Letterboxing: Insanity, Sweat, and Satisfaction

This is a feature article on Letterboxing which is enjoyed by a community on a website called Atlas Quest. 

Treasure, this author's 2 cents.

I have emailed the Main administrator of this site and let this person know I will be sharing this site online on my blog. Read on to find out more about this very unique website and activity, Letterboxing.

Treasure can be in the palm of your hand no matter where you are in the world: This answer may surprise you.

Imagine you’ve spent hours online...

to the point your eyes are about to fall out of your sockets.

You’re frustrated with life and you want to go out and do something that challenges your mind, body, and life philosophy. Something different then what you are doing right now.

How about a sensitive solution for an intense problem?

Letterboxing may just be it.

What's inside is anyone's guess.

For someone like myself, I look for connections and establish friendships through writing, art, and craft activities both online and in real life. I do this openly; loud and proud to be creative. I also tell everyone I know: my name, where I’m from, and where I’m going. For me, Letterboxing is not the easiest activity for me to participate in since I’m actually quite vocal. However, this activity does allow for expression of the same things I am interested in, yet in a more quiet, mysterious way.

Journaling, public or private? Decisions decisions...

A week or so ago I was thinking of how I love to journal in hand sewn books such as Moleskeines. Yet I wanted to make my own journal to enjoy my life in the palm of my hand without swiping a screen. A journal handmade by me.

Writing or Drawing is something that can be quiet yet loud for this author.

A couple years ago, well, about 7 years back, I had opened a shop on Etsy and sold everything from jewelry to journals. I read a book on how to make journals and sold a few to friends and to people at craft shows. At the time I was in no condition to keep going with making journals despite how well they were received by customers. I was too overwhelmed with my own self defeating talk and my mental illness. My craftsmanship of my items suffered so I let my dream of being an artist and writer for a living go. And faded into the depressive abyss with a few wild highs just to keep things stormy.

However, this last fall, in 2015, I was given a new additional treatment for my bipolar depression that addressed my most difficult times during the year. Its worked wonders. I am able to work on my crafts again at my own pace and complete things in a more refined careful manner. My craftsmanship on my items has gotten better. I thought to myself, why not give bookbinding a try again. However, I had forgotten how to do it. Little did I know that people made public hand bound journals. I didn’t even know something like that existed.

Bookbinding. Joyful or maddening or both?

Bookbinding: Dreams can come true.

I found a webpage on codex bookbinding through a website about Letterboxing, (the link of which I will share at the end of this article.)

I made myself a small notebook based on the tutorial on this website. I used my own dimensions for the signatures, hole placement on the signatures, the thread used to bind, and made a modification to making the cover because of the nature of the size of my notebook. And even though I made so many modifications this tutorial on codex bookbinding helped me recapture to a dream I had before that I couldn’t achieve until now.

I’m not sure if I could participate in Letterboxing with the delicacy needed for such an activity. Though, in the spirit, as an observer of this tradition that started in England and is practiced in the United States of America as well, I tip my hat to a group of people who have traveled and shared their experiences through books, images, and journeys that they hold dear to their hearts. 

This is my version of how I interpret the information I have
read regarding  Letterboxing. I was thinking of how much
 I love living on the East Coast of Florida and how people would
enjoy  traveling here.

For information regarding Letterboxing. Check out the Atlas Quest home page here.

To anyone passing through life, meandering from point A to point B, seriously, check out this site on Letterboxing. It’s awesome.

And on life goes,

SketchwriterJess