Book Binding with Abbie Mooney

Materials

Black ink

White ink

paint brushes of varying sizes

Strong cotton thread

Needle

Awl

Ruler

Coloured card and paper

pencils and pens

Steps

1. Paint your lettering onto a piece of coloured card. You can get modern calligraphy designs from the internet to help you. I created a booklet honouring my time at university, so I got the lettering from the universities logos off their websites. This formed the front cover for my booklet.

   
   

   

   Lettering

   
   

2. Fill your booklet with pages of maps, photos and memorabilia. Here are some examples of my pages.

   
   

   

   Self-drawn map of memorable places in Yorkshire relevant to my undergraduate degree in History and Master's degree in Medieval Studies.

   
   

   

   My graduation from York St John's University

   
   
   
   

   

   My grades from my undergraduate degree and the modules I took.

   3. Follow Abbie Mooney's Pamphlet Stitch Beginner's Guide to prepare your pages and sew your book together.

   
   

   

This session was one of the more challenging ones as it took a lot of precision to get the lettering and sew the book together correctly, but I really enjoyed the chance to create my own booklet! This is definitely a handy skill to have when planning out your own projects, you can use a self-made notebook to keep notes!! Why not give it a try for yourself?

Abbie Mooney is a local artist with a Master's degree from Leeds Arts University. She runs a number of workshops in printing and book binding across Leeds. Why not follow her on Instagram? https://www.instagram.com/mooneyabbie/