Cortona, Italy, Journal 2009

In 2009 I participated in a workshop in Cortona lead by Gwen Diehn in which we produced our own pigment and journals from local materials found on our explorations around Cortona and Florence. Walking along the unpaved country road behind the Oasi Hotel searching for rock with which to crush into pigment is still a fun memory.

The cover paper on this journal was made from a bag from the Il Pozzo D' Arte gift shop in Cortona. There I purchased handmade paper and some crow quill pens. Il Pozo had a wonderful display of handmade paper journals for sale, too.

The pages of my journal were made of a type of Fabriano paper which I am not familiar with here in the US. The watermark impression was F44. For those of you who don't know, Fabriano paper is made in the town of Fabriano, Italy.

Here's the back side of the journal. We also made rubber stamps as part of the workshop.

Zecchi sells art supplies in Florence and sells their own brand of watercolors. Here is their shopping bag broken down into a journal page insert and their watercolor chart also as a page insert.

I enlarged this image a little more so you can see the bare spine with the outer paper covering removed. The cover structure was thin cardboard product packaging. The stitching is a version of long stitch with chain that can be found in Keith Smith's book, Volume I Non-Adhesive Binding: Books Without Paste or Glue.

.....arrivederci.....