ID: Asian Serenity
Journal (closed): approx 3.5"w x 5.5"h x 1.25" thk.
The cover completely open is 11.25"w x 5.5"h
I found the instructions for this enclosed journal in a book by Mary Kaye Seckler called "Book Arts - Beautiful Bindings for Handmade Books". I changed the size and some of the detailing.I used a black Stonehenge cardstock for the cover and added a piece of black mat board at both of the "thickness of journal" sections for added rigidity.
I used white paper from Grumbacher's "Paper for Pens" Pentalic. It's a crisp, bleed proof paper that is great for calligraphy.
I used a beautiful pebbled reddish gold textured paper on the flap.
11 signatures of 6 pages each
Clasp Detail
Bead Detail
The clasp (detail pic on left) is made from air dry Craft Porcelain colored with Luminarte (brown, olive, & yellows) and Gold Leaf Metallic Powder all of which I mixed into the clay. Glued it to the overlap for the front closure, and used a double strand of twisted natural jute. I glued the ends to the inside of the cover and added a decorative circle made from Japanese paper.
The bead is made from some decorative wrapping paper twirled around my wooden skewer (previously colored with brown distress ink pads) then wrapped with beads on very thin wire and dabs of Liquitex glass bead texture gel (added both a decorative element and the glue to hold the wire in place).
The stitching was done with a medium dark brown embroidery floss.
