Bookbinding Evening Class wk 1

Last night I went back to basics.
I joined the first of a 10 week bookbinding course at the local Adult Ed.
As our first project, we made a single signature hard covered book. I’ll post a photo once it’s finished – next week I hope.
The tutor, Sarah, seems very knowledgeable, but I’m undecided about the class at the moment.
I know most of the students had never done anything like this before, so starting at the beginning is a good idea. Also it means that after two weeks we will have a finished project to take home. A great way of keeping people motivated. But some of the things that I think are important – like not wasting material, or measuring things and being accurate, didn’t seem important to our tutor, while things like paper grain which I didn’t know anything about was of high importance according to Sarah.
Also in 2 hours I could have made a multi signature hard covered book, so it all seemed a bit slow.
But I will stick with it. I know there is so much about book binding that I don’t know, and in 10 weeks I can’t imagine the information I could collect. I think once we’ve done the 3 set projects to give us the skills we need, we’ll be able to carry on with our own projects – who knows what I might learn.

I believe you should be open to as many things as possible. Who knows where it might take you.

Change is in the Air

It’s been ages since I last posted anything and in that time things have changed a bit.
For starters I’ve just got myself a new job. Still working at the University, but moving away from the Department of Electronic Engineering and moving to the Web Team. Finally all my hard work learning about web design seems to have paid off. Not only that but it’s the next grade up. I start on 25th October and as usual I’m a mix of nerves and excitement.
Of course that means that everyone is asking me to ‘just do this before you go’, the brand new level 1 students arrive next week and the returning students the week after, and with a work load like that it doesn’t seem possible to think of making anything.
So it’s no surprise that I’ve booked myself on a book binding evening class at the local Adult Ed Centre which kicks off this week.
And on top of all that I’ve only a week or so until the start of the next OU course.
Thank heavens for a supportive partner and home delivery by Sainsbury’s.

EA300 Children's Literature

A big box of OU text books was waiting on the door step when I got home last night. As always they look scary, but I’m sure they will be exciting and interesting once I get stuck in.
My only issue with the paper work is that the normal calendar, an A3 sheet which would show you what you should be doing each week and when TMA’s are due in, and the book with all the assignments in it are now only available over the web – on a site that doesn’t open until mid September. This is slightly disappointing and means I’ll be printing more things off myself this year. Viewing things on the web is all very well, but when I have things to do on a weekly basis I like a physical list that I can tick off, and when working on assignments I like something that I can doodle and make notes on.
Anyway, everything kicks off on 2nd October. I can’t wait.