Lovely Long Stitch Books

Look look! I'm so excited! Look at these darling long stitch binding books! I've never seen so many in one go! Imagine having these up on your book shelf. Mine are the first six from the right, the rest were made by students of the second long stitch class I conducted. Aren't they fantastic. I like my paper to be anything but white when it comes to making books, there is just something warm about ivory coloured paper. And the two on the right got pink and blue pages. I have one more class this Sunday, and then I'm hanging up my teaching hat to concentrate on preparing for the wedding and after the wedding setting up our new home and my new studio! Woo hoo!

A possibility that by the time I'm settled and start classes again it will be the fasting month, any takers? Or should I just wait until after the fasting month is over?

Long Stitch Binding

This is a European binding according to what I have read online and in books regarding the history, it dates back to the 18th Century and possibly as far back as the 15th Century. To think that this binding has been around for at least 300 hundred years.

The ones above are just a few of the many variations of this binding which I am attempting to teach. I've done it one to one but not as a group. So these long stitch binding classes I'm holding are trial classes to enable for me to find the best way to teach in a group setting. If it works out, then it's an all go after my break. So you guys who signed up, are the 'lucky' ones *insert evil mad scientist laughter*

The Golden Legacy Limited Edition Books

The three limited editions

My brother gave me the soft copy of his writings and wanted it to become a book, sort of a physical manifestation of his soon to be publication. He wanted to have the books ready for our parents birthday and gift to them during the birthday party we organised.

One of the chapters in the book

I spent a whole afternoon just getting the pages printed out in the right order to collate into sections ready for sewing and at least 48 hours under weight to make sure the sections folded flat.

Chose the long stitch binding as it was the easiest (in my mind) binding to do. But I had a bitch of a time with the materials I chose to use for the covers. The spine was a dark red thai silk and the front and back cover were kain tenunan (hand woven cloth with gold threads) that was used as a wedding outfit for my other brother almost 20 years ago, these were the leftover pieces I used.

The author of the book

Three editions were produced, one each for mum and dad, and the other for my brother.

I feel that the books have a lot of significance for my parents, the written words came from their eldest son, the first child, the material used as the book cloth have the memory of the second son wedding, the second child, and the books themselves were made by their second daughter, the fourth child.

Love it when things have reasons and meanings behind them.

Now my brother wants me to make another ten books. Told him it'll have to go in the queue and it'll be a different edition run altogether, the second unofficial printing but with a soft cover this time *grin*

Red Black Oriental Journal Book

"This is starin' at you kid" (complete with a drawl of an accent)

This book I'm loving. Request for a customised book, red, black and oriental. In my mind I was like, yeah, I'll find that brocade material in red and black with the cherry blossom pattern on it. I've seen in before and I though it'll look well nice.

Nope, couldn't find the material. Damn, now what? I got red and black, but what can I use for oriental? There was a reason why I have lots of these old chinese coins isn't it, because it was waiting to become this, a chic sophisticated book.

I used my all time favourite long stitch binding, which echoes perfectly with the vertical pattern that's happening on the cover and the alternating black and red sections from the exposed spine. And the way the coins were held in place is no accident either, my subsoncious mind works in mysterious ways, so there were lots of vertical lines happenings here.

Detail shot, love the end sheet.

For the inside of the covers, I used a black indian paper with silver skeleton leaves print. I always love these print papers, works wonderfully for this book. The end sheet gave an interesting contrast to all the red and black. Very striking as the cover is turned. You can see how the coin sort of float in the space.

The client loved it when the book was delivered to her. Aaahhh, my work is done.

This book inspired me to do more based on this theme. I've been playing around with sketches of placement of the windows, the number of coins, the spine and the binding. I can't wait to try them out.

First Book For 2009

Kinda freaky isn't it. I can't remember what the figure was suppose to be. One of those Balinese gods. Its a tie dye material that was meant to be a sarong because it got borders on the 2 meters length. I got two of those, the other is the same design but a tan coloured background.

