I was invited to give a talk on Thursday 15th March to a large group of bookbinders at the Whitley Bay North East Adult Education class run by David King. It was a great morning and they all made me feel so welcome. The array of  books they were working on was a treat to see and the enthusiasm of the students inspiring. One gentleman had bound a book he had illustrated himself so beautifully with his own children’s story while others had family heirlooms which needed attention.

I gave a power point presentation for about 40 minutes on paper conservation, covering what causes damage to paper, how this is treated in art conservation and finally the challenges of applying some of these methods to book conservation. With such a different structure and function to 2D art objects, there really are many different considerations to take into account when treating books. Hopefully, my talk gave them some understanding of what to think about when they are faced with damaged pages within their books. 

Thank you to the Whitley Bay class and David King for a great morning. I wish you all lots of luck in your bookbinding endeavours.