Yeoman's in the Fork Blog

I am a contributor to the blog here at Yeoman's, although I haven't posted anything for the last couple weeks. But I have a very good excuse! I went to Telluride, Colorado to attend a two week class on the Introduction to Fine Binding held at the American Academy of Bookbinding. The timing couldn't have been more perfect as I left the day after the great flood of 2010 that hit the middle Tennessee area. Fortunately, my house was spared any damage, and I was able to fully enjoy my class without worrying about the impending doom of my humble abode. Each day, I jotted down a paragraph or so somewhat detailing what went on during the day. Here is my first entry for Monday:

Today was the first full day of class. We met for a few hours last night for orientation and to prep our text-blocks to press overnight. Upon arrival this morning, we retrieved our text-blocks from the presses, cut them more precisely to size and after a demonstration and discussion of sewing techniques, we got to work sewing the signatures of our books together. After the whole book was sewn together, we put it in a backing press and rounded the spine. Then we consolidated the spine by gluing a piece of paper over it and pressing down the threads as much as possible for a clean spine. Michelle Peppard, Online Sales Lead and Assistant Cataloger