There is great pleasure in making something for the first time. In discovering how all the parts of the process fit together to create a new masterpiece. There can also be a lot of frustration as you try to get materials and hands to work together in co-operation!

My latest adventure saw my dusting off the bookbinding tools to make some hand bound books from a tutorial in the Grain issue of Taproot magazine. I did a bookbinding class with the incredible Rose-Marie Jeffers Palmer of Amazing Paper when I lived in Sydney. Since then I've made a book or two but my tools have mostly gathered dust. After reading the article I fell completely in love with the fabric covered notebooks in the magazine. I desperately wanted one!

When I was a kid I would make, write and illustrate my own stories and always wanted to know how to make books so they looked like the ones I bought in the shops. Instead of like my homemade stapled together at the kitchen table versions. Although thirty-five years later those books of my childhood do have a certain charm. Especially the Adventures of the Piffle Poffle which unfortunately I never finished illustrating.

The books in the tutorial were covered with plant dyed fabric and embroidered with illustrations of plants. I didn't have the patience to wait until I had dyed my own fabric and instead rushed out to the paper shop to buy some lovey papers including one made out of cork!

I'm starting to revel in my nature as a craft dabbler, flitting from craft to craft. My sewing skills came in very handy for sewing together the pamphlets in this book. For me sewing is a foundational skill which I use in many other craft projects. It's very handy for sewing on the wooden buttons I make and sewing together the fabric I eco-dye. 

I'm very pleased with my notebooks and can't wait to make more. Next time with avocado dyed fabric!