Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Bookbinding workshop (that's reliure in French)














Last Sunday I took an afternoon bookbinding workshop offered by an ex-watercolour student, Anne-Marie Mamet. She and her husband Jean-Pierre, have quit Paris for the peace and calm of country life, and opened an French/English bookshop in the lovely village of Salviac, not far from me.

In the left photograph, a student is sewing a signature together. She will later, hammer the spine into a nice round shape, glue on headbands, boards, and a cover chosen from Anne-Marie's colourful array of patterned paper. Anne-Marie is on the right. She often works late into the night restoring old books, always accompanied by the faithful Bono.

Anne-Marie and I are discussing joining forces next summer. On the last afternoon of each class, students could bind their exercises or small paintings into a book: a nice practical momento of their time here.

1 comment:

Bruce Anderson said...

that sounds like so much fun. are there anymore coming up? How do you find things like that, I'm sure there has to be some things like that near us but I don't know how to find them.