I had a guy request a really distressed and beaten on journal, on that looked like it was old and abused. I think I fulfilled that request with this journal. I started with a chunk of oil tanned leather, applied a variety of acrylic paints in layers, wet them down moved them about and wiped them off. I scrubbed some in with an old toothbrush and scraped the leather with a knife and a few other tools. Using a brush I applied some darker paint to areas and rubbed that in with the end of the brush handle, wiping off areas that were raised leaving darker pain in the recessed areas. After all that I took a braided piece of hemp laid it across the cover and beat it in with a hammer, which left an interesting impression. I then folded the cover so that the area where the spine was would be measured and applied darker paint in that area so that it would look like the spine had been handled a lot; after all that I took and iron and bees wax and heated it into the leather.

I ended with a leather that looks dark and abused, as if it has been through the ringer and back again, surviving god knows what.

The details:
Long stitch with decorative Xs on slots
200 pages of Eaton paper
Sewn with black Irish linen thread
Raw flap and a black leather strap- cut thick

Check out the pics:

This journal is already called for.