Ladies and Gentlemen, place your bets.

When I told my husband I was taking a bookmaking class, he asked if I was studying to be a Bookie! Perhaps "bookbinding class" would have been more accurate. The instructor of this class is Melissa Hackmann, who is a wonderful, energetic and inspiring artist and teacher. Check her out at http://mphackmann.blogspot.com/
For my final project in bookbinding class, I made this crazy field journal. The cover is made from polymer clay which I rolled out in a pasta machine and stamped with a linoleum block that I had carved. I then painted it with a copper paint and put a patina wash on it. It's bound in the coptic style and incorporates my fossil collagraphs that were printed with and without ink. The story is of two paleontologists on a hunt for Therizinosaurus dinosaur bones. As you can see, the author is unfortunately eaten at the end of the story. My classmates looked at me with a new respect (or was that fear in their eyes?)after I presented this book!