Leather notebook with lock and key, artist book, The Serpent

This book is bound in natural goat leather, painted and antiqued by hand. The decoration was obtained by creating raised shapes which were then stamped, tooled and painted with leather dyes, each element at a time. I wanted to give this book a magic feeling. The symbols represented on the cover are the Ouroboros, the serpent eating its own tale, which symbolizes cyclicality, the eternal return, and the Pentagram, the symbol of five elements, spirit, earth, air, fire, and water.

The entire book was designed to resemble a medieval tome. The lock and the key were given a patina to fit the overall antique look of this book. The leather was antiqued with transparent patinas to give it a worn look.

The end pages are made of hand marbled paper, brown color with orange and grey veins. The headbands are hand sewn from brown and black color thread.

The book measures 10.2 x 7.3 inches (26 x 18.5 cm). It has 150 pages (300 sides) of artist quality Favini paper. The paper is white, has a smooth finish, is hand thorn and weights 180 g/m². This paper is perfect for writing and sketching in mixed media.

This journal is an art object. You can use it as a secret diary or as a magic journal, I hope you love it once you’ll own it.