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Edwige Birlouez often houspille his students do not take the right action and shows how to do with all the art and the manner of a worthy of the name bookbinder. But without an ounce of malice or even excessive severity. The founder of the Golden workshops, school of bookbinding and installed wash trades training in the cited medieval Semur-en-Auxois in Côte-d'Or, never betrays its nature: passionate, overflowing and a nothing directive. He had well these qualities to mount all parts this private institution after many difficulties and worthy of a was wanderings. She adds today a sacred dose tenacity to transform, here a year, its establishment in University of the book, more widely open to other panels related to writing, printing, but also in management, marketing and new technologies.

A true priesthood

It all started for her at the age of twelve years in a College of Perpignan where courses in practical work introduced it to the binding. "And this more dropped me during the rest of my studies and my first professional life at move forty-six years my CAP to the Central Union of the arts décoratifs (Ucad)," explains the Director of the Golden workshops. During the twelve years she spent at the Centre of industrial superior studies, in charge of marketing and communication, it will continue to improve the preservation of this living heritage, symbol of knowledge and the transmission of knowledge is the book. "This job has meaning and gives the meaning", proclaims forever. Undisputed master of the binding in France, Anne-Marie Pierre, his mentor, he blows the idea of creating his own school in 1998. "I wanted to make at the outset in a village of craftspeople, hence the name workshops, and gold since I had chosen to settle in Côte - d'Or", says Edwige Birlouez.

Then begins a long wandering, punctuated by step badly of galleys, to find a drop point adapted to this kind of education that will last for two years before Semur-en-Auxois he offers, in a former College, large enough to prosper local.

New walls

Unique, the Golden workshops bookbinder training CAP form continuous learning and full-time. Sessions, 1,200 hours of which 400 past business, lasted nine months. Students come from the world of the book and are either booksellers, librarians or archivists, or as teachers of French and have all the manual capacity. 1,500 Hours, Edwige Birlouez form also in the bindery of the employees in training and the unemployed individual leave. In ten years, on the 60 allowed people, 20 are now working on their own account and a small ten have found a place.

Tomorrow, the future University of the book aims to attract every year 250 students from around the world. "We will go the associative status to that of private company and we want to build a building at least 1,250 m2 nine", argues the Director. A partnership is envisaged with the centre of graphic arts of the farmhouse Bruyère, Parly, in the Yonne Department. Through exchanges between the two institutions, students will complete their courses by an approach of lithography, letterpress and printmaking. Creativity and performance courses will be available to executives of companies with organ point for the narration of the history of their company printed in a book. To complete these projects, Edwige Birlouez, fifty years, known to convince. With, as weight argument engraved in letters of gold in his school, this quote taken from Dostoevsky: "the people are civilized when they link their books."

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