Notebooks With Available Leather Covers

[RevolverOcelot]

This might be sacrilege in this crowd, but I had a custom cover made through a leather shop for composition books.

 

Comp books?

 

The comp books are a standard sizes and readily available. The system works well for me. Some comp books are more fp friendly than others--my best luck has been with the Office Depot brand, which I buy on sale during the Back-to-School season. I know the quality obviously is not the same as Rhodia, but allows for a standardized notebook which can easily be archived once completed and has been my system for the last 3 years.

 

To get an idea of how much to expect to pay, I bought my cover for $55 from Texas Shoemaker in southern California.

 

There's also the Levenger Notabilia series, which are upmarket comp books and have a separate leather cover (you can put drugstore $1 comp books in the $100 leather cover I suppose).

[nunez]

I'm surprised no one mentioned the Heirloom covers. Is he still making them? i've been away for a while.

 

- SteveN

[jimhughes]

Steve:

Rumors say that Tony at thewellshavedgentlemen. May be restarting his Heirloo, Covers project. Renaissance Arts in Santa Fe, makes a Composition Cover in Leather for about $40.00-$50.00 each. They make a ton of notebook covers as does inkleaf. ( Bogie on FPN) or Gfeller. Usual disclaimers apply. A very satisfied customer of all 4 companies mentioned, Jim

[AfterMyNap]

I would encourage you to first fall in love with a notebook, buy many, and then seek the ultimate cover for it. Because I am a huge fan of Renaissance Art, I can say that one of Arthur's leather covers will last for the rest of your natural life and it will become an important part of you. The others are, of course, all very nice, I'm just partial to the leather that arrives looking and feeling as if I just found an old friend.

[OakIris]

When I have the money, I would like to get one of the journal covers from Oberon Design; I have one of their covers for my Kindle eReader and I love it. Here is an example:

 

 

They have various other designs, mostly Celtic in origin, and each cover is handmade, very sturdy and well made, IMHO. I have read that their journal paper is not especially fountain pen friendly. but you said that was not that important to you. You can also replace their "notebook" with one of your choice, I should think. Oberon Design Journals

 

Holly

[cannon]

I would encourage you to first fall in love with a notebook, buy many, and then seek the ultimate cover for it. Because I am a huge fan of Renaissance Art, I can say that one of Arthur's leather covers will last for the rest of your natural life and it will become an important part of you. The others are, of course, all very nice, I'm just partial to the leather that arrives looking and feeling as if I just found an old friend.

 

That's what I am planning to do. I will spend a month or two using the book alone before deciding if I am ready to get the leather cover. I just don't want to fall in love with a notebook that doesn't have a nice leather cover available should I fall for the notebook.

[bbodson]

I have the Moleskine cover and the "large journal" from Oberon Designs. I really like them both. The moleskine is a fit for the Moleskine large journal, and the Oberon Large Journal is a fit for the Rhodia Webbies size 8.25 x 5.5.

 

http://www.oberondesign.com/shop/cart.php?m=product_list&c=27

[JimB]

This might be sacrilege in this crowd, but I had a custom cover made through a leather shop for composition books.

 

Comp books?

 

The comp books are a standard sizes and readily available. The system works well for me. Some comp books are more fp friendly than others--my best luck has been with the Office Depot brand, which I buy on sale during the Back-to-School season. I know the quality obviously is not the same as Rhodia, but allows for a standardized notebook which can easily be archived once completed and has been my system for the last 3 years.

 

To get an idea of how much to expect to pay, I bought my cover for $55 from Texas Shoemaker in southern California.

 

There's also the Levenger Notabilia series, which are upmarket comp books and have a separate leather cover (you can put drugstore $1 comp books in the $100 leather cover I suppose).

Got a comp book leather from Renaissance Art leather. I think it's a new item. $40, and it fits nicely, looks good; the rustic brown is great as is, or you can self-distress it. I love the feel of the leather! Journaling has taken on a whole new dimension for me.

[eherreid]

If you do end up being OK with using composition books, I'd second (or more?) the Renaissance Art recommendation. I have two Renaissance Art covers for composition books, one a custom cover with a wrap and tie and pen loop and one just a plain cover. They aren't as polished as some of the other offerings, but I like them lots. I posted some pictures on my blog the other day if anyone would like to see more photos.

[OakIris]

If you are a bit DIY oriented, you could try make your own. I am in progress with mine. You can buy leather on eBay (I had one from friend of mine). Other materials cost about 3€/$4 and 4hours of work. Photos included:

 

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/5253/img0975l.th.jpg

http://img808.imageshack.us/img808/7999/img0976af.th.jpg

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/4997/img0977e.th.jpg

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/1705/img0978m.th.jpg

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/4153/img0979ky.th.jpg

 

Papers are removable and could be stitched together in 1hour, usable without leather cover too.