How I ended up buying the said materials was, last summer I had to go to Bali for a conference, and on the last day there was some free time and I wandered off on my own. One of the places I wandered into was this area with a big sign saying 'Market Stalls' or something along that line. I like markets. Fun stuff. But this market was kinda dodgy. The stall keepers were hanging outside looking like vultures. Turned out I was the only tourist at that time. I waved them off. One of the locals tagged alongside me and started up a conversation. Since she seemed nice, I relented and went to her stall (should've listened to my gut instinct). Didn't see anything I like and proceeded to walk out. And the female blocked my way! Insisted I buy something. Refused to let me out until I bought something and she was getting mad. Making sure I'm not going to be in mortal danger I ended up selecting the said materials, bargained it down to what I think is an okay amount, if I recalled it worked out to $8 (~5 USD) for both.

She was so grateful for the sale and proceeded to immediately tap everything in the shop with the money (to bring more sales luck). While she was distracted I quickly went out and batted off the hands that tried to grab me to come to their stalls as they witness the whole proceeding with hungry eyes.

I figured it would make an interesting book cover, and now that I have, I still got a whole bunch left. Make more...?

I used a long stitch binding with wrapping on the spine, I added sequins and beads on the eyes. And when the light catches it the right way it'll look red. I used the same material on the inside as the end sheet. It feels a bit too much... maybe because the print is kinda busy. I wonder if it'll work on a bigger book. But I like how on this size that print of that one figure I centered it to the cover.

I might just do a giveaway for the rest of the material. Somebody is bound to like it...

The Blue Green Secret Diary

A mother commissioned a diary for her thirteen years old daughter who loves to write for Christmas. The daughter had requested for blue and green, glitter, pen holder and something big where she could write as well as stick pictures in. That was the gist of it, there were more details on what she likes and it reminded me of me when I was a teenager.

And I thought, what would I want at that age? Something cool, something that I can grow up with, but at the same time still fun. I guess that's where all the glitter stuff comes in. You could see it at the end sheets.

The book resulted in a 12 by 16 inches wide and about an inch thick. It has a journal section with alternating blue and green pages with an exposed spine long stitch binding, some pictures or whatnot could be stuck in there. But I also added in a concertina spine flag book about 7 by 10 inches wide for her to stick in anything she'd like and it'll still be ok as the spine can take on the swell. I had to do the flag book twice because the first one got screwed up due to I was rushing it.

Mental note: Never rush making a book because you end up spending twice as long.

My favourite part, the double pen holders. You can't open the book until you take out the pens that are holding the covers down. Totally love the colour combination, individually the materials I used looked boring on their own, but when combined together with the bright green accent from the ribbon they look fantastic. Well worth making this book.

When the book was delivered they were not home and it went straight under the tree already wrapped up and name tagged. I was told that when she opened it, the mother said it was a success.

I'm happy :-D

More pictures of the blue green diary here.

How I Celebrated New Year's Eve

Didn't go out. Didn't have a do. Didn't have anything. Instead I was in my studio making books. Relished the fact that I didn't have to be some place making small talk some where and twiddling my thumbs. Don't get me wrong, I love a good gathering, I was just never big on celebrating a new year. But when it comes to birthdays, especially when I'm the one throwing it, planning happens like months in advance.


Anyhoo, getting back to the subject, I've been meaning to try out this particular binding. I didn't think they're that sturdy from looking at the pictures of those that I've seen who made these kind of books. I've been going through my Keith Smith books lately and figured I could use the sewing onto tape binding and using it for the ribbon binding. So by adding extra ribbons I created more connection points between book block and cover. They're not bad, quite pretty actually. The blue and white one is dubbed the Cinderella Book. The purple one went to the States on new year's day.

The other binding I've been doing was the long stitch variation minus the exposed spine of the book block. I love the combination of the orange book with the red binding. That one went to the States too.

