Intro to Bookbinding with Mardy Sears
This is a six week course, held every Sunday from 2-5pm:
May 17, May 24, NO CLASS May 31 (Memorial Day weekend), June 7, 14, 21, 28
About the Class
Have you ever wanted to know how a hardcover book is constructed? Are you looking for the perfect sketchbook filled with your favorite paper? The Introduction to Bookbinding course will introduce students to bookbinding tools, materials, and terminology.
During this six week course you will learn how to construct a single signature binding, a hard cover flat back binding, and a soft cover long stitch binding. We will be cutting, sewing, and gluing books that can be made with simple hand tools. No experience necessary, but good hand skills are a plus.
Please note: This is a comprehensive bookbinding course teaching traditional methods. Completing this course will qualify students to later take more advanced technical bookbinding offerings.
About Mardy Sears
Mardy Sears is a multimedia artist working primarily as a printmaker, and artist book maker.
After graduating with a Masters in Fine Arts from The Center for Book and Paper Arts, Columbia College Chicago in 2006, she began working as a Conservation Technician with a focus on paper at The Art Institute of Chicago. She is now the Senior Conservation Technician in Paper with 20 years of experience. In her role at the Art Institute she mats, hinges, and frames works on paper for exhibition and storage, and makes boxed housings for delicate or three dimensional works.
In her own practice Mardy’s visual language includes images of animals, primarily birds and sea creatures. Her animals tell stories of humanity and connect our everyday lives to the environment we live in. She incorporates text and poetry into her image making, that is often presented in book format. Her visual texture is influenced by the objects she works with at her job at the museum. Worn and aged surfaces such as joined sheets of paper and early book structures, which may be sewn, mended, and stained, are evident in her objects.
Mardy’s artist books can be found in special collections across the United States including the University of Chicago, The Newberry Library, Indiana University, Scripps College, University of Utah, Baylor University, Standford University, and The Cynthia Sears Collection at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, as well as numerous private collections.