Buku Hantaran: Green & Pink with Blings!

 This order came from a long time follower, she even wanted to join the book classes I conducted but due to circumstances she could not.

 And now finally, she's getting engaged! And naturally, she wants a folder of her own.

The first part of the request was blings! Lots and lots of blings. With light green and pink.

I have come to realise as much as I have the colours requested to start me off, I don't really know how the whole look will come together until I selected the base, and everything that goes along with it. In this case, I decided to go with the pink with white sakura print base, it had purple sakura too but that got hidden by the green and pink roses going on there. And the white sakura works well for the green heart gems I added on top.

 

Added more pink gems in heart and round shapes, and a darker shade of pink rhinestones. I used a large dark pink gem for the centerpiece as a highlight to all the pinks that is going around. The platform echoed the print that is happening on the inside of the folder.

Since I was already going with the sakura print outside, I decided to follow along for the inside, except it has a white base with pink sakura and green leaves. Just to add emphasis on the blings I put some on the inside covers too.

The folder came out pretty girly, and the client was very happy, and she's looking forward to her function that will happen beginning of the year so she can get the folder back for her to keep.

Colours: The Meaning of Combinations in Feng Shui...

I only just learned this, it was too good not to share, extracted from Lillian Too - Feng Shui Master, also a belated Christmas greetings to all my fellow readers and followers in blogland, craftsville and artisans..

Wow - I just love all the bright lights and vibrant colors at this time of year - it's so energizing and uplifting! I was thinking today that the colour combination of green and red that we see everywhere now usually suggests Christmas to most Westerners... but to the Chinese feng shui practitioner green and red is the best colour combination for generating fame luck, popularity and recognition.

Yes, green and red is a combination that means success... green strengthens red based on the productive cycle of the five elements... wood feeds fire with power and energy. So here's a tip you can use long after the Christmas season is over... to bring good fortune to the family and especially success that benefits the sons in the family use the combination of green and red in their rooms after they have passed the age of twelve years. 

Which red color is best? The most auspicious red colours to use are cinnabar red, New Year red and ox blood red. 

Now if you're after money and successful business deals then silver and purple are excellent colors to use... because the words silver and purple sound like ngan chee in Cantonese which means money. So this combination - purple with silver has very powerful connotations for wealth luck. In fact, purple alone is a powerful and very prosperous colour.

Colours are very effective irrespective of which feng shui method you use and can be used in your home according to the location of the sector being decorated or based on your individual kua number. If you don't know your kua number you can easily find it by going to www.wofs.com and you'll find the kua calculator in the upper right corner of the screen. 

So... and a Happy New Year to one and all!!

Buku Hantaran: Green, Blue & Silver

 An A5 no fuss no muss folder

A request for a simple folder, green and silver initially. Then I asked for a third colour which was blue. Then the colour green got complicated, it was 'lime-green-but-a-tad-darker'... Looked around the environment for inspiration for that one, banana leaf green? Could it be...? Usually lime green is brilliant with yellow, I'm not sure which shade green goes with silver though, apart from emerald green, that would go with silver. But emerald green is no where near lime green that is a tad darker.

Confused much, totally.

Then I got another email, 'as long as it's green'. Ok, I can work with that. The rest of the request was minimal flowers, bow would be fine. Simple.

I have this particular stripy silk green with a blue undertone material which goes well with the particular blue I have paired up with before and decided to go use the combination. To add interest to the material I added gem hearts and rhinestones. To be honest I thought I was using white rhinestones as a family for silver, I only realised I used citrine yellow when I was taking the pictures. Oops...

For the silver component of the request I did a centerpiece with silver border and used the metal silver flowers for the center, using more of the gems to tie the whole look together.

I must say it's a totally different taste to what I usually produce, but it was also a nice challenge and I get to use a different type of flowers that had been knocking around my studio for so long I wondered if I ever will use them. And finally I have!

The First Public Appearance

One day I got a call from the Chairperson of the Brunei Library Association 25th Anniversary inviting me to be part of their Regional Conference on Library, Archives and Museums to give a presentation. Wow, I'm honoured that I got asked. The next question was, what do you want me to present? The answer was, anything I like. Ok, that was a bit odd of an answer I thought. Then the chairperson continued how she was impressed with my book works, the books and folders, I've been producing. She asked if I could perhaps do a demonstration or talk about my books and bring samples. So I agreed.

At first I thought maybe I could do a workshop, but I only have an hour slot and I didn't think it was enough time. Then I thought maybe I could talk about the bindings, that'll be different, everyone else is going to talk about the text and images printed on pages of books, I can talk about the structure of a book!

I had it all laid out, slides that shows the many other types of binding and structures, collected samples of books I've made borrowed from the various people who had bought or given that I could contact. Needless to say I was quite nervous and didn't know what to expect as the date I'm scheduled to be on got nearer and nearer. By the morning of the day I was to present that afternoon, I was wound up tight.

When I went to the International Convention Centre, I had my support system with me, my husband took the afternoon off from work, my toddler and my two cousins. We were armed and ready, all the books, book stands and pendrive in a bag. When we got to the ICC there was no sign to show the conference was held there. Made a quick call to find out if we were at the right location or not. Turned out the sign got taken down early and got directions to where we needed to go.

