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TAIWAN • SINGAPORE

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SQUARES: A THESIS

What are squares? And where are they in a book? Why are they called squares and how did they even come into existence? I am about to embark on a journey to learn and discover about the mystery of squares. Book squares is the research topic for my Masters programme thesis which will take me down the road through the history of bookbinding, the evolution of squares and what problems do they cause? Yes, I am so square, I can't help it.

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HAPPY 2022!

It is once again, a brand new year. Amidst the insane happenings around the world, I must say, 2021 has been a rather challenging, fulfilling, enlightening and a year filled with immense personal growth. In this new day of the new year, I reflect upon the things that has happened in the past year that has made the future a far brighter and exciting one. 

Firstly, my lack of posts on my website is because of a rather personal reason. I am currently in my first year in Graduate school, studying a Masters in Arts for the Conservation of Cultural Relics in the Tainan National University of the Arts. I am now currently based in Taiwan and therefore, will only accept commissions if they can be sent to me via post. 

Secondly, the journal I have chosen for 2022, is a homework that was given to me by my dearest teacher and mentor, Mark Cockram. He tasked me (a long time ago) to explore the binding techniques of Jean de Gonet. I decided to use the fish skin parchment I made, paired with a soft plate printed rainbow prints of the fish I used for this parchment: the trout. This was bound sewn on cords, featuring the fish skin parchment on the spine as well as the corners. As fish skin is very translucent, I added coloured paper under the skin to brighten it and to give it variety. 

In a Chinese new year greeting “年年有餘”, which translates to “Abundance Every Year”, I look forward to this new year with abundance of love, joy, happiness, opportunities, great health and new knowledge. 

Here’s wishing the world, a better future, while I study hard, to become a bookbinder/conservator! 

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The Repair of Voyages of William Baffin

More often that not, when books are packed tightly on shelves, their spines get exposed to light and pollutants. This will cause the spine to discolour and have a stark difference from the boards. The exposure to light and pollutants also cause the covering material, for this book it is cloth, to age and become brittle. The hinge of the front board has ripped in a very clean straight line. My observation is that, the cloth has cleaning ripped along the grain direction of the cloth, or someone has accidentally used a knife to cut the hinge (which is odd) or during the making of the book, the bookbinder used excessive strength to push in the hinge.

I rehinged the boards using a similar colour and type of book cloth, laminated between the original cloth and boards. The binding is still in relatively good condition, so this was merely to repair the hinges and recase the book. 

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Repairing Contes Roses de ma Mere-Grand

Story books that were handed down from generation to generation always have a lot of meaning and love in them. When we were first handed them when we were young children, we did not understand their value. It is only when we are much older, in our adult life, that we realise their importance. The urgent need to make sure they are in working condition increases when one has the next generation to hand it to. 

Contes Roses de ma Mere-Grand belongs to my customer who had it when he was a young child. The entire binding has fallen apart and both the front and back boards were broken. The spine of the book is barely holding everything together. 

After repairing the broken folios and pages, and aligning the pages, I discovered that the top edge of the book is gilded in gold. The coloured illustrations in the book are half-tone lithographic prints that are tipped on. 

The textblock was resewn and the boards are hinged back with toned book cloth that is laminated under the original book cloth. It is then toned with acrylic inks to match. 

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Repairing 常用新辭典

Sometimes when something is old and broken, it does not mean it has to be discarded. Some things cannot be replaced with the new. 

This dictionary belongs to my customer’s eighty-four year old mother. She has been using this dictionary for almost 4 decades and have grown accustomed to the dictionary. This is the first time I have ever seen a Mandarin dictionary that is categorised this way. In fact, I find this the best Mandarin dictionary because it makes a lot of sense, and it will definitely be very useful for me now. 

The dictionary came with a lot of tape, both on the outside and the inside. And as with most books that were made during that time, the paper quality is very inferior. The pages were all spotted with foxing, and the edges were very brittle. I had to treat the front pages with a deacidifying solution and then Klucel-G. Then I support the edges with Japanese repair tissue. 

