New Shabby Journal

Made a new shabby journal over the weekend, to replace the Winter/Spring Journal that's nearly complete.  This time I bound the pages into an existing book cover instead of creating a soft cover with fabric and Timtex as I did with the previous two shabby journals.  I call them "shabby" because of the way the pages are built, with lots of stitched-on odds and ends.  I learned this in Mary Ann Moss's Remains of the Day.

 

This book was the right thickness to house four signatures with room for expansion, and the page height was perfect.  The cover was too wide, though, so I sliced off 1/2 inch from the edge of front and back.  Then covered the edges in deco Duck tape to match the inner spine reinforcement.  The end papers are the first two pages from the original book.

 

Inside front cover after binding.

Signatures prior to binding.  I had shabby pages left from when I originally created them, last summer.  Making the pages was so addicting that I ended up with 50 finished pages!  I used what I had left, here, plus I added new pages made from Gelli Plate offprints that I funked up with stitching, papers and tons of pockets on Saturday.

Finished journal ~ four signatures of four folios each, 30 pockets, more room to write than in previous shabby journals, button/waxed linen tie closure, 5-hole pamphlet stitch binding.

So what will I use this journal for?  Good question!  No...actually I'll use it to record almost-daily snippets of primarily studio activities, weekly lists of projects (for you goals freaks, consider these weekly goals), be-here-now entries if I journal off site (a rare occasion but it does happen now and then)...stuff like that.  At least, that's what I did in the last two shabby journals.  This isn't one that I consider an Art Journal, however, even though it's obviously arty and creative.  Clear as mud, right?