These books came about because I wanted to use up the stack of blue sections that was lying around for a while, been meaning to turn them into books... and now I have!

A productive night indeed it was ^_^

For Chui Hime

Happy Birthday Choo!!

You ooh-ed and aah-ed over the paper when you were over at the studio the other time...

I used the gold thread to bind it to match the gold Sanskrit writing on the paper and long stitch binding method to sew the cover and sections together. Made it all pretty like. Reminded me of the CNY mouse I gave you that you got hanging in your car.

Have a great birthday, this year is a lot of changes for you. I still think you should just become an apprentice of a dojo in the mountains so you get to sit and meditate in your gi every morning as the sun rises before your daily aikido practice ;-)

Wishing you all the best in life my dear friend.

All pictures courtesy of Chui Hime

The Princess

Like I said, I'm so loving this look at the moment such that I have already made another. This book is the first of the Princess series. Delivered today! It was an order with a request which when discussed further with the client the project was dubbed 'love book'. With that in mind, I was wondering how to interpret it. I sketched out various concepts and I over thought it again and I in a way I already knew what I was going to do in the first place anyway. Well... what was suppose to happen didn't happen and what happened are wonderful accidents. Isn't that great! My initial idea have grown by the time it manifested physically and it's always better than expected. So if I give you a proposal, it's just to reassure you ;-p


Don't you just love the colour combination. Beautiful white paper with blind embossed butterflies and ribbons I picked up while in Singapore... damn, two years ago! I kept it all these while waiting for the perfect project. And the pink paper is blind embossed as well. The ribbons I used three different width in five different colours. And on the ends I stuck on hearts in complimentary colours. And of course, pearlescent(?) pink end paper.

Darn, couldn't seem to get the colours right in this shot, nevermind. I just wanted to show the top view. Either way, I'm loving the look.

Love it love it love it!

Ooooh, Curly Ribbons...

I am so loving this book! Don't you just love the way the ribbons curls, and hearts! Hearts at the ends of the ribbons! And the colours, so sweet! I have decided to make more of these until the materials runs out... that's probably another three or four more... They will be named the Princess Series because they reminded me of Barbie dolls so... heh....

Will post up pictures of this book after tomorrow, this is more of a sneak peek because I can't wait to share the book with all of you and the book is... well, we'll continue this story later ;-)

The Chinese New Year 2008 week & A Book

Been busy making a mess in the studio... Helped prepare a cousin's wedding... My laptop went into stasis cos something was wrong with the power supply and battery went all flat... Went out visiting and celebrating Chinese New Year at families and friends... The Western world got their Mickey Mouse, we got the lions from the Lion Dance performance!!! Finally a picture with one of the many lions with my wonderful significant other!


In the mean time, here's one of the many books that is currently in my stock. It's a long stitch binding on a hard cover using paper which I kept for the past... fifteen years and only now I decided to use it, or finally figured out how, where and for what. The paper is either Indian or Nepalese origin I picked up from a bazaar all those years ago... Striking, no?

What Colour To Use...

I made this cover for a long stitch dos-a-dos. Unfortunately I can't seem to work out what would be a nice corresponding colour for the inner sections to bind the cover to... One side of the cover is black with gold and the other is white with gold, the paper came from India. The end sheet I used inside is red with embossed gold specks which I found. I want a colour that complements the whole thing. Any suggestions?

Dragonflies Albums

Aren't they gorgeous? Lovely aren't they, I didn't need to do anything to the covers. The cotton material I used speak for themselves. They came from Sam (lovely expat lady who taught here for nine years) and she figured they might have come from when she visited Japan. Either way, reason being she loves dragonflies and one of the material had dragonflies print on it and the other was just beautiful, she didn't intend to use it but when I saw it I just had to turn it into a book for her. Sam asked for an album for her pictures, I had the opportunity to see what she was seeing and nature is just fantastic being the model. The images she captured was just gorgeous, I felt lucky being able to see that, she showed me one of the albums she kept them in. I instinctively checked out the album, how it was constructed and put together. Book structure... not too bad. Handmade paper and carved bamboo... wow!

