New Materials!

I spent the afternoon going through a friend's, Lay Hien, stash of silk scraps. She's going to use it for patchwork. I'm looking for what I can use as book covers. Got several cool pieces, left her house with a bag full of scraps.

Then bought 2 reams of A4 in ivory and white, and 1 ream of A3 in light blue. Can't wait to make books out of these.

Hmmmm, silk book covers... padded or non padded?

I was talking to Pek Ching who does art classes at Rainforest Gallery here, and first time ever admitted I'm just not in the mood to draw or paint. All I want to do for now is to just make. Hence all these books. She invited me to come along their weekly outing drawing sessions, and I could always just drop by the gallery. Maybe that'll kick in the inspiration to start drawing and painting again...

Grey & Tassel

The cover looks familar doesn't it. It's a lovely book this one. It is a coptic stich binding, meaning you can see the whole of the spine exposed and the only thing that's holding it together is the binding. Forgot to take pictures of that. Really solid binding this one. It used to bug the living daylights out of me in the beginning because it's so labour intensive. Not so bothered nowadays. I treat it like a zen meditation, you just zone out.


Also I had purple paper and a purple tassel that was just lying around. The cover I used is detailed enough already so kept the whole book simple. And the end paper for the inside, more purple. I like how I cut out one of the orchid and stuck it on the top left of the first page. Looks cool doesn't it.

Sorry about the picture quality, it was taken in a hurry. Only camera available then was the camera phone. The book is in Germany now.

Experimental Wrap

I love the bold design on this material that I just had to use it to see how it would work as a book cover. Fortunately I have sections ready that needs a cover. So... if you squint just right the pink and purple sections are picking up colours in the flowers on the material *grin* Also I was experimenting for a hard cover book with a wrap around as well as figuring out how to attach the ribbon ties to the cover. And where to attach the ribbon ties, cos for all I know you might like the covers to go from left to right or right to left. Hence it's on the spine.



So, this is just an experiment, I think I'll do another one this time with plain white sections, it might make more of an impact. I might go for yellow too... I'll just make several... Also need to modify the cover... The long stitch binding works well, so that can stay. Right then. Next project.

Pink & Purple Custom Album

More pink and purple, I'm trying to finish off the material...


This is a custom order, a mini album. It has a surface of 8 inches by 5 inches, so it can comfortably fit a 4 inches by 6 inches photo (that's a 4R right?) per page and extra space to write on. The album can hold 24 of those photos, against black with pink sheet protectors between the pages so the photos wouldn't stick.


The order for this was simple, girly, flowers, butterflies, ribbons. Leave the rest up to me....


The end paper I used here is down to the last bits now. Possibly enough for a mini book. It's a lovely paper. I can't wait to use it up!

I said my books are going to travel around the world, this one is going to be shipped off to Australia!

Orange Tones

Well, they look like orange tones... You can read about the white with gold splash here and orange flowers with bells here.

The big guy, is one furry tactile stab bound journal, A4 in size. The stabbing part is how it looks like as I wrestle with the needle to poke through the thickness of the book pulling the red ribbon through to bind the whole thing together. Which is why I have a handy mini pliers as part of my book making arsenal, several actually with various noses.

Anyway, the inside pages are in three coloured sections, green, red and yellow. You can see it when looking at the spine of the book. The end paper of the inside of the cover is a ribbed pale yolk yellow.

It needs a home to go to...

Black White Mini Book

This... why did I make this... Oh yeah, now I remember why I made this. For you guys, if you like to stick things down in books and find that at the end of the day the book had expanded and you can't close it properly, isn't it terrible? It's like the book got fat and can't button up the waist band! Hehehe...

This book, is perfect. You can stick stuff in and by the end of the day, it'll still look slim and sleek. And even if you do over stuff it there are ribbons to tie it down. All safe and secure. It's about 6 inches by 4 inches and it can slip easily into your bag! The cover is a thick cream cotton with a black satin spine and ribbons. The binding is book binders thread in a criss cross pattern.

A unique book to have. Any takers?

Golden Drops

I'm not sure how practical writing in this one, I just like it, hehe... Each one of those drops were stitched down using fishing wire, or was it invisible thread... I can't remember which now... But yeah, imagine owning this, wouldn't it be fantastic :-p I'm amazed with what I've been keeping in the studio. Slowly I'm going through them and using them up. I also love the paper. First time I used it was three years ago. Don't have a lot left now of this particular colour. Yes! Soon it will be all used up!


The end paper of the cover got two types, the white flowers is a Japanese wrapping paper, and the other is this nice veiny paper, subtle tactile quality which I quite like. I find that touch is very important, I like my books to be able to 'speak' to you as you hold them.

This book is about A5 in size with simple binding at the head and tail of the book (top and bottom to the non book speakers) and yes it's for sale if anybody is interested in purchasing.

You don't want to come shopping with me for paper. I take ages deciding on which one to get cos I have to feel every single one of them. When I was in London studying, there's a place called Paperchase, the top floor housed all these gorgeous paper from the thin transparent to the thick and robust from various countries, various tactile qualities, oh it was heaven for me. Now that it has been almost ten years I better use up all them paper...