ALT BOOK CLUB
Alt Book Club will be held fortnightly on a Friday from the start of September, introducing you to a range of bookmaking techniques, each a little more complex and advanced than the previous. It's called 'Alt Book Club' to give you an alternative way to spend your Fridays (you can still BYO booze if you fancy it!) doing something relaxed and creative. It will be held in the Short & Few Cabin Ilkley, starting 7pm and finishing around 8.30pm.
The short course takes you from beginner bookmaking techniques and ends with more advanced techniques. You do not need to attend all the sessions and can book on to individual sessions. However, the course has been designed to build in complexity so if you are a beginner, you are advised to attend the first three so that you can build up the basic knowledge and techniques. In each session we will make blank books that you can take away and fill with drawings, poems or lists.
Spaces are limited to 6 people per session, and spaces will be prioritised for those who have booked the full course (available to book here). To check availability and book on to an individual session, email hello@shortandfew.co.uk.
SHORT COURSE PROGRAMME
Friday 6th September 2024
SESSION 1: CUT & FOLDS
We’ll play around with four versions of the simple but effective cut and fold technique. This session will introduce you to the basic tools and terminology, creating a good foundation to build the other sessions on.
Friday 20th September 2024
SESSION 2: PAMPHLET STITCH
This session introduces you to a fundamental stitch technique to create ‘signatures’ (your folded sheets of paper), and we’ll experiment with three-hole and five-hole stitches, as well as combining double signatures.
Friday 4th October 2024
SESSION 3: SIMPLE HARD BACK
Applying our knowledge of the pamphlet stitch, this session will show you how to cover board correctly to make ‘hard back’ covers – a technique used in most hard-back books and boxes. We’ll make a multi-signature pamphlet stitch book.
Friday 18th October 2024
SESSION 4: JAPANESE STAB STITCH
We’ll build on our basic stitch technique and look at traditional Japanese techniques of decoratively stitching loose sheets into a block. We’ll start with the simple four-hole binding (yotsumi toji) and explore variants of the stitch, including the tortoise shell stitch.
Friday 8th November 2024
SESSION 5: COPTIC STITCH
Stitching is taken up a level with this knot-based stitch that allows you to combine multiple signatures together, leaving an exposed decoratively stitched spine. This stitch allows the book to lay completely flat when open.
Friday 15th November 2024
SESSION 6: PIANO HINGE
This session steps the bookmaking up a notch into more experimental territory, binding a book with sticks and hinges. This technique creates an ornamental and visually impressive spine.
Friday 29th November 2024
SESSION 7: FLAG BOOK
Following in the spirit of playful this book adds a kinetic element to bookmaking, opening into a 3D form, with pages that sway in different directions when open.