CBBAG Itinerant Teachers Programme

Are you interested in having a bookbinding or other book arts workshop in your city or town? The Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild has many teachers who will come and teach at locations other than the CBBAG bindery on request.

General Information

The basic essentials for a workshop are: a local organizer; a space with tables or benches with a good working surface and a chair for each participant; good light; press boards (eg. pieces of plywood about 10” x 12”) and weights (eg. bricks), particularly for core curriculum subjects; and easy access to water for paste and washing up. There must be at least one washroom available. The table space allotted per student is usually 4 feet in width.

For the Itinerant Teacher Programme the local organizer selects a subject or subjects of interest to them and contacts CBBAG, which then selects teachers appropriate for the subjects and puts the contact person and teacher in touch with each other. A list of courses available follows.

The local organizer and the teacher work out details of the dates, fees (including teaching fee and materials fee), and actual subject selection, as well as any equipment which may be required. The teacher or CBBAG will provide a course title and course description.

CBBAG has some equipment which may be sent out in advance of the workshop. Transportation costs for to and from the CBBAG bindery in Toronto are assumed by the local organizer and should be included in the student fee.

In some cases, it is considered desirable for some materials to be provided locally. The teacher will provide a list of hand tools and/or materials to be provided by the students.

The local organizer is responsible for providing accommodation, either paying for a hotel or bed and breakfast, or arranging for a local person to accommodate the instructor. The instructor normally books transportation and is reimbursed for this.

Since most instructors are very busy – they must be booked well in advance and in accordance with their schedules. If the instructor has special requirements, allergies, etc., these are specified

Fees and Costs

Fees are negotiated directly with the instructor but usually range from $200 per day to $500 per day. This may also be arranged on a per student basis since it is more difficult to teach many students. Instructors are not paid for travel time or for the time spent on acquisition and preparation of materials, unless otherwise specified. Therefore the daily fee actually includes a minimum of three extra days and is very modest.

Student fees are predicated on a share of the instructor fee and travel cost, accommodation if required (again, many instructors are agreeable to being billeted locally), and the costs of transporting equipment to and from the CBBAG binder, if required.

Usually the instructor provides materials with a materials fees paid by the students directly to the instructor. These range from $10 (eg. one day of pop-ups) to $50 (eg. vellum or leather) per student. Material fees are usually in the $20 to $30 range and are listed with the course descriptions.

Please note:

List of subjects for the CBBAG Itinerant Teacher Programme:

Core Curriculum:
Bookbinding I
Bookbinding II
Bookbinding III

Shorter Workshops:
Album Structures
Artists Books: Developing the Artistic Process
Basic Book Maintenance and Repair
Boxes and Protective Enclosures
Calligraphy for Bookbinders
Care of Book Collections
Carousel Books and Tunnel Books
Coptic Binding
Guest Book/Photo Album
Historical Book Structures
Introduction to Box Making
Journals and Address Books
Laced Paper Case
Making Books with Children
Paper Decorating
Photo Album
Pop-up Books
Rough and Tough
Simple Book Repairs
Strut Your Stuff (portfolios for holding important papers)
Transparency and Translucency