Initially, I wanted to keep the dictionary as a soft cover as how it was originally, but after discussing with my customer and considering the brittle edges of the dictionary, we decided to give it hard boards with good amount of squares to protect the edges from being in contact with too much surfaces. 

Now the dictionary has a new lease of life, and I am on a new mission to find myself a similar type of dictionary. For I am now, on a journey to master traditional Mandarin. 

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Stub-Bound Birthday Wishes Book

I was asked to bind a stack of beautifully calligraphed birthday wishes into a book, for a lovely customer who is now a great friend.

The birthday wishes were written on a thick card stock of about 300 to 350gsm, and they were in the wrong grain direction. I wanted to make a book that could open completely so that the calligraphy can be enjoyed. Since most of the single sheet bindings do not allow for that to happen, and also considering the thick card stock and its wrong grain direction, I decided to use a stub binding technique. 

My customer previously requested for some journals to be made, and she really loved deckled edges. So i decided to tear the stubs by hand to create a deckled edge. The book is then bound, rounded and backed, using Bradel binding. The covers are made using the paper bags of the bakery my customer owns. She said she loves the patterns and would love it on the book as a feature. Hence, after getting my hands on 2 large paper bags, I created this beautiful birthday dedication book for a lovely boss, from her lovely staff. 

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Grandma’s Treasured Photo Album Restored

When my lovely customer came to me, she was extremely happy to know that I was able to restore her grandmother’s photo album. This album was found stuck at the back of an old cupboard, long forgotten. And upon finding it, the condition was not exactly its best. 

The album had a textured paper covering, and was tied with a rope that held the covers and pages together. As the paper covering has worn out over time, it was not able to bear the weight of the padded thick board front cover. The rope had also worn out over time and frayed, however the thickness of the rope held and the pages remained in position.

When I did the first assessment, I was very amazed at the condition of the photographs. They were taken in the early 1930s to 40s. Many of them are in great condition.The textured onion skin paper however, was crispy and was crumbling very badly. 

I managed to find a book cloth that was as close to the colour of the original paper covering, and replaced the endpapers with a black book cloth instead of a sheet of black paper. Instead of a rope, I used brass pillar screws to hold the pages in place. The onion paper was also replaced with a buffered glassine paper. 

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Beautiful Journal Covers For A Beautiful Customer

It has been a good long time since I last posted on my website/blog. It has been a rather difficult time for me, losing a great student, as well with dealing with a challenging period of time in my life. But now, as I am working out certain kinks, I decided to carry on my posts to keep me going. 

Earlier this year, a beautiful, kind and amazing customer came to me to get some blank journals made. She enjoys writing in her journals and has chosen a specific paper from my paper supplier that she really adores. She wanted her journals sewn and left as is with its incomplete state of a sewn textblock, without any covers. I then offered to sew her a cloth cover if she finds a fabric she loves. And she came with 2 beautiful fabrics and could not decide which she prefers, so I ended making covers out of both for her. 

This is my first time sewing book covers as commission. I must say, I really enjoyed the process. The customised leather initials tabs were made with Kult Bespoke  and I sew them on using matching threads to the cloth. 

I must say, I find a naked textblock very disturbing, so here’s some clothes for them!

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In loving memory of Gur Sevak 21 December 1992 - 19 May 2021 This feather was on the book you showed me when we first met at my artist talk in 2019. I remembered how happy and proud, yet apprehensive, you were to show me your work. I told you it looked great but you needed to work on your corners. I was very inspired by what you did with this feather on leather. And that you were so creative and ingenious to have thought of this idea. For 6 months now, you came every Saturday, without fail, and I always feel the passion spilling out of your every pore for this craft we both share. I could pour all my inspirations, motivations, encouragements, passion and love for bookbinding and feel it reflect back. Because I knew you loved it as much as I do. I taught you how to do corners just May 8th, and how you were so happy when you finally nailed it and made your own beautiful corners. It was also that very week you received your finishing press, for you insisted that you wanted it made by @louiskwok. I remember how you were so excited and happy and carried it in your bag and hugged it so tightly. Your want to learn more, achieve more, was a challenge to me, because I've always struggled working with leather and that you have placed this trust in me to teach you what I know. I cannot believe that we did not even get to finish this binding we started together. I was so excited because I wanted to show you that I found a cloth that matched my leather, because you saw me struggle to find something that matched. I wanted to show you a mistake I made so that you know that even I make mistakes constantly. I wanted to show you the beautiful but tedious step of having an infill before the doublure. I wanted you to know that the beauty of this craft is limitless. But Life has other plans for you. I never knew that losing a student, a fellow bookbinder and friend, can be this hard. It is exactly a month since you left, but today, it is a Saturday again. Saturdays have not been the same since. Be well, wherever you are now. You hold a very special place in my heart. Goodbye, Sev. Inked on June 5th by @valerie_vagabondink Still healing.

