North Bennet Street School has been in Boston's North End since 1885, originally founded to teach immigrants skills they would need to succeed in America. It offers vocational training, including carpentry, bookbinding, lock-smithing, piano technology, jewelry making and violin making. Implementing the Swedish system of craftsmanship training known as "sloyd," a method focused on the development of character and intellectual capacity, as well as technical skills, the school has been producing master craftsmen for over a hundred years.
I recently had the privilege of taking a week-long bookbinding workshop at North Bennet and found it extremely informative and inspiring! The Cloth-Case Binding class taught by Stacie Dolin is fantastic! We were taught bookbinding basics (and a few extras!) and I ended up going home with nine completed books! "Practice makes perfect" is an underlying motto at North Bennet and I intend to continue practicing as much as possible! I encourage you to check out their site if you are at all interested in hands-on instruction: http://www.nbss.org/
We will have three more blog entries on this class and the North Bennet school over the course of the next week!