Day 172 ~ Make a book out of something other than paper.

These are some leaves from the Paw Paw trees we have around here. I picked an assortment of sizes a few days ago and pressed them in a book. This afternoon I removed them, not quite dried yet, and arranged them in order from the largest on the bottom to the smallest on top.

I punched holes with an eyelet punch along the 'spine', and hammered metal eyelets in a row, fastening the leaves together. This was not smooth sailing. The first one I overdid and punched a bigger hole than I needed. Got the hang of it, that is, I figured out how much pressure to use with both the punching and the hammering of the eyelet, by about the third hole.

Painted two small twigs gold and sewed them on along the row of eyelets. This process, too, was not without glitches. I had my mind set on using a knobby black yarn which kept getting caught in the eyelets and pulling them out. When I felt my patience begin to wane I settled for a thinner, less knobby yarn, which worked fine. I added too many beads and decided less was more and took some off.

When these 'pages' dry out a bit more I may try to do some calligraphy on them.