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The Unassuming Mighty Amphibian (Skin)

Time is flying by so quickly, and I have been overwhelmed with work and various things that are happening all at once that is taking away time from updating this blog. However, I foresee some time coming up soon that I can put together posts about work that I have been doing these past couple of months in 2021.

One of the greatest achievements for this first quarter of 2021 is the publishing of the second part of my article in the Designer Bookbinders UK Spring newsletter. This is a follow-up of my earlier article in the Winter edition of the newsletter about my explorations with frog skin. In this issue, I showcase 2 books I made, using the frog skin as covering materials, onlays and parts of a box. 

I must say, frog skin is extremely versatile and despite its tiny size and thinness, it far exceeds the initial assumption that it is weak and fragile. The skin is flexible, tough and very malleable, making it extremely nice to work with. 

I am hoping that the uploaded images are big enough for reading, if not, do drop me an email and I will send you the pdf of the newsletter.

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The Repair and Restoration of America: Being the Latest, and Most Accurate Description of The New World M.DC.LXXL

It has been a rather crazy and hectic month and I have been neglecting the blog and not been posting up any updates. Loads have been happening in the studio; filming, new binding techniques, collaborations and a huge pile of ongoing work from clients. 

This book has been a challenge to work on. It took almost a total of 6 months, starting in September last year and only finishing it in early February. The original leather was crumbly, the spine had a lot of red rot and the boards were detached. As I had to hinge the boards back to the textblock underneath the existing leather, a lot of delicate care was needed. That means I had to work really slowly, and on top of that, this book is huge. It weighs about 5 kilograms and it was very tricky to manoeuvre. I liken it to working on the eyes of an elephant; having to operate on a very delicate part of a very huge creature. 

The endbands are sewn using the original colours of thread I found in the textblock. The calf leather is toned to almost match the original. I chose not to mimic the patterns on the original leather. No reason for that, but most likely perhaps because I felt it might not look the same and end up looking like a new leather trying to pretend that it is old.

This is one big burden off my shoulders, as I now continue to manage my workload as well as my creative 

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The Threads That Bind Volume 1

I am very pleased to be one of the invited exhibitors for The Threads That Bind Volume 1, encompassing artists & designers across a broad spectrum of the associated visual arts and crafts.

Looking forward to featuring some of my works from before, and also some new works that I have been working on. 

Special thanks to the organisers for inviting me, as well as featuring me and my works to introduce me in your Instagram page. Do take some time to look at the other exhibitors that will also be showing in this show.

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Frog Skins Batch 2: No. 6 to 10

“This parchment has legs...” Yes, Skin No. 6 has gone to the UK and is with Mark Cockram now. No. 6 was stretched as a parchment. The weirder tanning methods follows...

Frog Skin No. 7 was tanned in turmeric for about 4 days. When I first took it out of the tanning mixture, the skin was a bright luminous yellow. But after it dried out, it faded quite a bit.

No. 8 was soaked in a blue pea tea mixture. The blue pea flower is often used in Asian dishes as a blue colouring in rice or kuehs. I thought this might give a nice blue natural due to the skin. However, it seems to only give the skin a greyish hue, and a brownish tone on the flesh side. 

