Dragon Book Camp 2025
- Overview
- Fees
- Class Descriptions
- Booking
- tab 5
- tab 6
- tab 7
- tab 8
- tab 9
- tab 10
- tab 11
- tab 12
- tab 13
- tab 14
- tab 15
- tab 16
- tab 17
- tab 18
- tab 19
- tab 20
Join us in the beautiful West Wales countryside for a bookbinding workshop retreat. The fully-equipped studio is housed in former barns and stables of our historic home and the grounds provide a haven from everyday life. We will enjoy learning, eating and relaxing together.
Our 2025 summer residential event comprises one four-day workshop and one two-day workshop, with a "fun day" inbetween.
14 June
15-18 June
19 June
20-21 June
22 June
Student arrivals
Springback binding; tutor Dieter Räder
Fun day in the studio
Girdle book; tutor Thomas Schmitz
Student departures
Springback binding; tutor Dieter Räder
Fun day in the studio
Girdle book; tutor Thomas Schmitz
Student departures
Registration is flexible. While we encourage attendance for the whole event in order to fully benefit from a good period of time immersed in extending your skills, the classes can be individually booked.
Fees include all workshop materials and meals.
Accommodation in the house is available to book on a first-come/first-served basis, as well as a couple of pre-erected, comfortably furnished tents; camping with your own gear is free. Otherwise there are several local B&Bs.
Classes are limited to eight students so tutors can give each person individual attention: enrol early to secure your place!
Springback binding workshop
Studio fun day
Girdle book workshop
Accommodation per night room in the house
Accommodation per night in provided tent
Bringing your own tent
Studio fun day
Girdle book workshop
Accommodation per night room in the house
Accommodation per night in provided tent
Bringing your own tent
£600
£100 (Use of equipment, selection of materials and tutor assistance)
£300
£35
£10
FREE
£100 (Use of equipment, selection of materials and tutor assistance)
£300
£35
£10
FREE
Get your printable booking form here
-
Springback binding
- Springback binding with Dieter Rãder
In 1799, John Joseph Williams patented a new method of binding that later became commonly known as the “springback”. Although aesthetically this development in stationery binding owed much to earlier styles, with leather over-bands laced on with strips of vellum, it was a radical leap in binding structure.
The springback, with its unique lever action, enables completely flat opening of the textblock in order to make manuscript entries of accounts or other official records. These bindings are extremely robust and were produced in vast quantities throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Any serious student of bookbinding should have a good knowledge of the techniques involved, not only to inform appropriate repair treatment but also because they will be invaluable in the creation of new bindings.
The workshop will lead you step-by-step in creating an approximately A4-size model of this important historical structure.
-
Girdle book
- Girdle book with Thomas Schmitz
Girdle books were worn between the 13th and 16th centuries. The covering leather extended at the foot of the binding in a loose tail with a Turk’s Head knot at the end for tucking securely into a girdle or belt; the book hung upside-down to be swung up for reading. As well as being convenient for hands-free carrying and affording protection from theft, they were a highly visible marker of literacy, social standing and wealth. Normally religious in subject and frequently depicted carried by saints in paintings, they were also popular accessories for lay women. The bindings were often plain but sometimes highly decorated.
You will create a simplified version of a girdle book during the workshop as an introduction to this fascinating type of binding.
Tutors / Organisers
- Thomas Schmitz
- Dieter Räder
- Philippa Räder
- Dominic Riley
- tab 5
- tab 6
- tab 7
- tab 8
- tab 9
- tab 10
- tab 11
- tab 12
- tab 13
- tab 14
- tab 15
- tab 16
- tab 17
- tab 18
- tab 19
- tab 20
Thomas Schmitz
Master Bookbinder: 42 years of self-employed bookbinding; more than 30 years as an instructor.
Education in schools, craft workshops for children and young people, craft shops for adults, Intensive training for bookbinders preparing to qualify as a Master Bookbinder.
Versatile knowledge of binding techniques and material properties.
Master Bookbinder: 42 years of self-employed bookbinding; more than 30 years as an instructor.
Education in schools, craft workshops for children and young people, craft shops for adults, Intensive training for bookbinders preparing to qualify as a Master Bookbinder.
Versatile knowledge of binding techniques and material properties.
Dieter Räder
Dieter has been binding books for the past forty years. He started by serving a full bookbinding apprenticeship in Germany before spending a year teaching bookbinding, then working for two years as a bookbinder in Marseilles and Vienna. Arriving in the UK in 1983 for a holiday, he decided to stay and worked in London for two years under the guidance of Robert Green, specializing in the restoration of antiquarian books and fine bindings. In the early nineties he opened his own bindery in Somerset which he ran for over eighteen years. In 2009 Dieter established and managed the new fine binding and restoration department of a commercial bindery in west London, where he also held workshops. In early 2017, Dieter returned to full-time private practice. His clients range from individual private collectors and booksellers to major university libraries, museums, and the Royal Collection.
