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.
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.
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.
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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?
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.
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