Bookish

I was feeling a little bookish this week. And last week, too, to be honest.

A few years ago I made handmade books as Christmas gifts. (I didn't take any pictures, of course.) Then I promptly gave every last one of them away.

Last week I started eyeing the pretty papers I'd folded back then, all stacked up and ready to be punched and sewn. And I started eyeing the leathers sitting there in the basement, waiting to be made into something, anything! And, well, I started looking at bookbinding sites and blogs again. Next thing I knew this book showed up in my mailbox.

And now this is sitting on my desk. (Please ignore the dust. I'm too tired to re-take the picture.)
It's completely made from things I had around the house (so shoot me. doesn't everyone have good leather and craft supplies hanging around??).
It's the braided spine sewing, and it's the stitching pattern I've had in my sights for several years now. Don't know why I didn't purchase the book sooner, it was so clearly written, I had no problem doing it.
It's a wrapover book, with handmade paper (not by me) for the pages.
Now I'm not sure what to do with it. It's one of those things that I simply wanted to make. Not because I wanted the item, but because I wanted the experience of making it.

I used the natural edge of the leather, and the hole was kind of a neat feature of the natural edge. To my hand, the paper is too stiff for the soft leather, probably because I folded it across the grain 3+ years ago when I didn't know any better and it doesn't drape in my hand the way I think that it should.

After a crappy day at work, it felt good to come home and make something nice.