I’ve been on a bit of a journal making marathon over the last few weeks. I source leather for my journals from a furniture designer on Etsy. He usually sends me large […]
New Zen Scribbles journals ready for purchase!
New to bookbinding? Here are 7 simple tools that can make your DIY leather journal look really good!
I love the feel of a nice leather journal 🙂 When you start out in bookbinding, making a gorgeous leather journal is really what you’re hoping you’ll be able to make one […]
The economics of selling handmade journals
Hmmm…..so what are the economics of selling handmade journals? Tl;dr Not great, especially if you’re making them in the US! Let’s use a simple leather handmade journal as an example. Something like […]
Making remote handicrafts accessible through handmade journals
As someone who hails from India and was exposed to the huge variety of gorgeous handicrafts found in many different parts of India, and as someone who has developed an interested in […]
So far….it’s crickets on Etsy
So I decided to try my hand at selling some of my handmade journals on Etsy. Suffice to say that so far the experiment has not yielded great results 😀 Here’s my […]
An easy way to identify veg tan leather
I love making handmade leather bound journals. There’s nothing really that beats the look of a leather journal – it has such a timeless classic beauty to it. At the same time, […]
Burnishing leather edges – A quick way to make your DIY leather books look professional
As a self-taught (and still learning by the way!) bookbinder, I’m always looking for ways to give my leather bound journals a more finished look. Leather working is a field in and […]
How to add a bookmark to your DIY journal
You can make your DIY journal have its own inbuilt bookmark. Something like this, see the bookmark sticking out of the spine? Adding a bookmark is extremely easy, but you need to […]
How to convert any fabric into book cloth to cover your DIY books
If you’re into bookbinding, you probably find gorgeous materials every now and then that you wish you could use to cover your books, but you’re not sure how to. One of the […]
Don’t be quick to judge your work
I have a tendency to not like something I’ve made, right after making it. I’m not sure why this happens. But for many handmade journals that I’ve made so far, my initial […]
Sonali Mangal 