Shanna Leino

Late Coptic Bookbinding

Course Description
Focusing on book production practiced in Egypt during the seventh to eleventh centuries, participants will each build a book with laminated papyrus boards, covered in elaborately worked leather. We will blind tool, punch, pierce, lace, and stitch the leather before covering the book. A peg and strap closure will be fashioned from bone or brass and leather. The range of textures, handwork techniques, and the feel and weight of the completed book are what make this structure particularly unique and exquisite!

Artist's Biography
Shanna works out of her studio in Harrisville, New Hampshire. Her studio work is focused on integrating historic binding methods into new book forms, and at the moment she is focused on creating small books with covers of carved bone. She also produces simple hand tools for book binders and craftspeople. Shanna has taught workshops for Columbia College Center for Book and Paper Arts, Wells Book Arts Summer Institute, The Center for Book Arts, and Penland School of Crafts.