{"id":3427,"date":"2018-11-19T18:53:51","date_gmt":"2018-11-19T22:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ruthbleakley.com\/blog\/?p=3427"},"modified":"2018-11-08T13:01:58","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T17:01:58","slug":"blue-waves-french-link-journal-with-golden-thread-detail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ruthbleakley.com\/blog\/2018\/11\/blue-waves-french-link-journal-with-golden-thread-detail\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Waves French Link Journal with Golden Thread Detail"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Florentine<\/p>\n

This lovely blue waves french link journal combines two of my favorite things: fancy stitching and decorative paper! I combined four different types of decorative paper in this book, a blue and gold florentine pattern made in Italy, a blue waves pattern and white flower pattern both made in Japan (this pack of five chiyogami papers<\/a> on Amazon is similar and very pretty), and a faux woodgrain pattern made in Nepal. It’s a global celebration of paper!<\/p>\n

I stitched the book together on tapes (the blue bands you see) using French Link Stitch<\/a>,\u00c2\u00a0a type of binding usually found on the insides of traditional hand bound books, but that is now revealed in a decorative fashion on the spine of this book.
\n\"Handmade<\/p>\n

It took me a little white to figure out how I wanted to lay out the papers on this book. I had fun mixing and matching combinations for the cover. I ultimately decided to have the paper with the gold ink at the top, similar to the sun. I place the waves in the middle as a dark blue contrast, so that from far away it would look like a blue stripe, and then the white and blue flowers at the bottom. The gold, blue and white also makes a sort of abstract landscape, like the flowers are growing on the “shore” of the beach.<\/p>\n

\"Florentine\"Florentine<\/p>\n

I stitched the book together with a combination of French link stitches and regular straight stitches, and decided to enhance the text block by weaving in gold thread, which I found by unplying some gold and white baker’s twine<\/a> that I had on hand for packaging up orders. I untwisted the white and gold twine and used just the gold parts, weaving it over and under the white waxed linen thread<\/a> binding. The end result is a gorgeous, shimmering gold and blue journal that I’m really proud of! You can see if I have any available here, but I make pretty limited editions of my journals, so it may have sold out:<\/p>\n

Blue Waves Florentine French Link Journal For Sale<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Journals are great gifts for the writers in your life, the English majors, the artists who would like to sketch inside the unlined pages, or anyone who is going through a new phase in life: new moms, recent graduates, empty nesters, friends who are moving, folks who are grieving… You can see all of\u00c2\u00a0 my handmade books for sale here: Ruth Bleakley’s journals for sale on etsy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Handmade\"Florentine\"Florentine<\/p>\n

\"Handmade
\nThanks for reading my post! If you love looking at handmade journals, check out my Pinterest board Handmade\u00c2\u00a0Books + Journals<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0(which as of this writing has 10,304 followers! I love Pinterest, so please feel free to pin any of my photos!) and don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter:
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