I didn’t eat all day while I was at work so when I came home I was exhausted and tired Once I had a couple glasses of water and ate (we made a ham dinner, roasted carrots and potatoes and corn) I felt a lot better. I browsed the internet and relaxed for a little bit and then got down to the business of making art.

Essentially I glued up the 4 hedgehogs I stitched up last night and thought about the spine for the hidden pocket journal. I made a sketch and think that it will fit the theme of the journal. I’m toying with one or 2 other ideas before I settle on any one idea.

I also cut and folded the end sheets and pockets for some of the experimental journals that I give every year as gifts. Tomorrow I’ll see if I can get them folded and ready.

I realized that I’m pretty cerebral about my process of making books. I think about the spine design a lot before I ever put my pencil/pen to paper and sketch out ideas. Then I sketch out 2 or 3 ideas and 99% the time the idea I go with is one of those. Occasionally those ideas get morphed as I handle the materials. For instance the idea that I originally had for the hidden pocket journal was an elaborate long stitch with variations of linking along the spine. That was when I was working with the other leather. When I cut the new cover and put the patches on it (franken style) whole new ideas came to mind, once I handled the materials. My original ideas for the hidden pocket were stiff and worked form a different angle than the pockets, thee flow from the materials themselves and work better than my original ideas. Of course my original ideas managed to ‘eff up a rather large chunk of hide but I won’t talk about that now.

Anyway, the FrankenGiantJournal is coming along well. I’m not taking any progress shots because they will give away the secrets of the hidden pockets.