Dieter has been binding books for the past forty years. He started by serving a full bookbinding apprenticeship in Germany before spending a year teaching bookbinding, then working for two years as a bookbinder in Marseilles and Vienna. Arriving in the UK in 1983 for a holiday, he decided to stay and worked in London for two years under the guidance of Robert Green, specializing in the restoration of antiquarian books and fine bindings. In the early nineties he opened his own bindery in Somerset which he ran for over eighteen years. In 2009 Dieter established and managed the new fine binding and restoration department of a commercial bindery in west London, where he also held workshops. In early 2017, Dieter returned to full-time private practice. His clients range from individual private collectors and booksellers to major university libraries, museums, and the Royal Collection.
Philippa Räder
An Accredited Conservator-Restorer member of the Institute of Conservation (Icon) and a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation. She co-runs Dragon Press Bindery, specialising in books, manuscripts and archives conservation as well as letterpress-printing commissions.
A graduate in English from Cambridge University, Philippa trained in book and paper conservation at the Getty Research Institute, California. As well as practising privately, she has held positions at the Huntington Library in California, The National Archives in Kew and the Royal Collection Trust, where she was Head of the Royal Bindery in Windsor Castle until September 2019.
As a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Stationers, Philippa serves on its charitable foundation committee that provides financial assistance to students enrolled in education within the trades of the Company, and mentors award recipients who are training in conservation. She is a Trustee of Icon as well as a Continuing Professional Development review assessor and student mentor, and a conference abstract submissions reviewer for the International Association of Book & Paper Conservators.
Philippa is also a Director of Cyswllt-Cadwraeth/Connect-Conserve CIC (Connect), a not-for-profit social enterprise that works to connect heritage collections with Wales-based accredited conservators in order to deliver preservation/conservation projects, as well as to provide collections care training to conservators, curators and students in Wales. She deputises for the founder of Connect on the Committee of the Welsh Federation of Museums.
An Accredited Conservator-Restorer member of the Institute of Conservation (Icon) and a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation. She co-runs Dragon Press Bindery, specialising in books, manuscripts and archives conservation as well as letterpress-printing commissions.
A graduate in English from Cambridge University, Philippa trained in book and paper conservation at the Getty Research Institute, California. As well as practising privately, she has held positions at the Huntington Library in California, The National Archives in Kew and the Royal Collection Trust, where she was Head of the Royal Bindery in Windsor Castle until September 2019.
As a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Stationers, Philippa serves on its charitable foundation committee that provides financial assistance to students enrolled in education within the trades of the Company, and mentors award recipients who are training in conservation. She is a Trustee of Icon as well as a Continuing Professional Development review assessor and student mentor, and a conference abstract submissions reviewer for the International Association of Book & Paper Conservators.
Philippa is also a Director of Cyswllt-Cadwraeth/Connect-Conserve CIC (Connect), a not-for-profit social enterprise that works to connect heritage collections with Wales-based accredited conservators in order to deliver preservation/conservation projects, as well as to provide collections care training to conservators, curators and students in Wales. She deputises for the founder of Connect on the Committee of the Welsh Federation of Museums.
Dominic Riley is a bookbinder, artist, lecturer and teacher. He studied Art History and English at Leeds University, and bookbinding at the London College of Printing. He lived for ten years in San Francisco, where he founded the bookbinding programme at the Center for the Book: he returns there each summer to teach. He has his bindery in Cheshire, from where he travels across the UK teaching and lecturing. He specializes in restoration and design binding, has won many prizes in various competitions, and was elected Fellow of Designer Bookbinders in 2008. He has written extensively on the history of the craft, and his two major articles, on Cloth Rebacking and Millimetre Binding, were published in Bookbinder, the journal of SoB. His bindings are in collections worldwide, including the British Library, the Grolier Club in New York and the V&A. In 2013 he won first prize, the Sir Paul Getty Award, in the International Bookbinding Competition. Dominic co-founded both the SoB Seminar and the SoB/DB joint workshop series. Earlier in 2019 he taught at Centro del Bel Libro in Ascona, Switzerland, and presented at the Australian Conference, followed by a teaching tour in Australia and New Zealand. He is President of the Society of Bookbinders.
Examples of Dominic’s work
Dragon Press Bindery Ltd
Ynyswen, Nantgaredig,
Carmarthen, SA32 7PG
Ynyswen, Nantgaredig,
Carmarthen, SA32 7PG
Company Number
10772518
Registered in England & Wales
10772518
Registered in England & Wales
Support
© 2025 Dragon Press Bindery