makes me feel less limited. The examples of laser printing on leather can be seen in the bottom left black plaquette. The second technique was gold leaf sprinkling onto leather. Again, it is another that is very simple when executed, but being shown the right ratio for the PVA wash and then the best tools to achieve the look you want was very helpful. It is a technique that I will be using immediately on a binding that is waiting to be covered and whose design required the look of golden dust floating in the air. The gold leaf sprinkling technique can be seen in the top left dark brown plaquette and the bottom left black plaquette.

On the whole it was a lovely workshop and working with Karen is always a delight. I came away from it with several new techniques and new tricks for old techniques. I appreciate the RMC for giving me the opportunity to learn with this scholarship.

Winter

Summer

Summer 2025 winner - Katrina Kiapos

Millimeter Style Binding with Priscilla Spitler, report by Katrina Kiapos

In my nonlinear journey as a Bookbinder there have been a handful of constants in terms of references, and Priscilla Spitler’s hand-outs and video’s (my favorite being “Contemporary Edition Binding” from Standards 1995 where she taught us all to use glue rollers in production and not just our brushes), as well as her contributions to the Guild of Book Workers overall, have been at the top of my list. In particular, I’ve always been partial to the methodical approach to finer binding structures Priscilla has passed down from her time with Craig Jensen at Jensen Bindery, and BookLab Inc., where she co-ran the show, in my opinion, teaching new hires and interns, and helping to streamline structures that we all revere and labor over into a successful art book production bindery.

There are few bookbinders I encounter in my life now, so it feels serendipitous that the one closest to me is the one who I’ve been turning to whenever I need to think clearly about approaching repetitive precision work. How excited I am to learn from Priscilla Spitler, just a two hour drive south from Albuquerque to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. And, I will do my best in the following paragraphs to describe the Millimeter Style structure that she taught me and fellow student Kyle Cunningham this past December 2025.

Priscilla credits learning this Millimeter Style from Craig Jensen, who originally learned this binding method from Danish bookbinder Ole Olsen in the 1980s. In her words, it is an elegant in-boards binding, where, unlike a case binding, the boards are attached prior to covering. Thin boards are covered with a minimal amount of finely pared leather along the edges to display decorative paper on the sides.

The Millimeter binding in my time at North Bennett was the first bound structure that students make in their second year, and at the time this was welcomed due to spending the first month or so practicing gilding and tooling. My friend Henry Hebert has a very well written blog post about this which I will link to in the notes. From my limited class notes, it seems that we learned a structure similar to that demonstrated by John Hyltoft in his presentation of the Danish Millimeter binding given at the GBW Standards of Excellence in 1994. We also learned the Rubow variation featuring leather strips all along the head and tail. While my instructor Jeff Altepeter was thorough in presenting Millimeter variations, in recent years I turned to further resources on the structure from Karen Hanmer to Peter Verheyen, and also found evidence that Craig Jensen and Priscilla Spitler bound many editions of their take on the Millimeter at BookLab in Austin. Super. I really needed to see this replicated in person.

The variations of the Millimeter binding that I have been exposed to feature a single folio endsheet, a 90-degree shoulder, headcaps, and the very ingenious paper bonnet, a board attachment and spine component that is attached to the textblock before the boards are applied. This is also true of the Simplified Binding demonstrated by Sun Evrard at Standards 1993, and taught to North Bennet students by Sonya Sheats. There are more than a few fine touches that Priscilla adds to the making of this structure that I will explain. To start, the variation that she taught includes a strip of leather all along the foredge and spine (the only variation that I hadn’t done). The cover spine component, or bonnet, is comprised of 10 point card stock for the spine piece (measured exactly from edge to edge), and a carrier paper that is similar to a photocopy paper weight and feel. Prior to this step, another fine touch that I appreciated is that when adhering the cloth spine lining (cambric in this case) which goes over the width of the textblock by about ¾, a strip of mylar is applied beneath it to protect the textblock from glue, but still allows for the cambric to be flattened and molded in the joint. And lastly, the scored edge on the spine leather, 2mm out from the spine, which acts as a guide to pare down the remaining leather (portion that will be covered by the decorative paper), with a very fine technique using a scalpel. Priscilla helped me stay consistent with this long cut from head to tail by holding my arm level at a 45 degree.

The steps are:

Lapped link, or unsupported link stitch for sewing signatures
Tipped-on endsheets, (trimming texblock edges if desired)
Rounding and Backing
Spine Lining of Cambric Headbands (stuck on, made of finely pared leather)
Two paper spine linings, one for between the headbands, and one for just below the top of each headband
Spine Piece Component attached to text block, over protective strips of mylar (to create a flap or flange for board attachment) and over the Cambric. NO GLUE ON THE SPINE. The spine component allows for better book opening
Board attachment, oversized at foredge and to be trimmed later
Leather paring for Spine and Foredge (0.3 on the micrometer)
Adhering leather to rounded spine and making head caps, (after a slit at the head and tail is made in the spine piece component to allow for the leather turn-ins to slide in easily).
Adhering the foredge leather pieces
Paring the bonefolder scored edge (2mm from spine)
Covering with decorative paper Paste down of end sheets
Press in Craig Jensen’s custom press boards if you’re lucky. Quoted from Priscilla when she wrote of Craigs achievements the year he was given the GBW Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, “ Craig even designed special press boards made of Baltic Birch wood with extruded aluminum edges that were custom fit to the different thickness’ of binders board . . . “

The specifics of this binding are relatively easy to access online, but sometimes the whole picture and the satisfaction of making the book from beginning to end is worth the in-person instruction, it was for me. I am grateful to the Guild of Bookworkers Rocky Mountain Chapter for facilitating this for me. Thanks for helping me piece together what I left out in my notes, and offering me a chance to see someone who I admire.

Resources:

Priscilla Spitler, Steps for Millimeter Style Binding, Hand-out Priscilla Spitler,
Craig Jensen Recipient of the GBW Lifetime Achievement Award, GBW 8/2011, #197
Peter D. Verheyen, The Edelpappband, or “Millimeter” Binding, The Bone folder ejournal (Vol.1, #2, Spring 2005)
Henry Hebert, Millimeter and Rubow Binding, Work of the Hand Blog, 1/11/2012 Edelpappband/Millimeter Binding Bind-O-Rama, http://www.philobiblon.com/millimeter/ index.html

Past winners

Past Winners

Summer 2024 - Christi Beckmann - Long Stitch binding with Lindsay Wolf