Teaching again soon!

Tuesday night class

I'll be teaching how to make handmade books again next term. The class is open to both beginners and returning students. Looking back at my stated intentions before I started teaching last term, I realise that while my basic philosphy still stands, I have ironed out some of the practical bugs that I hadn't anticipated.

Cat making separate board covers

The plan had been to teach two different classes: a variety of books structures on Tuesday evenings, and one complex book on Thursday mornings. Taking into account the preferences of most students, the Thursday morning class followed pretty much the same curriculum as the Tuesday evening. I was happy since they aren't the books I like making so I don't feel comfortable teaching them. I've now decided that my classes are emphatically for learning contemporary and unconventional book structures. (If you are in Hamilton and you really want to learn traditional book binding I can recommend a wonderful teacher who sometimes takes private pupils).

Cat's covers now on accordian fold book

Both classes started with making multiple examples of a few simple book structures, to practice the basic papercraft skills of measuring, cutting, folding and pasting. As we added more challenging structural elements, I continued to reinforce those basic skills until they became automatic. At the same time, I encouraged each student to pursue their own original designs: starting with different papers, including different kinds of content, and working at different scales meant I coached each through their unique design problems to produce a fabulous diversity of books. You can see more photos of the classes in action and some of the many lovely books they produced here.

Lots of bright little books by Tamari

Almost every student has said they want to come back for more, so next term will combine beginners with returning students on Tuesday nights only (I'm not going to teach in the daytime any more as its too disruptive for my other activities). Once again the focus will be on both basic skills and creating personal designs. This time the course will run for eight weeks and beginners will progress from sewn pamphlets and accordian folds, through flag and flower fold books, to tunnel books, pop ups and boxes. As well as learning some additional book structures and elements that we didn't get to in last term's short course, returning students are encouraged to develop more challenging personal projects that will make good use of the class time, space, teaching resource and peer support to complete.

Thursday morning class

If you are interested in joining the class, here's the important information.
Starting 4 August and running for 8 Tuesdays from 6-8pm, in the Basement Printroom of the ArtsPost Building (note, this is a different classroom from last term).
Cost is $127 for 8 weeks (high school students and WSA members $112)
If you want to enroll for only 5 weeks the cost is $75 (discount $60)
Contact WSA to enroll.

Robin's long accordion made from flower calendar photos