Book making for Lake Placid

I am planting a letterbox in Lake Placid this weekend. It will commemorate the annual Ironman triathlon that takes place every summer there. For three years in a row, Seekher and I have planned to head up there for the weekend to spectate at the spectacular event but something has always come up to prevent us from going. Not this year! Finally, we are going to see it. Well, Seekher and I will, Trailhoundz will be with us but probably back at the campsite putzing around, singing to the dogs and hiking :-)

I made a logbook for the letterbox. A few months ago, Thz, Budge and I found some Craftymouse letterboxes at Montezuma and she had these nifty little handbound books in them. She told me she made them from instructions on catbead's website. So, of course, I headed right over there and scarfed those instructions for myself. Here is my finished product:











The paper is handmade using mango and banana fibers. I am not thrilled with the green used for the binding but I was in a bind (ha ha) and didn't have any other appropriate colors. I think it turned out ok and gives off an appropriate aura of wood-si-ness for an Andirondack box. The stitching was harder to manuever around the covers and signatures, than I thought it would be, but it was easy to tighten up the binding after the fact.

Since this box will only be checked for maintenance once a year or so, I made it with 4 signatures of 8 sheets of 70 lb. paper. The pages can be stamped front and back, so it should last for a year's worth of letterboxer visits.