Skin No 9 was tanned in the an alcohol and glycerin mixture with pink alcohol inks and yellow leather dye. I am wondering why the dyes tend to be stronger on the flesh side and does not even change the outer side much. Moreover, I also realised, the whiter areas which is the belly of the frog, tend to not take colour as much as the darker areas. 

The last final skin was a surprise. The skin was found to still have its webbed feet attached. I was very fascinated looking at the webbed feet of the frog up close and see the little toes. This skin was tanned in red wine. Red wine has a good amount of tannins, I was hoping that the colour of the wine will give the skin a nice tone. Strangely, after drying, there was a layer of salt that crystallized on the skin on both side. I wondered what it was and decided to give it a taste test. Bad idea... it left me numb for about half a day.

That concludes the second batch of skins. I look forward to getting more skins and experimenting more on them. 

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William The Conqueror

Some books do not need to have high monetary value to be deemed as worthy of repairs and restoration. Some books have sentimental values that far exceeds the value of money.

William The Conqueror by Richmal Crompton belongs to my customer. It is the last of three books he brought to me for repairs. Once again, quick convenient repairs using tape has caused some damage to the already broken book. The tape caused discolouration of the book cloth and the paper. Along with the removal, some fibres were also removed inevitably.

The sections were taken apart, and some of the folios were guarded, and then the textblock was resewn before it was re-cased. A new spine piece with a supporting book cloth hinge was inserted under the original book cloth and a hollow was added to support the spine. 

I enjoy restoring books like these. All books are precious to those who hold them dear. 

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Frog Skin Batch 2: Skins No. 1 to 5

With the experience from the first batch of frog skins, it was much easier for me to understand how to stretch the skins. But the preparation of the tanning is still very much of an experiment. 

For Batch 2, Skin No. 1 and 2 are made as parchments. The skins were soaked in soapy water for a few days, and then washed out and stretched on a piece of grey board, lined with a sheet of baking paper. They were cut along the belly and the entire back is complete. 

Skin No. 3 was soaked in Pu-er tea (red Chinese tea) and red food colouring for 5 days. The skin was cut along the back and the white part, which strangely, does not really take the colour much in the middle. However, the flesh side is a brilliant red and looks like beet. 

Skin No. 4 was soaked in Thai Green Tea blend, also for 5 days. I am very amused by the randomness of the green colouration even though I turned the skin every day. 

Skin No. 5 was treated with glycerin and alcohol, with a blue leather dye. This skin was not stretched. It was handled, stretched and pulled by hand while it was drying. This skin dried and became really soft. There is an issue with skins that are treated this way. They tend to grow mould really easily as compared to the rest of the skins. Both glycerin/alcohol treated skins from Batch 1 and 2 behaved the same way. This is something I need to research more about. 

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Frog Skin Journal for 2021

Frog skin is very amazing. Firstly there is no need to pare it down because it is thin and very strong. Secondly, it is very easy to use. It adheres very nicely to boards and does not warp too much when adhesive is applied. 

The journal is bound using the disappearing spine Bradel binding. The boards are covered in Tyvek® that was decorated using the flottage method. The 二O二一 onlays means 2021 in Chinese. I decided to use the flesh side for the back boards to show the beautiful veins of the skin. And on the front boards I used the outer side of the skin to contrast the back boards. I love how the frog skin has odd bits of folds and I suspect the little fold on the spine of the book might be from the knee of the frog! The endpapers are hand painted using acrylic paints and are made to look like frog eggs. The endbands are made using the frog skin parchment with a sewn gold cord for accent. 

Looking forward to filling this year’s journal with loads of drawings, writings, records, research and experiments. 

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Hello 2021

Happy New Year everyone! To start off this new year, I present to you, my 2021 journal, made of the two materials that I’ve been exploring with: Tyvek® and Frog Skin! The words “二O二一“ is 2021 in Chinese. I love how Chinese words can be very beautiful when they are used as a graphic design. The Tyvek® was decorated using a flottage method and strangely, it looks like frog skin too! 

Here’s to a wonderful new year ahead, I look forward to the next 365 days of experiments, explorations, research and awesome books!