Octavofest Mini-Book Pin Making Workshop

Bookbinding can itself be something of a mystery, as each book has its reason for falling apart and its own best way to be repaired. Ellen Strong loves a good mystery! Strong's book career started in New York as a bookseller at Barnes and Noble. Back in Cleveland she worked at the legendary Publix Book Mart before opening her own shop, Coventry Books, in 1972. Dealing with both new and used books, Strong became fascinated by the technology of book construction and curious about the techniques of book repair. While still a bookseller, she first studied with retired bookbinder, Walter Flick and later with a master bookbinder Jean Gunner for 5 years at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh. Ellen Strong is a life-long Cleveland Heights resident has been repairing broken and tattered books more than 30 years for individuals, libraries, and institutions. For a dozen years she was a book conservator at Kelvin Smith Library at Case Western Reserve University. She teaches bookbinding at Strong Bindery. Classes include: Beginning Bookbinding, Intermediate Bookbinding, and Advanced Bookbinding; Paper Marbling; Box Making, Leather Binding, Box Making, and various other aspects of binding. In 2005, after a 20 year run at the Murray Hill School, her business, Strong Bindery, moved to Loganberry Books, 13015 Larchmere Blvd. where it presently resides. Do stop in or email her at strongbind@hotmail.com.