Robert Frost Journal and Baseball Journal

I've been busy lately adding more things to my Etsy store. It takes some time to make each journal, so I have to start early to be ready for the Christmas season. Mostly, I've been making journals that have a quote on the first page, like this one with a quote by Robert Frost:

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

Robert Frost journal at Etsy.com

I try to use a range of quotes in my journals -- some on travel, others on love, inspiration, writing, and reading. Because I'm a bookworm myself, I also have journals with quotes by famous writers, including Charlotte Bronte, Jack Kerouac, Henry David Thoreau, J.R.R. Tolkien, Jane Austen and many others. 

When I started making journals with quotes back in 2004, I used to sell little notebooks with quotes at a local craft market. My first book had quotes by women, some serious, some funny. It was always fun to see women come by, pick up one of the quote books to read, and start laughing at one of the more amusing quotes.

In addition to the quote journals, I've recently added another baseball glove journal to my Etsy store. The covers are made from a well-loved and used Rawlings baseball glove:

Baseball journal at Etsy.com

I acquired the fabulous remains of an old leather document case a while back. It was one of those moments where I turned a corner in the store, and there it was, beckoning me from the recesses of a shelf.  There isn't much of it, so I've been hording it, but finally made my first journal with it.  It's deep, dark brown, but wonderfully worn, so it has loads of reddish scuff marks. Just listed in my Etsy store:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/274429568/rustic-leather-journal-one-of-a-kind?ref=shop_home_active_1

A Mystery Solved

I love to read a good mystery, curled up in a deep armchair with a box of restorative bon-bons nearby, and recently I managed to solve a small mystery myself. Nothing involving a murder, which is perhaps a good thing.

The other day I was leafing idly through one of my books on bookbinding, when I noticed a small, blurry, black-and-white photograph of a coptic stitched book (yes, this is a bookbinding mystery, Dear Reader :). 

On the cover of the book were some cross-stitchings that seemed to be part of the binding. And unfortunately, even though it was a very instructive book on bookbinding, in this case there was no explanation of how one would do that sort of stitching. Where is Sherlock Holmes when you need him? 

I became determined to solve the Mystery of the Cross-Stitch Coptic Binding, so I got out my needles and a couple of recently pressed book covers, and commenced my investigations.  And at last I think I've done it! Turns out it was a variation on a multiple-needle coptic stitch pattern I've been using for years for my books with wooden covers.  I just had to do a little criss-crossing with the needles, and voila! Here is the result:

I used reclaimed, walnut brown leather from a vintage bomber jacket for the covers, and stitched it together with sky blue Irish linen thread.

 On the inside covers are ephemera stickers with Italian and French handwriting:

I named this journal / sketch book "Blue Skies". It's currently residing on the shelves of my Etsy store.

Moons and Moons

Around the time of the recent full moon, I got busy making some journals that have a moon theme. I named my shop Moon and Hare partly in honor of my great-grandfather, Quintilious V. Moon, who was a most excellent journal-keeper, and I like to have some moon themed journals in my shop as a nod to him. And also, just generally because I love looking at the moon, especially on full-moon nights.

This one is a reproduction of a 19th-century etching of a "man in the moon", surrounded by a verdigris filigree metal charm. I've always loved this etching, it has such a benevolent gaze. Surely, that's how the man in the moon would gaze upon us, if he were really up there, no?

Paper Moon

(Sold)

My second man in the moon journal also has a face inside a verdigris metal charm.  This one made me smile a bit while I was making it.  The face in the moon is a 19th century photograph of a young man who, from what I could make out from the writing on the back of the photo, was a young missionary who had set out to conquer London. Oh, the doors that must have been slammed in this fellow's face, and yet, he had the gaze of someone who would not be easily deterred. You, my man, I thought, shall be a man in the moon! A man in the moon should be one not easily deterred -- after all, it must be awfully cold up there.

Man in the Moon

Dreamers, Part One and Two

Did some browsing around the local antique stores a few days ago, and came away with some excellent antique cabinet photographs, and some other, smaller ones as well.

  I made two new journals with the cabinet photographs, plus some bison leather for the spines. Back when I was living in British Columbia, Canada, I found out about a bookbinder who lived in a tiny town deep in the woods, tracked him down and got the bison leather from him. That's the second bookbinder I've discovered living out in the woods. What is is about bookbinders and primordial forests? 

Dreamer No. 1

Dreamer No. 2 (Sold)