The place was quiet, probably because we were there early, and maybe because it being the last day so there wasn't that many people. I set up the books and waited for the lady who invited me. After a while she turned up and we exchanged pleasantries, and what I wasn't aware of was that I got lumped together with a presenter on archives. She started first and did an activity with the children and young adults that were present. My toddler decided to join in and she had a good time.

In between setting up and waiting for my turn, various people from the BLA came up to me and asked the same questions and I gave the same answers. By the time it was my turn to present, most of them had already heard what I had to say and it became quite informal. I was answering questions in between me explaining various binding methods and brief histories of each binding. The part that surprised them the most was that I did a Masters in this field and they were quite excited to try and persue further education. I also mentioned that I used to do a beginners book making class and they decided they would like to do the class too, and I suggested to them that I bring all the tools and equipment necessary and they just provide me a place for the class. So that is in the works.

All in all it was an interesting experience, it wasn't what I thought was going to happen but it being my first public appearance it was quite alright. At least now I know where to improve on my presentation the next time something like this happens.

The presentation came out in the local newspapers too which is a plus to see your name in the papers.

We ended the day of the conference by heading to the old British Colonial Residence, Bumbungan Dua Belas in town for an english high tea which was most enjoyable with friends who came to support me at the conference. It was a great day indeed.

Stab Album: Wedding Anniversary Red & Gold

 A client wanted something simple to put her wedding pictures in a nice album as an anniversary gift for her husband, and she chose the theme of red and gold to match her wedding outfit.

At first I thought I'll do a mainly red album with gold accent, after looking at pictures of her wedding outfit I felt it was better to have gold with red accents to balance the red out and to complement the pictures.

I had this really nice design paper where first time ever glitter looked really grand in my stash which I picked up from my travels earlier in the year. I thought it would look great for the album, and the sheets where the photo will be placed have a watermark of roses and daisies if one looks closely. It's getting harder and harder to find these type of paper now, they work so well for wedding themes and special occasions.

The end sheet has a faint print of roses in gold. Used a red satin ribbon to bind the album with a bow in the middle, and peridont yellow crystals with red gem flowers as accents on the cover.

I have plans to make smaller stab books using the same materials, I should've bought more, I only bought one sheet of this design and making this album already took up half. Nevermind, that's the nature of how I work, if it's all used up, that's it.

Buku Hantaran: Deep Purple

Close up of name plate with pink and purple heart shape gems around the names

I got this really nice email from Nadhirah regarding her order, and she sounded really sweet too. All she wanted was the base colour to be deep purple and use whatever other colours that I see fit, and she wanted it to be clean and neat, no bows. 

I got this great plan of combining deep purple with banana green and cream, a fresh change from all the purple and pinks.

I used a particular type of silk to get the deep purple base colour, and then I spied the floral motif paper, hmmmm.... it'll look great against the purple...

     

 Two folders, interior and exterior

So, because I decided to use the floral paper as end sheets for the folder, I had to follow the colour scheme from the flowers. Pink. I could've gone with blue but I didn't have any blue flowers. It's ok. The folders came out great, the busy-ness of the paper contrasted nicely with the deep purple, minimalist flowers and sparkly gems, a nice balance.

I actually had issues with doing the names, plan A didn't work as to how I expected so back up plan B came into play. All in all, folders came out great.

More pictures can be seen here.

Buku Hantaran: Pop Up Purple & Silver

This is a tale about a last minute order, swallowing my ego and learning new things... And it goes like this...

I got an email one late saturday night, did I know about it, no, I was more concerned with not being at the hospital in time when one of my favourite aunt passed away.

Sunday morning after the funeral, my husband asked if I got the email. Um, no... Apparently, one of his work colleague texted him asking if I got her email that she sent last night. So using my cell phone I checked my mail.

An order for an engagement folder required 6 days later, of course by the time I read it, folder needed in 5 days. I could've said no, but it was because she wanted a pop up that I said yes to. I've been waiting for when someone was going to ask me for a pop up engagement folder and now someone have.

     

 Silver & purple engagement folder

Since she gave me her number, it was easier to call to discuss. She wanted purple and silver, but she wanted to see what sort of purple I was going to use. I don't know, it depends on what I have in my stash which I wouldn't be able to check until I get home, and since it was a last minute order, being fussy right now was not an option as far as I was concerned. But she still insisted and was very particular about her purple. So I said to her "Tell you what, why don't you look for the purple you wanted, and get it to me by tomorrow."

And she did.

What I didn't anticipate was when I received the materials (she passed them through my husband) a mix roll of fabric, crepe paper and florist paper, was the diagrammatic instructions!

What the...?!?! Yeah, my ego sulked for a while. Then I got over it and started working.

Close up of pop up flower

I did the best what I could with the materials not having used them before, I discovered a few things with how to use them to how I want them to behave, so that's a plus point. And overall I am pretty pleased how it turned out. Added on the blings and flowers to jazz it up to suit the occasion and I was done.

More pictures of the folder can be seen here.

Buku Hantaran: Lilac & Silver

A sweet simple folder, if I recalled it was a 'no ribbons' order with their names. I decided to sparkle it up by using various shapes and sizes gems in shades of purple and white. Picture don't do it justice, it's prettier in real life as the light catches and they sparkles and shine...

More pictures can be seen here.