The Benefits of Bartering

 
A friend who is really proficient at sewing is making me a pen roll - and not just of any material but of this amazing leather!

This will be the outside of the roll, the inside will be made of somewhat thinner natural tan leather and hold 8 pens, 4 thick and 4 slim ones. There will also be a flap to protect the pen's caps from rubbing against each other. It should be ready some time this week and I'm really excited! I've always wanted to have a pen roll but the ones I saw never appealed to me.

What's best is I'm allowed to pay for this with a handmade journal. I think the pen roll should be ready some time this week and the notebook is already finished: dark brown leather with Italian peacock paper cover.

A 5 sized journal with leather back & corners

This paper is gorgeous. I have some stationery with this motif and had been looking to buy a matching journal a while back but couldn't find a convenient option. Of course I'll have to part with this one - it goes to a young woman who is a psychologist -, but I have more than enough of this paper left to make another one for myself.

Sprinkled edges. At the far left: curious tomcat's whiskers!

I pressed the book block firmly between two boards using winches, then sprinkled the edges with watercolor in various shades of blue to match the cover.

I'm not sure how these ridges on the spine are called in English. (If you know, leave a comment!) In any case they complete the nostalgic look.

Spine and corners are made of heavy grain lambskin. It's a little hard to work with as it's quite stiff but I really like the look of it on the finished book.

I love bartering like this, wish there were more opportunities for it.