#kamipaper

Flooat Studio x kamipaper UPCYCLED I Bookbinding Workshop - workshop facilitator

An upcycled bookbinding and weaving workshop in collaboration with Flooat Studio. Participants were welcomed into the space with a cup of healthy tea by Flooat Studio and Malaysian sweet treats by Sueperlicious. Participants then sifted through the collection of sweet wrappers that kamipaper had collected, to choose wrappers that they wanted to weave onto their mini notebook covers. Participants were also encouraged to bring wrappers that they would like to incorporate onto their covers, whether nostalgic or from their cultures. After weaving the selected wrappers onto their covers, we then made a mini coptic bound notebook together that the participants got to take home.

This collaboration came together as we wanted to have a workshop that could be therapeutic, meditative and to slow down especially as city life can be so fast moving. It was also a way to engage everyone to converse with their neighbours and have thoughtful conversations during the workshop.

It was the first time for me to showcase this workshop using upcycled sweet wrappers combined with coptic binding, thanking Flooat Studio for suggesting I teach a workshop like this and for being so encouraging and supportive during the preparation and actual workshop. Photo credits: kamipaper, Flooat Studio & Alison Hui.

明 Ming Hai 海 Zine - design, research, text & illustration

Ming Hai is a 34 year old Chinese takeaway in Hackney, London UK, run by the Chan family. All the family members contributed stories or illustrations and photos from the archives about what it is like to live and work in a Chinese takeaway, whether as an immigrant or a second-generation takeaway kid. This zine is a love letter to the takeaway and to takeaway kids worldwide. After the amazing response to the first edition and running low on zines, I decided to do a second edition but instead of a straight reprint, this edition comes with additional content and a sticker. An independent published zine by kamipaper. • A5 Landscape • English and a tiny bit of Cantonese • 24 pages full colour • 200-250gsm recycled card cover • 100gsm recycled paper • Shop front sticker

Special thanks to: - Lauren Siobhan - Vivien Chan - Rio Cinema Archives  - Isola Press  - Alan Denney 

Available at: • Migration Museum - Lewisham, London UK • Museum of the Home - Hoxton, London UK • Housmans Bookshop - Kings Cross, London UK • Burley Fisher Books - Haggerston, London UK • Books - Peckham, London UK • Migration Museum - Lewisham, London UK • Hackney Chinese Community Services - Hackney, London UK • The Steamroom - Haggerston, London UK • Pushkin House - Bloomsbury, London UK • South London Gallery - Peckham, London UK • Ming Hai Takeaway - Hackney, London UK • Newbridge Projects - Newcastle upon Tyne, UK • Wing On Wo & Co - New York, USA • kamipaper Etsy Shop  - Worldwide

Veggie Print Notebook Workshop for Centre 151 Open Day & SenseScapes x London Design Festival - workshop facilitator

Using collected veg scraps and cardboard food packaging as creative sensory play, participants would print the veg shapes and textures onto the covers and then use a simple bookbinding stitch to create a mini upcycled notebook. All veg, string and paper waste was kept and taken back to my garden compost so that with time, it will turn back into soil and be used to plant veggies in my garden.

I facilitated the workshop at Centre 151 Open Day which was to shared Vietnamese culture through food, performances and workshops for East & South East Asian Heritage Month and SenseScapes by MA Curating Contemporary Design at Kingston University for London Design Festival - a group exhibition and public programme that treats memory, care, and solidarity as perceptual capacities by showcasing creative practice as sensorium and archive.

Photos by kamipaper & May Cheng

Flooat Studio x kamipaper UPCYCLED II Bookbinding Workshop - workshop facilitator

After the happy collaboration with Flooat Studio in May, I was invited back again into the tearoom for another upcycled bookbinding workshop in the Autumn. Participants were welcomed into the space with a cup of healthy tea by Flooat Studio and a dim sum snack. They then sifted through the collection of sweet wrappers that kamipaper had collected, to choose wrappers that they wanted to weave onto their mini notebook covers. Participants were also encouraged to bring wrappers that they would like to incorporate onto their covers, whether nostalgic or from their cultures. After weaving the selected wrappers onto their covers, we then made a mini coptic bound notebook together that the participants got to take home.

This collaboration came together again as the feedback we got was encouraging and lovely. We created the workshop to be therapeutic, meditative and slow, as city life can be so fast moving. It was great to see everyone engaged in conversations with their neighbours and having thoughtful conversations during the workshop.

I am deeply grateful to Flooat Studio for always opening up their space and for being so supportive during the preparation and actual workshop.

4 new bindings in the shop

Coptic stitch

Buttonhole

Secret Belgian

Caterpillar x Coptic

All notebooks have been handmade by myself using upcycled boards and offcut papers. All endpapers have been handprinted either by lino or marbled.

kamipaper: Handmade Upcycled/Recycled/Less waste Blank Notebooks - bookbinding

I’m an amateur bookbinder who is self taught and had been making Japanese style stitched blank notebooks using offcut papers and upcycled misprinted boards sourced from various printing companies since 2016, I then took 2 bookbinding courses at Morley College, London to learn how to make hardback books. More recently I have broaden my bindings to include hardbacks, French link and ledger styles and I have been reusing saved gift ribbons in bindings and using deadstock fabric for making covers. I save most of my offcuts and trims to make into smaller notebooks and I’m always try to think of ways to upcycle or reuse other materials when I can. All notebooks I make are under the name: kamipaper, kami in Japanese means paper. The idea of kamipaper came as I saw so much printed and old paper go into the recycling bin while working in a printing house and wanted to find a way to reuse it and keep it out of the bin. I have an Etsy shop and will also post my notebooks here to sell in future posts.