Day 25-Another Fat Little Hair-on Journal

Back to one of my favorites, a little leather journal made with hair-on cowhide. This one is a nice fat one, with 72 thick, creamy pages (144 counting  both sides) of Arches text-wove art paper, which is wonderful for pencil, pen and ink, charcoal and other not-too-wet medium.

The end pages are tan banana paper. The leather cover wraps around the front and is closed with a soft leather thong with a big bone bead on the end. It is bound with a longstitch binding with black waxed Irish linen thread.

This little fat book measures 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" x 1 1/8" thick. A nice book in the hand. And the longstitch binding means it lays flat when open, easier for writing in.

Day 24-A Little Pamphlet Book with Sanded Covers

I made this simple little pamphlet stitch book today because I wanted to play with the really cool paper I found at Jo-Ann's. It's two-sided, red on one side, black on the other. And the black side can be torn, sanded, scratched, etc. to reveal the red.

The word "Ideas" on the cover is simply scratched onto the paper with the point of an Xacto knife. I scraped some of the black off in places with the knife, too, and sanded it with medium grit sand paper. I like the torn edge best, where it shows the core red. The book has 20 text-weight pages and is stitched with red thread in a single signature with a pamphlet stitch and a black/white/red porcelain bead on the spine.

Day 23-Ziegfeld Girl Matchbook

Easy one tonight, but this is a fun design. This little notebook opens and closes like a matchbook, and the "binding" is simply a couple of staples. The illustration is a vintage nude photograph of a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl from the 1920s. It's printed onto beige card stock, cut and folded to form the matchbook shape. Approx. 20 pages of white paper are stapled into the bottom folded-up edge.

Fun little book to drop into a purse or pocket for notes, phone #s, and other reminders.

Day 22-Welcome to Las Vegas

This book is tiny--only 1 1/2" in diameter. I wanted to try something else very small and I've been playing around with the idea of poker chips for awhile.

The covers of this little book are two souvenir poker chips I bought at the Gambler's General Store in Las Vegas some time ago. Using them as a template, I cut out 40 circles of paper in four different colors for the pages. I sandwiched the pages between the two chips, clamped them all together with a couple of bulldog clips, and drilled a whole through all the layers just inside the edge on one side.

I cut a length of thick, 12 gauge copper wire. I hammered one end of the wire with a riveting hammer to get it to flare enough that it would not pass through the hole in the top chip. Then I threaded the unflared end through the whole book, trimmed the back end of the wire quite short, set the thing upside down on an anvil, and flared the other end of the wire. I now had a rivet closing the book. The rivet is loose enough that the chips and pages can turn around it, flaring open so you can get at the pages.

I think this little book would be a great card marker for a poker player. And it has the advantage of being a real book, so during a break you can make notes in it about the plays or anything else.

Day 21-Happy Valentine's Day

OK, this book has nothing profound to say. I simply had this little chocolate box--thanks to my sweetie--and I'd been wanting to try a shaped accordion. The two seemed a good match.

I did nothing to the box. I could have covered it, but I've been feeling lazy. I made a 24 page heart-shaped accordion book, cut out a red heart from decorative paper for the first page and glued the whole accordion structure into the bottom of the box. Cutting the shape was simple--like cutting out paper dolls when you were a kid--but easier since the shape was simple.

I'll do other, more challenging shapes as we go along.

Day 20 - The Key to Everything

Here's a neat little snake book--a folded book structure made out of a single sheet of paper. In this case, I used a sheet of 8 1/2"x11" white card stock.

This book, "The Key to Everything," shows a dozen illustrations of the word "key" including pictures of lock keys, computer keys, piano keys, Alicia Keys, the Black Keys group, the Florida Keys, a Phi Beta Kappa key, the anthrax toxin protein key, an alchemy key, Francis Scott Key, a keystone and Stevie Wonder's album "Songs In the Key of Life." The images were printed on one side of the paper, plus another key and a keyhole on the opposite for the front and back covers of the book. The paper is folded and cut so that it bends back on itself to form 12 pages. The finished book is approx. 2 3/4" square.

The second photo shows the book flat, with fold lines and cuts. This is a nifty little structure that could be made much larger with a larger piece of paper. I might explore that a bit down the road.

Day 19 - Wood and Wire Stab Binding

This is a stab binding book with covers made of 1/4" solid birch. The wood has been cut, sanded, and stained and then had the holes drilled for the binding. I've had the wooden covers for this book cut for some time, but never did anything with them.

The hinge on the front is made from black bookcloth. I've usually done this type of binding with thread or other cord. This time I decided to use 16 gauge copper wire. It was more difficult than I imagined. The wire tends to kink. I spiraled the ends and used a hammer to flatten and texture the wire. The book measures 6"x8"x3/4"thick. The pages are white text paper.

Day 18-Jokers Wild

This is a book I've been thinking about making for ages. I've been collecting different designs of playing cards for years, thinking to make books out of them. I saw the stack in my studio today and figured it was time.

This extra-large pack of cards measures 4 3/4" x 6 3/4". There are approx. 78 pages of deep cream-colored text weight paper. (156 counting both sides). The spiral binding is hand-coiled out of 14 gauge nickel wire, then threaded through the hand-punched holes.

Since my big paper-cutter is not properly set up, this gave me a chance to practice cutting a book block with and X-acto knife. The cut turned out not bad. Punching the holes was harder. Next time, I'll find a better way to line them up and punch them than with a hand punch that won't do more than 4-5 pages at a time.

Day 17-Another Hair-on Hide Journal

Today's book is a repeat. And you're likely to get quite a few more of these little hair-on hide journals before the year is done. Well, I didn't say I would make something totally original and creative every day, did I? I just said I would make a book a day. And I love making this kind of book. I can make them all day long. I like the feel of the hair leather, the richness of the paper. I even like stitching them.

So, without further ado, here is a lovely little blond hair-on cowhide covered journal. The grain of the hair on the leather makes a pretty and soft swirl pattern on the cover. The pages are made of a rich creamy, almost buttery colored art paper, hand-torn for character. The journal is stitched with pale yellow linen thread using the longstitch, sewn directly through the leather spine. The book opens flat for easy journalling.