Steampunk leather journal

I have been focusing on crafting re-usable leather journals, and this most recent creation of mine has been so fun to make! Steampunk gears, rivets and a snap to keep it all nice and tidy inside.

It started out as a raw piece of vegetable tanned leather, which I then cut with a swivel knife, to have the gear and scroll pattern.

Next I used a variety of beveling tools to smash down the area inside the gears. This took about 3 hours to get just how I wanted it.

After all the beveling was done, I used some special dye-resist on parts of the journal in the hopes of achieving a 'wood grain' effect and then dyed it a warm brown color. Lastly for the color, I sealed the dye so it won't ruin the coloring. Two rivets were added in the corners. I had originally intended for all the circles to be rivets, but I liked the simplicity of the two rivets.

I sewed two inside pockets to hold the cover of the journal into place and finished it off with a simple strap and snap to keep it closed. Ta-da! My own take on a wooden, steampunk journal that can be reused!