The Time Garden and The Time Chamber by Daria Song

Number of Pages: 80
Size: 25x25cm square
Paper colour: White
Paper surface: Smooth
Paper thickness: Good
Linework: Fine
​Perforated: No
One sided: No
Binding: Glue
Drawings go into the spine: Yes
Waterbased pen bleed: Slight

Number of Pages: 80
Size: 25x25cm square
Paper colour: White
Paper surface: Smooth
Paper thickness: Good
Linework: Fine
Perforated: No
One sided: No
Binding: Glue
Drawings go into the spine: Yes
Waterbased pen bleed: Slight

It's not often that books as delicately illustrated and beautifully themed as Johanna Basford's come along, but Korean illustrator Daria Song has produced two stunning colouring books that are out of this world in terms of sheer beauty. Daria has a masters in art and it really shows in her spectacular work, which is so charming and exquisite that each page is a new wonder to behold! Each book is a continuous story, beginning with a little girl with an incredible imagination who likes to make extraordinary stories for every interesting object in her house.

The Time Garden sees her become captivated by a cuckoo clock her father brings home from Germany, and after a closer look she finds herself following a tiny fairy inside, exploring its enchanting inner world full of clock gears, rooftops and starry skies.

The Time Chamber continues the story, this time following the fairy on her journey out of the clock and into the little girl's mysterious bedroom. 

Both books are the same format and size, and have a completely colourable inner and outer cover. There are metallic gold and bronze embellishments on the cover illustrations and lettering, and both spines are a different pastel colour so they complement one another on the shelf. I had slight bleed with my waterbased pens but nothing that colouring the other side won't cover.

My only qualm is that Daria encourages you to complete the drawings yourself in some instances, which is getting more and more frequent in colouring books, and is not something I'm into. The whimsical images more than make up for it though; I think these are those rare colouring books that I'll finish from cover to cover! They would make beautiful keepsakes to flip through with a child, who will love the curious and captivating world that Daria has created.

​Here are my finished pictures from both books. 

The Time Garden, using PanPastels, gel pens, Polychromos pencils and Staedtler Triplus pens

The Time Chamber, using Manuscript waterbased pens and glitter gel pens

You can find both of these books on Amazon here:

The Time Garden: A magical journey and colouring book

The Time Chamber: A magical story and colouring book