




I bought a huge piece of tanned but otherwise fresh, thick leather and cut out the size I needed, then dyed it to give it that sort of wood grain look. Here's a comparison between the undyed leather (basically a skin tone) and the journal:
Then where the spine was going to be I punched holes for the stitching and sewed the folded sheets of 80-lb. drawing paper to the spine and voilà, a journal. Some things are a bit uneven, but I think it's ok for a first try, and considering it's all handmade. In any case, it was a lot of fun, it feels great in my hand, and it still has that fresh leather smell mmmmmm...

