ONLINE Bookbinding 1: Home Study - Guided Stream - Cohort 11

ONLINE Bookbinding 1: Home Study - Guided Stream

The purpose of the Home Study- Guided Stream programme is to make bookbinding education available to CBBAG members who cannot take advantage of in-person workshops.

Mentor:  Barbara Helander

Location: ONLINE using the Thinkific platform and Zoom

Online workshop access starts: September 8, 2025

Duration: 8 months September  2025 - May 2026

Course fee: $700 members / $760 non-members (incl. one-yr CBBAG membership)

Additional postage costs not included in course fee:

• Mailing of workshop material kits from Ontario, invoiced and payable following registration Kits will be mailed in time to be received prior to the first zoom meeting.
• Mailing three projects for critiques to and return postage from Ontario payable directly to the mentor

Prerequisite: none

MAXIMUM ENROLLMENT: 10 students

Registration closes June 23, 2025, 11:59 PM

Prior to registration, all interested participants must read this pdf which details the guidelines and expectations of the Guided Stream of the Home Study Programme. Registration for the workshop functions a formal agreement to these guidelines, whether or not they have been read.

Bookbinding 1 is the first workshop in CBBAG’s core curriculum and introduces the variety of tools, materials, sewings, and constructions fundamental to hand bookbinding.

Using the Thinkific online teaching platform, the workshop is a series of lecture-style videos, direct demonstration videos, and how-to pdfs housed into modules. The workshop will start with the making of a simple pamphlet and proceed to the binding of two hard cover books.

Using an online platform allows Mentors to have easy interaction with participants and allows participants to connect and support each other by encouraging discussion, questions and sharing of ideas. There will be a total of 4 Zoom meetings, during which the Mentor will lead a review of the group's project submissions, discuss challenges, and answer questions, emulating the in-person workshop more closely.

CBBAG will be providing a project materials kit to registrants as part of the workshop fee (postage will be extra).

The Guided Stream has requires participants to submit their completed projects by postal mail to their Mentor and this online environment allows for better feedback with live Zoom meetings to review submissions and for the whole group to learn together, mimicking the in-person workshop more closely. In total, participants will work through more than 15 individual projects, with 3 sets of submissions spanning 8 months with new modules opening up every 7-8 weeks. Participants are responsible for postage for all the submissions, to and return and is payable to the mentor directly.

The online, 24/7 delivery of the workshop is designed for an independent type of learner who needs a flexible schedule for learning and is unlikely to be able to attend an in-person workshop.

Successful completion of Bookbinding 1 in the Guided Stream qualifies participants to take in-person workshops that require Bookbinding 1 as a prerequisite.

Barbara Helander holds two degrees (B.Ed., M.Sc.) and her major in both was Clothing & Textiles. Her professional career spanned over 35 years where she worked not only in apparel manufacturing but also as a professor of textiles at Seneca College.  Over the years, Barbara has been nurturing a small keepsake business that involved the creation of one-of-a-kind books; but now that she has formally retired, she can finally take bookbinding and the book arts off the back burner!  Barb has worked her way through the core CBBAG courses and was pleased to earn her certificate in the spring of 2010.  Barbara is one of the core curriculum instructors for CBBAG - she teaches BB1 which is the introduction to the fundamentals of the craft. She is also a mentor for CBBAG Home Study.