I made a tea directory (project goals and bookbinding described here) and some stamps with which to track my delicious investigation of those teas, but I was still not done. It had been a while since I bound a book destined to hold such an absurd number of inclusions, and I underestimated how much extra slack to leave in the binding.

It’s ok. I have elastic left over from 2020 mask-making, and surely I can just make a strap out of that.

Attempt #1: squishy bobble

I’ve wanted an excuse to make buttons out of thread for ages. I did something inspired by these videos on how to make a Yorkshire button and how to modify that process to make a stuffed sort of bobble.

The resulting bobble was fun to squish but insufficiently related to the book’s theme.

The process of circular weaving was enjoyable, and I believe that wrapping the results around my eclectic button collection could be a useful way to make mismatched buttons match in the future.

The thing that sent me back to the drawing board was the fact that I neglected to tie this bobble into the book’s theme in any way other than coloration. It was a missed opportunity that sent me to a reliable group of bookbinders on Discord to see if anybody could help me find a different approach.

Attempt #2: teabags

The bookbinding nerds breathed fresh air into my design process. Having community is so helpful when I am stumped!

The suggestion that got me off and running was to double down on the theme and make the strap teabag-themed.

This solved another problem, because teabags can hold small things and I was having a hard time keeping the stamps near the book to be stamped.

The drawstring is a bit uncooperative with such a tiny channel in which to move, but it is still an improvement.