Silken grave goods

One of the bestest things about taking commissions from you lovely people is the wondrous range of interests, fascinations, intrigues and passions you manage to come up with. So here, the degradation and preservation of silk when it's dug up from the ground in excavation of pre-Christian burials...

First choice! Black leather wraparound book. Silk rod on one cover, folding over mulberry paper and metalwork embellishment. Open up, and find decorative linen and waxed papers layered with wool and silk felt. Wrap around with nets, silk-style fabrics with wool threads, and lovely inset papers from Frogmore Paper Mill. Sprinkle throughout all the delightful knicknackeries that Knicker Drawers does so very well.

I'm almost tempted to bury it in the ground and leave it for a few weeks to bring about some seducing earth smell.

Choice two. I love this book. I will simply have to make a copy, just so I can continue the hugging-to-the-bosom process I have already begun.

Distressed, wrinkled leathered cover; Victorian scholar style; twisted raw silk fibres with felted wool, gently stained with earth ochre; gold fibres trapped and bound in a contradictory free-form stitchery.

(Bashed up, scholarly, natural? Hang on, I think I just worked out why I like it.)

Hope you do, too.

Choice three; earth colours layered over sturdy metals, fragile papers, felted wools and fine silks. Magnetic cover closure, internal ribbons and secret pockets.

Placid and peacemaking (and jeweled in purple)

Quiet, reflective spaces, to save the most inspiring lyrics, keep a token of youth, save the sayings that guide you, hoard a photo, or just to pin the little things. One day you look back and know, these were the big things.

This, based on the design of a jewellery roll, in violet-purple suede, inspired by the amethyst, raw rock crystal and cut to jewellery. Unrolls to felts, nets, papers, and secret stashing places for tickets, notes and billet-doux (or the wise words of your mum, take your pick).

Fun, with twiddly bits, because there's a bit of every girl that never grows up (or at least, I hope not).

Or the sophisticated one - ruby-red, wine-purpled, soft leather bound book with a regal feel - inspired by gold drawn from the ground and emerging in many forms, all desirable. No matter how old, the golden moments never fade.

Next up! Light purple leather twist stitched on black. Add sequin, nets, ribbons, silk thread paper, hand-made felt, inner tucks, and secret folds. A book that draws inspiration from the curves of sound waves and the pulses of music. Just add the laid-back, contemplative mood.

Add another choice! Music, sparkle, smooth and textured touch to the fingers! Bold, dramatic, cute and quirky, all in one. Stick your ipod in the front cover pocket and play the soundtrack for youth, bringing it all together.

Spring green

In raggedy style

Circle and line

Music, possibly anarchy

I receive a lot of requests to make books that musicians would like. (Must be the leather.)

Well, this particular one started out neatly. All regular.

But then it quickly went all anarchy and burst into flowers. (Spring, possibly.)

I expect, in this particular series, to be in full flow by about June.

For the first year, paper

Delicate papers, rolled smooth with flower inclusions, stitched next to rough handmade paper recycled from paper pulp, placed next to gold printed chiyogami paper, next to transluscent printed rose paper, next to fine paper as delicate as a spider's web, next to petals, silk, leather, and bridal net.

(Almost makes me wish I could be married, all over again.)

Book of shells