travel journals...

Book making is a valuable learning exercise and I was pleased that some of my students in high school remembered the book making they had done with me in upper elementary and middle school wood shop years ago. That gave them a leg up on getting started today.

The idea is that of creating a travel journal jam packed with text, images and other souvenirs gathered when they go to Philadelphia in just over a week. The students are required to write about the experience.

These handcrafted journals will have memories packed inside. The making of journals is part of this year's trip preparation process. The hands embed memories into the materials they have crafted.

Today my students begin designing their covers. I have prepared Baltic birch cover boards that they can decorate and personalize in a variety of ways, using milk paints, veneers, metal stamps and hot melt glue. When those are complete, the books can be assembled.

These are real bound books using a binding technique taught to me by book artist Dolph Smith. While the iPhone seems to dominate every situation, we hope to prove that there is still a safe place in the scheme of things for a old-fashioned, hand made book.

If my students' enthusiasm for this project is any measure of our future, it appears to be in good hands.

My blog, boxmaking101.blogspot.com shows box making progress in my own woodshop where I am making a tool box to test and demonstrate the use of a Woodhaven Portable Box Joint Jig.

Make, fix, create, and increase the likelihood that others learn likewise.