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Learn how to build and hand-stitch your own books using the four classic Japanese bookbinding techniques. Start by sewing together your instruction manual with the most basic stitch. Make a second book using one of the variations: the reinforced corners, the tortoiseshell, or the hemp-leaf pattern. Learn about paper grain and how to align the grain to strengthen the book’s spine.
Useful tools and supplies to bring are small scissors, a snap-blade craft knife, a self-healing cutting mat, a metal ruler or straightedge, a pencil/sharpener/eraser, darning needles, needle-nosed pliers.
There will be a 45-minute break for lunch, and students should bring a sack lunch. Coffee, tea, water and light snacks will be available during the workshop.
Students will have the option to purchase a Bookbinding Kit if they do not have basic bookbinding tools. The kit is $25.00 and includes a bone folder, binding clips, beeswax, darning needles, and storage box. Students are encouraged to bring these tools if they have them.
About the Instructor
Barbara Setsu Pickett is an Associate Professor Emeritus in the Department of Art at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon where she headed the Fibers Area for 33 years. She focuses of her research and creative practice are velvet-weaving, shibori, natural dyeing, and the book arts. Among her awards are a Fulbright Research fellowship in Italy, a Rockefeller Bellagio residency, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Gladys Krieble Delmas for Studies in the Veneto fund and Institute of Turkish Studies. She was the Artist-in-Residence for the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco where she wove Japanese-style velvet and sewed Japanese-style books.
She and her son Michael formed the Mihara Shibori Studio in 2005 and they create highly textured silk scarves in distinctive palettes expanding on the Japanese traditional shibori techniques. They have taught workshops in Istanbul and Seoul and in October 2016 were invited to participate in the Korean Society of Fashion Business conference and fashion exhibition.