Indigo Journal

detail of front cover

 I attended the Artful Journey retreat at the beginning of March in Los Gatos, California.  It was held at the Preservation Center and the class I took was taught by D. J. Pettitt.

D.J. makes the most beautiful journals of paper and fabric in a method she devised.  She led us in making a journal of our own over the three days of class.  I had a wonderful time and was very pleased with the result, a journal made with some of my (many!!!) Japanese indigo fabrics and other bits and pieces I had picked up here and there.

front cover with photo I took in Japan

The book is small, only measuring about 5 by 7 inches.  It has three signatures, each containing  5 pages.

spine

 The little journal has an open spine, which allowed me to show the signature "wraps" I did, featuring more of the Japanese indigo that I love.

signature wraps 

I use several indigo dyed moons that I purchased from Shibori Girl.  Glennis does some truly stunning indigo dying and I was very happy to finally have a place to show off several of the moons I have collected from her.  If you, too, like these indigo moons, be sure to check out Shibori Girl's shop.  She sometimes has them for sale there, if they haven't sold out the instant she lists them!

full "moon" page

detail of back inside cover

I created the moon for the inside back cover from a method I learned from one of Jude Hill's online classes.  Jude does beautiful hand stitching and her online classes are great.

page detail

I had fun using my little $50 sewing machine to stitch the pages together to their "hinge" and to do a little decorating of the paper.

back cover

The back cover technique was also something I learned in one of Jude Hill's online classes.  It's a woven patchwork of indigo and other fabrics.  I think there is a sky dyed fabric there that is also from Shibori Girl.

I am very happy with the outcome.  This little book is just what I'd hoped for and D. J. made it easy.  If you ever get a chance to take a class from D. J. Pettitt, be sure to do so!