The Weight We Hold: Bookbinding as Reflection and Resilience

This reflective, hands-on workshop invites participants to explore the themes of The Weight of Being through the meditative craft of bookbinding. Using simple tools and materials, we will create hand-bound notebooks that act as vessels for our thoughts, emotions, and stories — tangible objects that hold the “weight” we carry in daily life.

As we fold, pierce, and stitch, we’ll reflect on how pressure, tension, and structure shape both the book and the self. Each binding thread becomes a metaphor for resilience, repair, and connection — holding pages, and perhaps ourselves, together. Guided emotional prompts placed around the table will gently encourage reflection on themes such as vulnerability, identity, and strength. Participants will leave with a handmade notebook — part craft object, part reflective journal — and the opportunity to continue their exploration beyond the session.

No previous experience is needed; all materials will be provided. This workshop aims to offer a quiet, creative space for thinking through the emotional and psychological weight of being human, echoing the exhibition’s focus on art as expression, resistance, and survival.

Please feel free to drop-in at anytime between 11:30 - 14:30.

Image credit: Cheuk Laam Wong

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About the workshop facilitator

Cheuk Laam Wong is a designer and artist currently studying for an MBA at Central Saint Martins & Birkbeck, University of the Arts London. With a background in product and industrial design, her practice explores how materials can act as metaphors for psychological and emotional experience. Through making and reflective craft, she investigates themes of resilience, vulnerability, and personal growth — often using design as a tool for emotional connection and storytelling.

Instagram: @kara_wong_design

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About this series of events

Flowing through: a workshop festival

Monday 01 & Tuesday 02 December 2025

‘Flowing through: a festival of workshops’ is a UAL-wide Academic Support project, co-ordinated by Adam Ramejkis and Natasha Sabatini and produced in partnership with Two Temple Place. All of the workshops respond to themes related to vulnerability, resilience, identity and emotional well-being - themes that form part of ‘The weight of being’, the next exhibition taking place at Two Temple Place from January 2026 (see twotempleplace.org for details).

Free and open to all. Booking essential.