Finally!

Pictures of some finished journals!

These are the journals that I have been documenting the process of creating - (if you are interested in how these journals started - simply check out my older blog posts..)

All of the leather has been upcycled and rescued from the Puces de Vanves market in Paris. . . leather purses, bags, satchels, briefcases, wallets - falling apart and waiting to be created into something new!

I carefully de-constructed all of the items - cleaned with leather cleaner - and picked pieces and parts - for a *new* journal!

Always One-Of-A-Kind!

This front and back cover of the journal was created from leather that was once a small dark purple leather purse - I saved the metal closure to reuse in the journal. The spine piece was salvaged from a leather briefcase.

I hand stitched the pieces together - and designed the binding.

Hand torn heavy white paper interior -

I had to move the back part of the metal closure a bit to the left for the journal to close properly. I secured a leather piece on the interior over the metal and stitched it into the journal (so as to protect the interior paper from rubbing against the metal and damaging the journal).

Small leather journals!

These leather pieces were salvaged from a briefcase - the body of both journals had once been the sides of a briefcase...I kept the metal loop hook attached to the leather and used it as the back of both journals - so that they can be attached to bags, ect. (The loops allowed the original briefcase straps to attach to the sides).

The top and bottom of the leather on both journals have decorative holes from the original stitching. I removed the thread - the front flap of leather was taken from a dark brown purse. I cut and designed the flap - created new holes and hand stitched the leather onto the back piece.

Longstitch binding in lime green and mustard linen thread.

Dark green leather and rose colored leather strap attached to the cover and riveted to the front.

The interior is heavy white paper -

with a vintage atlas page at the front and back signature (4 map pages total).

Petite Leather Journal:

This small piece of leather was from the side piece of a small purse.

Longstitch binding in lime green linen thread - with burnt orange leather strap closure.