The "Good" Book...

Brynwood Cork Nature Journal

No. I don't mean that good book. The last post I shared was my "practice" class piece. While this one is my completed class assignment, I can see that I still have a lot to learn and perfect.

I used a piece of my favorite wildlife printed cork fabric as the cover. The binding is called a pamphlet binding and it should be accomplished with straight rows. What I learned is that it's hard to see the punched holes for stitching in cork, because the awl-sized holes tend to try to close up. Next time, I would mark the holes with a tiny ink mark on the inside before I start stitching. Lesson learned.

The inside pages are again made from copier paper, because I didn't want to use expensive paper for a technique I'm still learning. I made five signatures (that's the term for the folded pages that make up each sewn section), and the collection of bound signatures is called a codex.

I completed the book by adding a couple stickers inside the front page of my book, and then added a Brynwood leaf tag to the spine. The final touch was to add an acorn needle keeper as the closure. I glued one magnet inside the front cover, and then attached the acorn with another magnet to the fold-over flap. I may choose to amend how it's attached at some point, but I'm sticking with that for now.

Well, I completed my class so I can say, "I've done that." Perhaps my idea for adding needlework to covers of handmade books is something that will need to percolate further. I'm sure not ready to jump into that at this point. I think I'll stick with what I know for now. I'll be doing more needlework this week.

I'll also be working in my Etsy shop this week to take my February sale live. First I want to rephotograph some of the items in my shop. Right now there are multiple items per listing, and I want to change them to one item per listing. Of course, I want to put in a site-wide sale to move some of my stock to new homes. My plan is to take the sale live by Friday. I'll be sure to announce it as soon as it's ready.

My blog is still slow on this end. How is it for you? Slow? Loading as it should? I'm genuinely curious. I haven't figured out why this is the only site that loads turtle-slow for me, but I really hope it's not hanging up on your side, too.

I'm off on an early errand today and then I'll be busy here in the studio. Now, where did I put my morning cuppa? See you tomorrow!