About The Sewn Board Binding Workshop
In this workshop we will be making a binding structure called a sewn board binding. No previous bookbinding experience is required! Tools and materials will be provided. We will break for lunch, but lunch will not be provided, so please plan to bring a sack lunch or purchase lunch on campus. There are also restaurant options near campus.
Registration is required. Please register here.
The sewn board binding is a binding structure developed by Gary Frost in the late 1980s. It was first shown at “The Lessons of History and Experience in the Design of Conservation Binding” conference sponsored by Library Binding Service in Des Moines, Iowa in 1987. As Gary says, “At first, I imagined that I had invented something by sewing a folded card to the text and calling it a board. Later I saw J. A. Szirmai’s description of early Coptic bindings and realized that I was more than a thousand years too late to claim credit for what he described as a ‘construction in which the boards are soundly integrated with the sewing structure’. (Szirmai, J.A. 1999. The Archaeology of Medieval Binding. Hants: Ashgate Publishing.)” In 1988, Gary joined Craig as a collaborator and business partner at BookLab, Inc. in Austin, Texas. At that time, desktop publishing was exploding with relatively inexpensive access to desktop publishing software and high-quality laser printers. At that time, the sewn board binding was often referred to as ‘desktop-deluxe’ binding.
In 1992, BookLab used the Sewn Board Binding for 1985–The Twelve Months published by Walter Hamady at Perishable Press. This was the first commercial application of the binding type. Over the ensuing years at BookLab, Inc. and BookLab II, the sewn board binding was used for several edition projects. Its sleek, squareless design and flexible book action, with its flat 180° opening, made it a particularly appropriate binding style for these projects.
The sewn board binding, despite its sophistication, is an ideal binding style for beginners or practitioners with minimal book binding equipment. Indeed, this binding style can be executed with basic hand tools at one’s kitchen table. Because of this easy access, the sewn board binding has become somewhat ubiquitous in the book arts and fine press fields, so much so that many people who regularly employ the binding in their work have no idea of its origin.
Craig Jensen
About Craig Jensen
Craig Jensen began his career in 1977 when he was appointed Library Conservator for the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University in Provo Utah. From 1977-1978 Craig served an internship at The Library of Congress Restoration Office under the direction of Peter Waters and Don Etherington. In 1981, Craig was recruited by Don to serve as Head of Book Conservation at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center Conservation Department at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1984 Craig left the HRC and started Jensen Bindery and shifted his attention from book conservation to box making and limited-edition binding. In 1988 Jensen Bindery was incorporated as BookLab, Inc. BookLab, Inc. continued box making and edition binding but also offered preservation photocopy and, later, digital reproduction of brittle books for libraries. Following the close of BookLab, Inc. in 1998 Craig became Vice President for Imaging at Acme Bookbinding. In 2002 Craig left Acme and moved with his family moved to San Marcos, Texas where he started BookLab II, operating out of a small home-based studio where he focused exclusively on box-making and fine edition binding. In 2011 Craig was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Guild of Book Workers. In 2020 Craig retired but was soon teased out of retirement to work on a few more limited-edition projects. Then in 2024 Craig finally, really, retired. Since then, he has been focusing on his grandchildren, travelling, and working with Texas A&M’s Cushing Memorial Library & Archives on the acquisition of his extensive archives and large collection of books bound at his various companies.