Surely while you were doing eternal scrolling between reels, you got dozens of binding videos. On TikTok and Instagram, the hashtags related to assembling books by hand have millions of views and likes. If it is the latest fashion craft Furthermore, this Sant Jordi has experienced an obvious ‘boom’.
To try it, you have several options in Barcelona. For example, there is Naikare (Roger de Flor, 142), a small place in Eixample dedicated to the magic of bookbinding. Have store —where you can buy cute handmade diaries and notebooks—, a twhere they repair booksin case you are very fond of one and it breaks, and, of course, a school where they teach through courses different briefs techniques of binding.
In their courses it doesn’t matter what you want to bind, whether it’s from a school diary to Pedro Sánchez’s love letter to his Begoña Gómez, everything will be beautiful, they promise. Mercè Capellthe master bookbinder, describes Naikare as a temple for “all of us who love paper books, its texture, its colors, its illustrations”, “a place to learn the fine art of handmade bookbinding”.
The courses are varied and are focused on different binding techniques. For example, the next one, this weekend (Saturday, the 27th), is dedicated to make cases to protect books. In May and June There will be more workshops, these focused on Coptic binding —with pages and covers sewn—and loose cover binding —that is, “the books that we have seen all our lives, that stick together with glue,” as Mercè describes it.
Of course, their knowledge is not only limited to the classroom. On her Instagram, Mercè publishes little tips to the ‘Bricomania’ about how to bind. Every now and then a viral is recorded, surpassing the 100 thousand views and 10 thousand likes‘. The key to success? A very wide smile, a lot of grace, a very easy step by step and the occasional meme.
She is not the only expert in this art. Another option is Trapitos al sol (Casa Flo, calle Sant Antoni, 4), the studio of Flo Garriga. She also offers specialized courses in different types of binding. For example, one very popular on TikTok, Japanese binding, which consists of joining pages and spines using threads with shapes that, in addition to being very Instagrammable, are easy to make. A perfect new hobby for setting up your own publishing label by laying out your favorite readings.
