Teaching my first bookbinding class

After years of teaching Print Gocco, I had my first gig teaching bookbinding today.

I spent quite a bit of time looking at materials and then most of Wednesday preparing—making models & writing instructions, and still didn't quite finish. Ended up skipping the Shabava Norooz concert Thursday night in order to finish illustrating the instructions. (I did look around for basic illustrated instructions but just didn't find quite the exact right thing.)

So this was a 4 hour class at Springdale Jobs Corps. After the Oregonian article came out, they contacted me to come out to teach a class to their students who are training to be NAs. All in all, it went pretty well. Most students started out doing pretty well, but I think they lost some steam later in the afternoon. I also could use more cutting mats and awls. I bought a bunch of new brushes, X-acto knives, and bonefolders for the class, and also another awl, and 2 more cutting mats and rulers, but we really needed more. The extra waiting around contributed to some impatience. So now I know.

It was pretty exhausting, not having taught students that age before. There's quite a bit of socializing going on during the class, and I can't always read their expressions on whether they're enjoying the class or not. Although a few of the students were really quite serious about it so that was very nice.

I had them start by dying a sheet of tyvek, which we used later in the afternoon as covers for a Japanese stab binding book. We also made a pocket book with a wrap around cover and pockets glued to an accordion. We went 30 minutes over what I had planned, but I bet if I had 2 more mats, rulers, X-acto knives, and awls, we could've done it in 4 hours. Again, now I know!