the next Italia sketchbook

I made a sketchbook. From scratch. It's so fat and glorious and makes me oh so happy. It might even need a name...what sort of name is befitting a sketchbook made specifically for Italy, filled with 5 different kinds of paper, and covered in black and bits of color??

I'm actually kind of surprised I've never made my own sketchbook before. I missed binding a lot. I did not miss cutting and folding every page to size though. This beast has 7 signatures, each with 4 folios, hand bound with purple embroidery thread in a faux black leather and lime green threaded cover. Making for about 56 pages (112 front and back) of paper bag, old faded black, lithography, drawing and watercolor papers. JOY! 

It's likely a bit ambitious of me to have that many pages but this trip I want to treat my sketchbook differently. I'm planning on doing more collage work this time, as well as more note taking. Last time around I had mini notebooks for different things, this time I want all my notes, directions, places to eat, artworks discovered, maps, recipes, museum stubs, receipts and more all in one place. 

I'm going to keep playing with it and add some pockets and folders to it before I leave in 43 days (but who's counting...) This beast is going to be even more beastlier once I'm done with it! 

And Xena approves of it. I swear this cat has a radar that goes off every time I want to take pictures outside.