That looks really nice. I've never worked with leather so I am not sure one I made would like as nice as yours, but I might give it a try. Did you use some sort of template for this or did you just make it because you knew exactly what you were doing?

 

This might be sacrilege in this crowd, but I had a custom cover made through a leather shop for composition books.

 

Comp books?

 

The comp books are a standard sizes and readily available. The system works well for me. Some comp books are more fp friendly than others--my best luck has been with the Office Depot brand, which I buy on sale during the Back-to-School season. I know the quality obviously is not the same as Rhodia, but allows for a standardized notebook which can easily be archived once completed and has been my system for the last 3 years.

 

To get an idea of how much to expect to pay, I bought my cover for $55 from Texas Shoemaker in southern California.

 

 

This might be sacrilege in this crowd, but I had a custom cover made through a leather shop for composition books.

 

Comp books?

 

The comp books are a standard sizes and readily available. The system works well for me. Some comp books are more fp friendly than others--my best luck has been with the Office Depot brand, which I buy on sale during the Back-to-School season. I know the quality obviously is not the same as Rhodia, but allows for a standardized notebook which can easily be archived once completed and has been my system for the last 3 years.

 

To get an idea of how much to expect to pay, I bought my cover for $55 from Texas Shoemaker in southern California.

 

There's also the Levenger Notabilia series, which are upmarket comp books and have a separate leather cover (you can put drugstore $1 comp books in the $100 leather cover I suppose).

Got a comp book leather from Renaissance Art leather. I think it's a new item. $40, and it fits nicely, looks good; the rustic brown is great as is, or you can self-distress it. I love the feel of the leather! Journaling has taken on a whole new dimension for me.

 

 

If you do end up being OK with using composition books, I'd second (or more?) the Renaissance Art recommendation. I have two Renaissance Art covers for composition books, one a custom cover with a wrap and tie and pen loop and one just a plain cover. They aren't as polished as some of the other offerings, but I like them lots. I posted some pictures on my blog the other day if anyone would like to see more photos.

 

The idea of using composition books is rather appealing to me - something that you can get at any office supply store instead of having to go miles to find a specialized art supply store to get "special" paper or order on line. Do others also have good luck with the Office Depot comp books? Are there other decent ones out there?

 

For those that use the Renaissance comp book covers, what exactly is the difference between the Rustic Leather and the Rustic Elegance cover? Nothing is explained on the web site, except that the Elegance is available in more colours. eherreid indicated that the leather for the Elegance version is a bit thinner, perhaps - not sure that more colours and less sturdy leather is worth the price differential. What do you folks think?

 

Holly

[rackom]

That looks really nice. I've never worked with leather so I am not sure one I made would like as nice as yours, but I might give it a try. Did you use some sort of template for this or did you just make it because you knew exactly what you were doing?

 

I have never worked with leather before. I just studied one tutorial end modified it a bit to be refillable. Here is the tutorial I used. It is not as difficult as it seems to be. If you need to know more details just send a direct message.

[OakIris]

That looks really nice. I've never worked with leather so I am not sure one I made would like as nice as yours, but I might give it a try. Did you use some sort of template for this or did you just make it because you knew exactly what you were doing?

 

I have never worked with leather before. I just studied one tutorial end modified it a bit to be refillable. Here is the tutorial I used. It is not as difficult as it seems to be. If you need to know more details just send a direct message.

Thank you for the link, rackom. I think I am more interested in making a leather cover for an already made journal/composition book than actually dealing with the book binding, but I'll see! The part of the tutorial for making the leather cover can easily be modified to make different size covers, as well as for making a refillable cover, which is what you did and which is what I want as well. Very helpful!

 

I actually looked for leather kits for book covers earlier this month and really didn't find much except one from Tandy Leather for a Bible cover - it wasn't quite what I was looking and I don't trust Tandy quality, either. Making my own may well be the way to go.

 

Holly

[vinper]

Levenger Notabilia, as noted above, is hard to beat, you can use their notebooks or $1.00 refills from the supermarket stationery aisle. Saddleback Leather also makes wonderful, bullet-proof cases for Moleskine norebooks in several sizes with a clever provision for toting your pen along. Sadddleback Leather's notepad holder (especially the small size) is convenient, small, and easily portable, but limited to 5x8 paper which rules out Rhodia pads; the medium size is less portable but holds European sized pads. vinper