Use the form on the right to contact us.
You can edit the text in this area, and change where the contact form on the right submits to, by entering edit mode using the modes on the bottom right.
Po Box 410963
San Francisco, CA 94141
USA
A close-knit group of hand bookbinders, with shared interests in creating and collecting fine bindings, joined together to promote hand bookbinding and related book arts and to exchange information and ideas.
Please mark the dates in your calendar and join us!
Save the Date!
Join us on the evening of Tuesday, December 3rd to celebrate the holidays with other members of the Hand Bookbinders of California!
Join us for a guided tour of the Permanent Collection at the Letterform Archive in San Francisco. Our tour will focus on pieces from the collection that highlight fun and unique binding styles.
Join fellow members of the Hand Bookbinders of California for our annual summer picnic! Bring along your favorite dish for our Potluck and bring any extra bookbinding materials for our Materials Swap!
Thursday, August 15, 6:00 – 7:30 pm
The San Francisco Center for the Book, 375 Rhode Island Street San Francisco, CA 94103. Or Virtual
Our panel of experts will take a deep dive into the vagaries and complexities of the design process and provide insight on how to drive a project/design from inspiration to completion. From how to find inspiration and start a new project? Identifying if it is going in the right direction? What to do when you are stuck? How to know when it is done?
If the moderated portion of the program doesn't answer all of your design questions there will be time for Q&A.
The zoom link has been emailed to all registrants, please let us know if you didn’t get a zoom link. Email: board@handbookbinders.org
Make sure to check your spam folder for an email from board@handbookbinders.org
Join us on July 21st, Sunday, July 21, 4:00–5:30 pm at the Skylight Gallery for a exhibition walk-through, of the books in the exhibition. Hear the stories behind the books, ask questions, get answers. Members will walk you through their work and there will be with time for Q&A.
Join your friends and fellow bookbinders at the Opening Reception Sunday, June 9, 2:00–4:00 pm at the Skylight Gallery. Enjoy hors d' oeuvres and drinks while you socialize with friends old and new and ogle the 59 entries in this years exhibition. Exhibition catalogs will be distributed to all members who attend.
The 52nd Annual Members’ Exhibition will be held at the Skylight Gallery of the San Francisco Public Library, located At 100 Larkin St, In San Francisco from June 1, 2024 Through August 18, 2024.
If you are working on a book binding/book art project and would like to have a fellow bookbinder look at it, then come to the SFCB Open Studio on Wednesday March 27th from 5-9pm!
Both the bindery and the printshop will be open for you.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
The event is hybrid! Join us at SFCB or login via Zoom.
BYOB—Bring your own book or anything that you are working on that you want to share with a friendly group of binders with a broad range of experience, styles, and abilities.
What would you like to put your hands on from the venerable collection held by the Book Club of California. Check out their holding and let us know what you’d like to feel in your hand.
Save the Date!
(It's never to early to pencil in a holiday party.)
Join us for a tour of the conservation lab at SFMOMA.
Join Waitlist
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Our first hybrid event! Join us at the SFCB or login via Zoom.
BYOBM—Bring your own book mistake or anything that you are working on that you want to share with a friendly group of binders with a broad range of experience, styles, and abilities.
RSVP
Join HBC for a visit to Lane Medical Library at Stanford University School of Medicine
on Wednesday, March 22.
Lunch at on campus at noon.
Program begins at 1:15 pm
Drew Bourne, historian and keeper of the rare book archive at Lane, will deliver an overview of anatomical books in the collection.
The 50th Annual Members’ Exhibition Walk Thru with Dominic Riley, Michael Burke and Coleen Curry will be held at the Skylight Gallery Of The San Francisco Public Library, located At 100 Larkin St, San Francisco on December 11th 2022 at 2:00pm
Celebrate the winter holidays with friendship of hand bookbinders—in person!
HBC’s 50th Anniversary Exhibition includes 16 beautifully bound copies of the set book Lowlands Away. A few of these members will give us an insight into their vision and interpretation of the set book.
The 50th Annual Members’ Exhibition Walk Thru led by Exhibition Coordinator, Beth Redmond will be held at the Skylight Gallery Of The San Francisco Public Library, located At 100 Larkin St, San Francisco on November 6th, 2022 at 2:00pm
The 50th Annual Members’ Exhibition Opening Reception will be held at the Skylight Gallery Of The San Francisco Public Library, located At 100 Larkin St, San Francisco on September 17th from 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Join us for a curator’s tour of The Letterform Archive’s Bauhaus Typography at 100.
