| Title | Information |
| Instructor | Brenda Gallagher |
| Skill Level | Intermediate |
| Length of Workshop | 2 days |
| Date(s) | Saturday, June 27, and Sunday, June 28, 2026 |
| Cost | $175 per day x 2 days + $60 material fee |
| Total Price of Workshop | $410 |
Workshop Description
Create beautiful designs for your books with the heat foil pen. Each student will receive a brand-new heated foil pen with multiple nibs that they can take home at the end of class. Brenda will provide a rainbow of foil options for students to use in class. Students will also be invited to cut a length of each color to take home for future projects.
On day one, we’ll begin experimenting with the heated pen tool to learn which technique yields the best results. We’ll experiment on different materials: paper, bookcloth, and leather. We’ll practice lettering, drawing shapes and designs, and layering multiple colors and patterns. Once students are confident with the heated pen tool, we’ll plan our final design for the finished book. In the afternoon we’ll make tracing-paper templates of our final designs and create these in foil on the bookcloth for our finished book.
On day two we’ll fold text-weight paper into signatures for our book. We’ll sew a multi-signature link-stitch text block, tip on colorful endsheet pages, consolidate the spine, add machined end band material, then make a flat-back case with our foil-decorated bookcloth. Finished text blocks will then be cased in to the decorative foil-embellished case. If time allows, additional designs can be added to the books after casing in.
Prerequisites (participants should know how to):
- Thread a needle and wax the thread
- Determine paper grain and match the grain of different components of a book
- Fold paper using a bonefolder and assemble signatures
- Sew a kettle stitch
- Glue up paper or cloth to cover binder’s board
- Simple sewn text block for codex book
Materials/Equipment to be Provided by Students
- Please buy or bring a USB wall charger. The pen tool does NOT come with a plug so everyone will need one of these: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hypergear-high-speed-12w-usb-wall-charger-for-iphones-tablets-white/6562896.p?skuId=6562896 or https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-One-Port-USB-Wall-Charger/dp/B0773BHCV1?th=1
- Bonefolder
- Teflon folder
- Awl
- Needle
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Scissors
- X-Acto knife
- White pencil eraser
- Crepe eraser
- Cutting mat
- Small triangle (https://www.riogrande.com/product/zona-stainless-steel-triangle-ruler-3/116118GP/?code=116118)
- Blue painter’s tape
See Materials Glossary for definitions and images
Materials/Equipment to be Provided by Instructor
- Brand-new heated pen tool for each student use to create designs in class and to take home after the class, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGF879HD
- Foils in a rainbow of colors
- Foam core strips for punching
- Glue
- Glue brushes
- Japanese paper for spine consolidation
- Mull
- Colored flysheet paper
- Thread
- Machined end band material
- Sketching paper for paper signatures of final book
- Bookcloth
- Book board
- Spine card
- Blue tape
- Mylar pieces
- Tracing paper
- Scrap paper
Instructor Biography
Brenda Gallagher is a graphic designer, book artist, and design fine bookbinder. She is an enthusiastic teacher of letterpress and bookbinding for students of all ages. Brenda is a graduate of the American Academy of Bookbinding in Telluride where she earned a diploma of design fine binding.
Instagram: @bgallagher4
