After making the technique samples of loose-leaf journal pages, I knew the perfectionists in the class would want to walk away with a bound journal. After all, the class was Journaling for Perfectionists. I came up with an idea for binding individual pages into a book, but then I was stumped for what to put on the cover.
It came to me, as most good ideas do, while I was out for a walk. Using rubber stamps, I wrote “Perfection” in a badly-spaced rubber-stamp script, cut the paper slightly at an angle and used it on the cover of the book. I find it perfect for a class on perfectionism.
The pages are held together with tape, in this case, a paper tape that allows me to vary the amount of space between pages so the signatures line up.
The next book will use the tape only as positioning piece. I’m going to sew strips of grosgrain ribbon over it to create a more permanent and attractive way of holding the pages together.
The book contains several poems I love, both popular and not well known. In this one, by Lorna Crozier, from her book Inventing the Hawk, I created one page that looked like snow drifting from the sky on one side,
and a page of bright winter colors with tissue paper snow on the other.
Here’s the poem:
The Angel of Numbers
In heaven the season for mathematics
is Winter. Chalk falls from the blackboard,
covers the earth.
The angel who invented arithmetic is trying
to get rid of zeros.
She erases and erases the boards
Then starts again
Assigning to the numbers already in the air
Their own lost stars to live on,
their own dark infinity
to name.
* * *
—Quinn McDonald is creating a course on writing poetry. The research is deeply satisfying.
The rest of the book:
The center spread:
And the inside back cover:
QuinnCreative 