BIO
Ali was first introduced to book structures while gaining a distinction in City & Guilds Creative Techniques in Textiles. She went on to study as a mature student at Heriot Watt University, gaining a 1st Class Honours degree in Textile Design in 2018. Captivated by bookbinding, her training began with SOB tutor Mark Ramsden to represent and present her Honours Project. Her education continued with 1 to 1 tuition from Tom McEwan, Mark Cockram, and Kathy Abbott.
Her passion for textiles continues to influence her work, often incorporating stitch and fabric into her designs.
In 2025 she won the Designer Bookbinders Ludlow Bookbinders prize for The Complete Book, and became a Licentiate of Designer Bookbinders 2026.
Ali works from her bindery in Shetland, creating fine bindings and artist books.
Edward Lear’s Complete Nonsense by Edward Lear
Illustrated by Quentin Blake
Folio Society, 1996
225 x 160 x 33mm
Bound in 2026
For Sale: £850
Full leather binding. Back pared leather onlays with hand embroidery. Acrylic painted edges and hand sewn silk endbands. Leather doublures and hand coloured endpapers.
Designed to reflect Edward Lear’s clever and inventive wordplay. Each book surface is a ‘nonsense’ of collected letters until the book is opened to reveal the Author’s name and the word ‘nonsense’. The edge decoration colouring, and style are a prequel the bold and sketchy illustrations within. Endpapers are enlarged samples of the Author’s own handwriting.
Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones
Illustrated by Alison Bryant
The Folio Society, 2023, London
225 x 160 x 35mm
Bound in 2025
For sale: £800
Bound in Harmatan leather and vintage fabric, laced onto boards.
Edges coloured with acrylic, tooled and rough edge gilded. Hand sewn endbands.
Endpapers, and doublures hand painted and decorated with scorched edges and graphite drawing.
Designed to reflect the luxurious fabric folds of Chrestomanci’s elegant silk gowns. The endpapers have been decorated using acrylic inks and charcoal with scorched edges, the singed matches representing Cat’s lives. The fantastical movement and colour between worlds is expressed in the edge decoration.
Lines of Time by Ali Halley
Artist Book printed and Stitched by the Author
195 x 195 x 27mm
Bound in 2025
For sale: £280
A drum leaf binding bound in Harmatan leather. Hand printed linen, machine and hand stitched, worked onto and into 300gsm Two Rivers Paper.
A study of Jedburgh Abbey, reflecting on timeworn layers, and ever changing lines. Eroded by nature and generations of service. Worn fragments of the past, taking their stories into the future. The layers, combinations, materials, methods, and cultures within in the Abbey’s past, are represented by the varying use of layers and techniques within the book.
GET IN TOUCH
Email: Ali@alihalley.co.uk
Instagram: @theshetlandbinder
Website: www.alihalley.co.uk
Accepts Commissions: Yes
