Are you an artist, photographer, or writer looking for a creative way to display your works? This class will teach you a variety of ways to make your own personal books for presenting your writing, drawing, or photographs.
Learn various techniques for developing a unique product with different folds and binding structures, including: accordion folds, pamphlet binding, pamphlet with variations of dos-a-dos, and simple zines.
As the workshop progresses, the complexity of the book structures will gradually increase, helping you grow your skills with each session.
This program meets live online.
Instructor: Maria Rebelo, photographer
Age: 16 and older
Course number: P201
Instructor
Maria Rebelo, photographer
Maria Rebelo has been teaching photography at The Morton Arboretum since 2017. She is a macro and event photographer, currently working on a project with Pousadas de Portugal. Rebelo has been the photographer for the blog Salt of Portugal since 2011. She also teaches bookbinding, a skill she became interested in as a way to make artistic books for her own photographic images.
What to Know
This program takes place on Zoom.
Please purchase a supply kit or supplies in advance of the program.
Supply kits can be ordered from Amazon (prices range from $7.00 for a basic bookbinding kit to $35.00 for a kit with additional supplies and a book press) or from Colophon Book Arts, which offers a basic kit popular among bookbinders.
A suggested materials list is as follows:
- Awl, retractable knife, needles, thread, scissors, ruler, brush, bone folder—found in most kits
- Pencil, beeswax, glue, and glue stick
- Paper for inside books: 20-lb copy machine paper, 50-lb or 80-lb sulphite drawing paper
- Paper for soft covers: Canson, Fabiano, 100-lb or 65-lb card stock, watercolor paper
- Decorative paper for book covers
- Wax paper
- Scrap paper or newsprint (the instructor saves the paper that comes with packing)
- Old phone books, fat magazines, or catalogues to use for punching holes
- Book board
- Cutting mat
Supplies are available from the following retailers:
- Hollanders
- Talas Supplies
- Dick Blick
- Amazon
- Paper Source
- Michael’s
Program Schedule
This program meets the following three times.
Thursday, February 5, 2026, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Thursday, February 12, 2026, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Thursday, February 19, 2026, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Zoom
