A ‘Mini’ BookBinding Documentary – The Creation Process

This fantastic video documents the work of Siuyuett Tsang (Teresa Tsang) during a bookbinding project.

Directed by Calvin Li and filmed by Kenji Wong the movie takes you through the various aspects of creating a book from scratch, including, in various degrees of detail, the following steps:

  • Preparing the signatures
  • Putting cloth on cover boards
  • Piercing signatures
  • Waxing the thread
  • Threading and sewing signatures using a sewing frame
  • Attaching cover boards
  • Weaving the spine spine
  • Adding the finishing touches

The documentary has been edited down to 5 minutes in duration from a total of 10+ hours of footage taken over 2 days.

Siuyuett Tsang
Siuyuett Tsang

About Siuyuett

Stitches fastened, knots at spine. Needle and thread travel through paper piles. Siuyuett sees book-binding a way to untangle the knots in her mind where memories and emotions intertwined. Soothing and warming the cloth case is to the hands as the process to the soul. She draws inspiration from everyday objects turning ordinary elements into binding materials and creates notebooks that are one of a kind. Others see great talents and creativity revealed by the graceful hands.

She extended her interest into a career as a full-time book-binding artist in 2009 and started conducting workshop sessions in the same year to share her passion and skills with those who also love the craft. She believes that everyone has an artist buried in the soul. One just needs to act upon the chance and let it run free.

View more of her work on her facebook page.

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