cbl-Newsletter 1/2023

An aera has ended.
On 10th of December we said a celebratory goodbye to Suzanne Schmollgruber and Alice Fisher at a small celebratory event. Apart from the steering commitee a few members and some honorary members had travelled to Ascona for this event. The two women and their work were each honoured in an extensive laudatio by our chair, Dieter Kläy. For Suzanne it specifically mentioned her creativity in putting together the course program (from amateur bookbinding to clever book structures). She also worked extensively in the organisation of the course work and representing the centro de bel libro in and outside of Switzerland. She is due credit for many more aspects of her 13-year activity for the cbl. Alice Fischer provided essential support working alongside Suzanne during the last four years. Her many language and organisational skills proved to be a great asset in this respect. The appreciation by words was underlined by a number of goodbye presents. Many thanks to all who assisted in this with ideas or deed!

We all enjoyed a few hours in the suntrap of Switzerland «Ticino», which really lived up to it’s name on this special day.

A new era begins.
In the still young new year 2023 the new structure of the cbl will begin to unfold.  
The course progamm 2023 is online on our own webpage as usual www.cbl-ascona.
And on the homepage of our external course location «Schule für Gestaltung in Zürich», www.sfgz.ch the course program of cbl can be reached with a single click.

We would like to draw your attention to the first few courses that we offer in the said locations.

We will rethink traditional sewing of a text block by incorporating non-traditional materials as structural elements in a binding. This allows us to build books that move and function beautifully while also taking on the challenges, for example, of having thick or heavy pages, varied dimensionality, or pop-up structures. We will also take a look at a variety of ways to create articulating spines that provide increased flexibility and allow for optimal opening of a book as well as adding a beautiful architectural element to a binding.

Need some space for your ideas, notes and sketches? Would you like to bind notebooks yourself, working with your hands? In this class you will experiment with binding, covers to your booklets and book binding ideas. We fold, cut, sew, punch and screw. You learn binding techniques and creative approaches which allow you to create single and multi-layer booklets at home. You will bind a handful of booklets and go home with a stack of your own amazing booklet samples.

Techniques from two traditional crafts combine and complement each other. The results are leporello-like objects with hard covers, folded connections for single pages and postcards, or stitched brochures with a flexible, folded cover. In folded booklets with slide-in compartments, sections or compartments can be inserted to create aesthetic and practical book objects. In the course, you will learn individual techniques, receive instructions for functional combinations or realise your own objects and ideas. The course instructor is inspired by traditional and modern origami and combines this with her work in hand bookbinding.

Administration:
centro del bel libro ascona
Viale St. Franscini 30
CH-6500 Bellinzona - Switzerland

School:
centro del bel libro ascona
Bookbinding and design
Via Collegio 17
CH-6612 Ascona - Switzerland

www.cbl-ascona.ch
+41 (0) 91 825 11 62
info@cbl-ascona.ch