Boring Bookbinding with Kids
It already has been a month since I’ve started teaching kids bookbinding. We’ve covered Coptic binding, Japanese binding (I’ve told them about Chinese and Korean binding too), and long-stitch binding. This time I decided to teach them something boring. Just to understand how to cover some other topics and, especially, how to teach them separate processes of bookbinding, when a student doesn’t get a finished book at the end of a 2-hour class.
I was absolutely sure that making covers for case bindings would bore them to death. I’ve tried to make it more interesting from the beginning. Explaining they can use these cases as folders to store pictures or something else like photos. Parents reacted to that last one, not children =))
Surprisingly, they seemed to be more engaged than at my previous classes. Both children and parents made pretty nice covers. By the end of the class they all started to ask me for a follow up next week – to finish their projects, add some straps and work on decoration.
Two hours were not enough to put the paste paper in place. But the front sides of almost all covers were done quite nice and almost without marks made by gluey fingers =)
Once again I had a chance to find out that children (7-15 years old) make a much better job than some of my stubborn elder students. Oh, there is nothing worse than a 50-year-old know-it-all first-timer!
Some unfinished things from the previous Japanese binding class. Many thanks to Becca Making Faces for sharing the patterns!
Read More
Please Support us on Patreon!
The minimum level of contribution is only $1 per month.
Moreover, starting with the pledge level of $3, you will get a digitized vintage book about bookbinding, book history, or book arts each month from us!
These pledges help iBookBinding to continue its work and bring more information about bookbinding and book arts to you!