Thursday, May 12th • Noon for lunch • 1:30 for the exhibition
Restaurant suggestions are welcome!
Join us on February 2nd, 2022 at 6 PM for a Zoom Event to kick off our 50th anniversary year. In addition to celebrating our founding members—and their teachers—we will play a party game or two. Charades on Zoom? Pictionary? Trivial Pursuit?
Yes, 1972 was an exciting year. The Hippies were in their prime and the Hand Bookbinders of California burst onto the scene. Who were our founding board members? Where did they hold meetings? What were the alternative names that the early membership came up with for our organization? What is the name of Roberta Flack’s number one single? What book soared to the top of the New York Times Best Sellers list on October 1st of that year?
Please join us and wear a thinking cap! Literally!
A prize will be awarded for the best hat. All members attending the party who are wearing a hat will receive one vote for the Best Hat Award.
Tom Conroy, a Bay Area fixture in the world of Bookbinding, will talk about spring dividers. His #ZoomToolTalk will be followed by your questions and comments.
Join us to co-create a 21st-century happening.
All HBC Members in good standing—and previous #ZoomToolTalkers—are welcome.
Norman Clayton, printer, typographer, book artist, and teacher, moved his family and Classic Letterpress from San Francisco to Ojai in 2010. His alk will be followed by your questions and comments.
Join us to co-create a 21st-century happening.
All HBC Members in good standing—and previous #ZoomToolTalkers—are welcome.
Kate Holland, one of seven bookbinders to work on binding the text blocks of Booker Prize finalists in 2020, will speak to us about hand bookbinding tools. Perhaps, she keeps mindfulness near her bench? She recently created a talk with the Headspace meditation app. Her talk will be followed by your questions and comments.
Join us to co-create a 21st-century happening.
All HBC Members in good standing—and previous #ZoomToolTalkers—are welcome.
Don Glaister, Director of Fine Binding at the American Academy of Bookbinding in Telluride, Colorado, has been studying and making fine bindings and artist’s book for decades. He will talk about a current binding project, El Aleph, and binding itself as a tool.
Join us to co-create a 21st-century happening.
All HBC Members in good standing—and previous #ZoomToolTalkers—are welcome.
LET’S CELEBRATE SPRING WITH A SHOW & TELL
PROGRAM
What are you working on? Have you seen anything online or—gasp!—in a gallery that you’d like to discuss? How about a new tool that you’d like to show your colleagues? The format is casual. Imagine open mic night at a club. Who is brave enough to go first?
Please bring a project idea, mockup, first draft—or even a finished book—to discuss with fellow hand bookbinders.
SPECIAL TREAT
To enhance your enjoyment, Peggy Boston has selected an artisanal cocktail to mix. If you live in the bay area, you can order a cocktail delivery. For our far away friends, BYOB.
Mezcalita de Pina
Tequila, mezcal, house-made ginger syrup, fresh pineapple, pineapple juice, fresh lime juice, cilantro, and Fresno chili.
Jeff Peachey, a renowned book conservator, tool maker, and book historian will discuss a few of his favorite tools—and perhaps tell us what bookbinding act he was performing when he felt the need to invent one of two of his finely crafted tools. His talk will be followed by your questions and comments.
Join us to co-create a 21st-century happening.
All HBC Members in good standing (and previous #ZoomToolTalkers) are welcome.
Sol Rebora & Juan Grosso Diseño, who live and work in Buenos Aires, believe that quality of tools makes a huge difference on the quality of the work and it helps to enjoy the process. They will discuss their work—fine binding and tool crafting, respectively—before we kick off a group discussion. Their talk will be followed by your questions and comments.
Join us to co-create a 21st-century happening.
All HBC Members in good standing are welcome.
Julie Chen, one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s legendary book artists, will discuss a handful of her favorite bookbinding tools before we kick off a group discussion.
Her talk will be followed by your questions and comments.
Join us to co-create a 21st-century happening.
All HBC Members in good standing are welcome.
Kathy Abbott, author of Bookbinding: A step-by-step guide, will discuss a handful of her favorite bookbinding tools before we kick off a group discussion.
Her brief talk will be followed by your questions and comments.
Join us to co-create a 21st-century happening.
All HBC Members in good standing are welcome.
