Edge decoration demonstration, Jan 16

When one thinks of book design, it is usual cover and page design that come to mind. But the edges of the books can get their own treatment, and be embellished in beautiful ways. To demonstrate this, master binder Dan Mezza organizes a demonstration in his studio on 10780 West Saanich Road, North Saanich, on Thursday, Jan 16, 9 am to 12 pm. He will show various models and demonstrate techniques such as sprinkled, solid coloured, graphite edge, gauffered graphite edge and gold edge for deckled paper like Arches watercolour. After the demonstration, participants are welcome to try these techniques with their own materials. In order to do that, they need 1-2 acrylic inks or paints, and an existing blank book block or paperback book with good quality paper.

The demonstration is free for the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild members, $15 for non-members, payable at the demonstration. If you wish to attend, please contact Joan Byers at kelpie[at]shaw.ca. You can find more edge decoration examples here.

Bookbinding edge decoration from the Cary Graphic Arts Collection

Proof that we put way less thought and technique into our books nowadays compared to the past, is that very few of us even heard of edge decoration. We might have seen a couple of books with coloured or golden edges, but how many are familiar with the fore-edge painting technique? In this case, not only the edge of the book is decorated, but the whole image is only revealed when bending the pages, as shown here, resulting in gorgeous, unique books.