In early November over 70 bookbinders from all over Australia came together for the first time in 27 years. The first conference was held in Canberra, and this one was too, thanks to the remarkable energy of Joy and John Tonkin along with a subcommittee of the Canberra Guild.
We weren’t all professional binders; I consider myself a complete amateur as far as fine binding goes, but I’m pretty good with alternative bindings. Some people were complete but very interested beginners, others were professional conservators or librarians or just plain interested. A lot of people *were* professional binders, and it was good to just sit behind my trade table in the breaks and listen to the conversations happening around me.
There was a woman from NZ in the ranks, and the rather fabulous Jim Canary came all the way from his Lilly Library in Indiana, US of A.
It was an action-packed weekend, but not as exhausting as something like Impact 7. The organisers ran a tight ship, dividing the mob into four sub-mobs so that we could all attend all of the demonstrations:
1. tool making with Jim Canary, who showed us that we don’t need fancy equipment to make finishing tools, and (most importantly), we don’t need fancy finishing tools to make amazing designs;
2. leather inlays and onlays,with German fine binder Barbara Schmelzer;
3. sewing headbands with Fabienne Nicolaj, who helped us through both the French and Dutch sewing techniques;
and 4. [...]
