365: Make a Book a Day: Book 336 - Leather Journal with Turquoise

A Book a Day? What's Up With That?

Hi, and welcome to this year-long project. So what's this all about and how did it happen, you might ask. In mid 2007, artist Noah Scalin decided to make a skull out of anything he could find, every day for a year. It stretched him in ways he never imagined, as an artist, a writer and a person. His experience turned into a blog that went viral, and then a book.

Others have picked up on the idea: 365 Hearts, 365 Masks, 365 Bears drawn on a cellphone, 365 paper napkin mustaches.
I wanted to play, too, and I chose books. I love books, I know a bit about making books (thanks to my talented book-maker sister, Marilyn Worrix), and they're broad enough in definition to give me a lot of creative leeway.

The whole point is not really the books. The idea is to stretch myself in many ways as an artist and a person, to set up a discipline, stick with it and see what that teaches me.

I hope you'll join with me and follow along on the journey chronicled here, and let me know what you think.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Book 336 - Leather Journal with Turquoise - Long Stitch Binding

Time for another pretty leather journal. This is a really nice piece of leather, like a good quality purse would be made out of. It's a pale beige with a smooth finish, enhanced, I think, by a couple of natural markings in the leather.

For the pages, I used a rich, heavy cream-colored paper with a very subtle multi-colored fleck in it. The paper has just a slight tooth that makes it nice both for writing and drawing. A leaf-print paper in tones of green and gray makes the end papers.

The eight signatures are bound to the cover with light green waxed thread in a long stitch binding. I staggered the holes to give the binding an attractive pattern, and added beads. The top and bottom rows of stitches have small turquoise glass beads. In the center of the spine is a large turquoise nugget. It makes for a fairly dramatic spine.

This is really a luscious journal I'd be pleased to write in myself.