Craftsmanship

CRAFTSMANSHIP is not an academic subject, and no craft can be mastered by learning about it from a book. It is empirical knowledge that counts in producing a skilled craftsman, since a craft is a practical matter. Long hours of work at the bench are necessary, repeating operation after operation, before the eye can be trained, the hand made skillful, and the mind, eye, and hand coordinated.

It is axiomatic that a practical performance or demonstration of how to do a thing is more vivid than a mere verbal explanation of how a thing should be done. And when a demonstration is not possible, I think the next best way of learning to perform a manual task is to have before one a picture or graph which illustrates the process contemplated, since most people are visual-minded.

Edith Diehl 1876-1953

Ms. Diehl studied with Jules Domont in Paris; with Louis Jacobs and J. De Buyl in Brussels, and eventually established her own book-bindery in New York City. When Columbia University established bookbinding classes in 1934, she was among the first instructors.

Bookbinding: Its Background and Technique