The Collective Arts Event & Royal Brunei Air Fundraiser

 We were invited by The Collective to participate in the fundraiser event held at the Royal Brunei Recreational Club for the local Breast Cancer support group and YASKA Brunei (Children Cancer support group).  My partner in crime and I decided to come up with a pink book series where ALL of the sales from those books, we give to the fundraiser. We also added, sales from our non pink books, 50% will go towards them as well.

 We did this in memory of our late grandmother who passed away of cancer when our parents were still small. In memory of our favourite late aunt who passed away of breast cancer not so long ago. In memory of my husband's cousin who passed away last year leaving behind her children and husband. And to the survivors of relatives and friends who faught the battle and won... maybe minus a breast or two... *grin* **battle scars**

 We came out in full force, pretty much all the books we had between us. (And furiously finishing as many pink books as possible prior) And our table set up all awesome like, our mantra was, attract attract attract! So that's half the battle won, get them over to our table and buy buy buy! More buying means, more funds we raise :D

 We had people coming up very surprised to hear all the books were made by us. We had people who came looking specifically for us. We had people who came up and said they wished they didn't wait as the book they wanted was already gone. We had people who kept coming to the table several times and finally bit the bullet and bought. We had a mum who bought three in one go, one for her and one each for her daughters. We had people buying for early christmas presents. We We talked about our books, the type of binding each have, the workshops we can do, and promote our retreat coming up end of November.

This picture was taken half way through the afternoon and our pink books were flying! (Also table fully decorated) We moved whatever that's remotely pink from our non pink side to the pink side just to fill up the space the bought pink books left behind. We were on our feet all afternoon, taking sales, wrapping books, curling ribbons, thank you labels.

By the end of the day, I was only left with three A6 size secret belgian pink books, which two I had already given to friends who were survivors themselves.

We raise so much more than we expected and felt very proud of what we achieved to do. We thank The Collective for inviting us to participate and the wonderful set up of the place. We thank the people that came to the event. We thank those that bought our books. We thank you and are thankful. We exchanged our materials, time, effort and skills to raise as much as we could and we couldn't achieve that without your support.

Beautiful books for people with beautiful souls, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts <3 p="">

'Make A Book' Retreat Season 2 is Open For Registration!

 Click on image for a larger view. All info is in the flyers. Please feel free to contact for further inquiries. Limited spaces :)

The First Bookbinding Retreat

 I've always ran my workshops at home, and this year I decided to expand the horizon. On the 26-27 September, 9 people (10 including the host of Kunyit 7 Lodge) signed up for a bookbinding retreat. We held it at a bed and breakfast called Kunyit 7 Lodge located at the Water Village, Kampong Ayer, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. Its near enough to 'home' yet different enough for a holiday feel. With the cooperation of the owner of the B&B, we created a package, of an over night stay combined with a workshop on bookbinding.

The retreat started off with a group heading down to the lodge, and get settled in before the lodge host took the participants around the water village for a walking tour. The workshop was held after dinner.
 

The next morning was for the participants to test their muscle memory and made their second book with us watching over to help with steps they've forgotten.

The location, sights, sounds, scenery made the bookbinding workshop very memorable and a great experience for everyone.

For more photos, feel free to browse through the album here.

The Day I Got Introduced To Washi Tapes....

Coptic bound books with washi tape spine

I blame it on my cousin... She texted me one day saying we just signed up for a washi workshop. I was like, eh? Ok. Feeling open to the idea, always good to be a student. The best thing was, we get unlimited use of the washi that was available duration of the workshop. And we were encouraged to bring our own things to washi. Naturally I brought along three sets of book blocks, plan on washi-ing the spine.

 Sigh.... by end of workshop, I bought 15 rolls of washi tapes and well, needless to say, my coptic bound books have never been the same.

 The only thing I'm having a hard time with is trying to match my washi to my covers. And that chuck me into another dilemma, do I get more pretty paper to match my washi???

Instead, Im trying this route, use my cousin's washi collection to mix with mine to create more combination which hopefully will match the pretty paper I got at home waiting to be used up! Hehehe...

My Little Temporary Corner

I have a little corner in the house which is more stable temperature wise and also quite pretty I think... And I can actually see how many books I've been making. And honestly, this is probably one of the rare times when I do have a collection building up. Preparing for a charity event happening on the 18th October at one of the recreational club in town (RBRC). Unfortunately after what happened thanks to the fiasco involved preparing for the book retreat, I am all out of boards. Until I can get some cut, there will be no books to make for a while... *cry cry cry*

Lets admire back at the books. Currently am in love with coptic binding with washi-ed spine and secret belgian binding. So I guess until I run out of ideas of washi combination, you'll be seeing a lot of these for a while.

Fixing The Ong Kiat Family Tree Publication

A while back, I was asked if I could help fix a family tree book. I asked to have a look at the book first to see how fixable it was. The leaves have fallen out and it was a perfect binding, as expected. This kind of binding will never last, unless you never open the book. And in this case, it being a family tree book, definitely it will be looked through many a times.

Two options, I could redo the perfect binding as it was before, OR I give it a new binding that WILL last the many times the book will be flipped through over and over but it means I will have to physically mar the book.

Client chose the latter and I chose the stab binding method for it.

Stab binding literally involved stabbing all the way through the thickness of the book. In this case, a power drill helps. Also since we don't have that much allowance, a smaller drill bit was chosen.

Using a neutral bookbinding thread, I added a bit of detail with the spacing of the holes, subtle and smart.

The overall look, I felt the new binding added on to the appeal of the book. It is a strong binding, and they can look through the book to their hearts content. I'm pretty proud of this fix.

The client was happy, but I was a bit insulted when she asked how strong was the thread -__-

Seriously?!?

Sigh... I am aware people do not know. Or just don't know. Bookbinding threads are strong. They can be used to stitch leather. They. Will. Last. Forever if you don't put anything sharp to intently cut it.

For me, the statement hits on my credibility. The trust. The knowledge. The years.

Maybe the client had been burned before by others. Who knows. Cool part about it was I caught myself, all these feelings. And put it down to, do not take it personally. And left it as that. Notch it up to another personal growth experience.

Bookbinding Retreat @ Kunyit 7 Lodge

 Soooooooooooooooo looking forward to this retreat! We are going to have a great time! Got few more spots left, , got a couple of surprises in store for those signed up. This is a win win for everybody!

 The first time we stayed an Kunyit 7 Lodge, it was a wonderfully fun time. We had a proboscis monkey boat ride experience, a gorgeous sunset view, beautiful light up of the landmark mosque it was practically glowing. And had such a fun evening session bookbinding nobody wanted to go to bed.

Hoping to have that fun again. Its close enough to home, yet far away and different enough.  If you got nothing planned on those dates of 26th - 27th September, we love to have you join us! More details on the retreat in the brochure images in this post! (click on photos for a larger view)