Workshop Japanese Bookbinding for beginners

Product detailed description

You will design the covers according to your own taste using original The Pepin Press designs with traditional Japanese patterns. The workshop is suitable for complete beginners as well as slightly advanced participants, not suitable for children, and is English friendly. Capacity is limited to 6 participants to ensure individual guidance.

Key information:

• Capacity: 6 people / workshop
• Duration: 2 hours
• Location: kaš-mi-daš, Janovského 33, Prague 7 (map)
• Experience: for beginners and slightly advanced
• Workshop language: Czech, English

The workshop price includes

• 2-hour course with expert instruction
• use of all necessary tools and materials
• two original notebooks that you create and take home
• unlimited non-alcoholic drinks from our café

How to get here

Janovského 33, Prague 7, 170 00 (a street parallel to Dukelských hrdinů)

• Trams 6 and 17, stop Veletržní palác (approx. 1 minute on foot)
• Metro Vltavská (approx. 7 minutes on foot)
• Parking at OC Stromovka (approx. 4 minutes on foot)

What the workshop can bring you

• a pause with slow and focused handcraft
• understanding the principles of traditional Japanese bookbinding
• the joy of creating your own notebook from the first sheet to the final stitch
• inspiration for further bookbinding and paper projects

The workshop connects creativity with traditional craftsmanship. It is not only about stitching technique, but about perceiving detail, rhythm, and structure – a process in which individual sheets gradually transform into a finished book.

Workshop outline

The workshop takes place in the calm, focused atmosphere of the kaš-mi-daš stationery universe and includes these approximate stages:

Introduction to Japanese binding

• presentation of the history and principles of this technique
• introduction to tools and materials
• demonstration of a basic stitching pattern

Material preparation

• mixing colors and working with intensity
• layering and simple effects
• step-by-step demonstrations of proven techniques

Creating your own notebook

• selecting paper and cover design
• aligning and preparing the sheets
• preparing holes for stitching

Hand stitching and assembly

• learning the basic Japanese binding pattern
• gradual stitching under the instructor’s guidance
• final completion and finishing touches

At the end of the workshop, you will take home two finished original notebooks along with the knowledge of the process, which you can continue to develop.

Your instructor

Instructor Natálie

My name is Natálie Lepičová, and books are my great passion. At first, I was just an avid reader, but later, while studying Book and Paper Design at the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art in Pilsen, I became a bookbinder who loves paper, textures, and colors.

Paper is not just a material for everyday use; it can take on an endless variety of forms and appeal to all our senses. Through my classes, I’d like to share the experience I’ve gained working with this material, as well as the joy that shaping it can bring us.