Years ago, back in ninth grade, if I remember correctly, I began to try to make some stuff with leather. And I loved it. I think it was in a Jr. High arts class in Salem, Oregon. And the first thing I ever made was a sun visor, the kind that had a leather headband with a baseball cap-style visor. I wore that thing throughout the 70’sas I’m sure you can imagine—leather visor, bell-bottomed jeans, listening to Stevie Wonder and Van Morrison…but I digress.

A few years later, in bible college I had collected some leather-working tools and had begun to recover hard bound bibles in leather for a few of my classmates. They were rough, rustic looking pieces with a little design work, some carving here and there…nothing special really, but It was pretty sweet to be making stuff out of cowhide!

One of the last projects I remember making was a leather covered bible for myself. And I used that bible for many years, throughout art school, while traveling around in my old ’65 VW bus for just over a year…. I have so many memories of hearing God’s voice out of the pages of those scriptures. But over the years I replaced that bible with a newer translation and that lovely leather-wrapped bible sat on the shelf gathering dust and looking classy.

And then, just this past week, I had the idea of repurposing that old piece of leather into a watercolor sketchbook, a folio of sorts. I wanted something I could use over and over again, replacing the individual sheets of paper as needed, and putting the sketches up in my studio…and, I wanted to give this piece of leather that has been with me for over twenty-five years, another life.

I got the strip of wood from Jack, a close friend of mine who, among other things, builds guitars. He’s got so much wood around his place that I thought he’s bound to have a piece I could use. This is a small strip of Myrtle wood from Oregon. Quite fitting, don’t you think? And the Chicago post screws allow me to put as much or little paper as I think I’ll need for the next journey. Pretty sweet, huh?

Now I look forward to carrying this old friend around with me for a whole lots more years as I continue to make sketches, paintings, jot down thoughts and ideas, plan trips and much more.