Anyway, from the cloth Sam gave me, I was able to make her two stab albums. The black one the material was just enough to cover the board and a teensy seam allowance to fold over the board. Added black ribbons to tie the covers down and my signature whenever doing a stab binding to finish with a little bow at the top corner, and Sam is dragonfly mad, I managed to find these dragonfly charms which are tied to the ends of the ribbons.

The blue album, the covers are padded front and back. The material had prints in squares and I used the portion that had the dragonflies on it for both front and back. Added more dragonflies as embellishment and if you noticed the black ribbon bows echoes the dragonfly wings! How fantastic is that?

Since Sam is moving away to Oman I made her a little A6 journal as a going away present using the leftover cloth. I stitched the five sections with long stitch binding of a sort, was working one end at a time, did the head part then the tail part of the book. I numbered the sections in pencil so I know which order to bind them in after I marked the holes so they'd lined up, and now come to think of it I forgot to rub them out after I was done binding... Nuts... Anyhoozy.

I delivered the books to Sam in the evening, after doing a quick photo shoot before wrapping them up, and she was so happy when she unwrapped them. Oh you should see how her eyes lit up when she saw the dragonfly charms. They were such great finds, there's a reason why I check out practically every single thing in a shop or stall, because you never know what you might find that will be perfect for that art piece, and why I like to have a lot of time allowance for that perfect add on to present itself. When I presented her the journal she was really pleased and decided that all the books will be used for Oman.

My books are going to Oman! Yay! My work are traveling the world! They get to see more places than I do... sorta like they're the diplomats for me, heheheh, how ironic... (personal joke there)

For more pictures of the albums and notebook, they're all here!

I wonder if I have enough material to make another little notebook, it's so sweet!!!

Little Pink Themed Books

This is what the client is going to get

And these are what's inside when she opens them up!

Three little journals, with three different bindings. The pink and silver was an experimental binding, the thread loops in one direction and then goes back creating a criss cross pattern through the silver beads. Also my first soft spine binding, was worried how it was going to turn out, kept on reminding myself just have fun with it, you never know how it's going to turn out, and it came out great! Silver ribbon to finish off the look. An A6 with about 200 pages if I'm not mistaken.

The one with the roses is a coptic binding. The roses in the center can pop off to make writing easier in the book. The covers are slightly cushioned, the butterflies and pink ribbons ties the whole thing together. It's about 15cm by 15cm with 120 pages.

The mock leather cushioned wrap with pink leather tie I think it's a long stitch, I like doing this one, and it came out beautifully. I had this knocking around in my head, I just wasn't sure how to bind the whole thing. Saw Rhona's pink leather journals and those were gorgeous, I could've subconsciously picked it up from there.

The wrap came out from the jungles of the content of the studio so it's a one and only piece. If I could, I'd love to make more of these. The holes for the binding I pierced as I was binding so it's looking uneven. How do you guys know how to space out the holes and prior to binding the sections? That part I couldn't figure out. I tried measuring but I end up spacing the holes too far apart. Trial and error I guess...

The leather cord was a lucky thing I had, I just simply wove it through the binding threads and it stayed there relatively well. I forgot the size to this one... it's slightly taller then the pink and silver book.

So overall apart from the coptic, the experimental books went well. Feeling very happy. Can't wait to see the client's face tomorrow!

Add on: The books were for her sister, but when she saw the leather wrap one she immediately stalked claim of it. It is a very pretty book, very elegant I might add :-p Anyway, you can see more detailed images of the books here, the insides and out.

Books Abroad!

The first pioneer of my books that crossed the Atlantic! More pictures here and detailed story here.