It’s been a month, maybe two, since I set my mind on making this notebook. In the past I would want to finish and settle everything within a day or two. This time I said, let me take it slow. Let it move along gently. I took it so slow that it took weeks.

Now I’ll try to show you how I made the notebook from scratch. As a heads-up: from its paper to its leather cover and even its stamp, it’s all handmade labor of love.

When I first set my mind on this, the goal wasn’t to make a notebook but to produce paper from used paper. Of course, that has its own method.

STEP 1: Collect papers of mostly the same color. (For this part, I collected used A4 papers from around the house, and note papers we’d scribble on and throw away.)

STEP 2: Gather the materials needed for paper making; 1 mesh-covered frame and 1 empty frame (I’ve added their pictures), a basin big enough to fit the frame — or any wide plastic container with some depth, because we’ll be doing a dip-and-drain process. 1 blender. 1 box of corn starch, and finally a kitchen sponge.

STEP 3: First we tear our papers into small pieces by hand. Then we put them in a bowl of water and wait 1-2 hours for them to soften.

STEP 4: We load the softened papers into the blender — not too much. We fill half the blender with water, and add 1 tablespoon of corn starch.

STEP 5: We fill a wide basin up to 75% with water. And we pour the slurry-like blended paper into this water. At this stage, you have to eyeball the ratio between the size of your basin and the amount of shredded paper.

STEP 6: The frame is the tool where you drain and rest your paper. You can either buy some wood pieces and build it yourself, or buy 2 painting canvases, cut the fabric off both, and staple or nail window screen mesh onto one of them — and you’ve got your strainer. You can watch this video as an example:

After this, we move into turning these papers into a notebook. First of all, since these papers are handmade, they can be very stiff and brittle when freshly made. So when you want to bend or fold them, you need to fold slowly while gently working them round. The papers I produced were around A4 size; I brought them down to A5, folded them in two and got them to notebook size.

Here I used 20 A5 sheets in total — that is, 10 A4 sheets. I grouped them into blocks of two, meaning two A5 sheets nested inside each other, ending up with 5 layers. At this stage, the papers need to be sewn to become a notebook. People usually use normal sewing thread for this, but I used leather sewing thread. If you ask what’s different about it: it has a beeswax-coated surface and it’s genuinely very strong. For this part, I’d like you to look at this video — you can learn the sewing method very simply from it:

After this part, you need to press the papers so they become one solid whole and take shape. That is, pressure needs to be applied on top of the papers and held for a while. There’s a press machine for this, but since we don’t have such a tool at hand right now, I put the heavy books and boxes I had on top and waited 1 day. To see the tool I mentioned, you can check this video:

After this stage, our paper layers should be sewn and ready. By the way, as I said, handmade papers are very delicate — you can go with normal A4s instead. But a notebook whose paper you made yourself is priceless. At least for me. For example, I’m 27 right now, and if God grants me grandchildren someday, I want to keep this notebook as a small memento where I talk about life today, and pass it down to them.

Next up is the leather part. I was familiar with the general tools and equipment here — I had previously taken a short leather working workshop. First, I want to show you an example video of a leather cover being made:

Since I wasn’t making such a fancy notebook, I didn’t need many materials. A piece of leather larger than A5. A cutting mat. A utility knife for cutting the leather. Wax, both to finish the edges and to give the surface a sturdier structure. One black cardboard. One bottle of glue. One watercolor brush each for the glue and the wax. And a burnisher to smooth the edges, give them a rounder shape and work the wax in. A burnisher, by the way, is an edge-slicking wood tool.

After this, we’ll cover with leather just like covering schoolbooks as kids — but of course we’ll do it with glue. Also, if you watched the video above you’ll have noticed he places thin wooden boards in the cover parts. Since mine isn’t A4 but A5 — actually A6 once folded — I placed two thin cardboards I found at home in the covers instead of wood. Because I plan to carry this notebook with me, and I didn’t want a rigid, hard-bodied notebook in my bag. Finally, you need to skive the inner side of the leather you glued to the inside of the notebook. Removing that rough texture on the leather’s inner side both reduces the notebook’s thickness and keeps the leather from feeling coarse inside.

For leather and leather tools, I went to the back streets of Beyazıt — there are dedicated leather shops around there. If you’re not in Istanbul, there are places online selling full sets; just search “leather tools” on Google and plenty of results will come up. As an extra, to see what the tools are generally used for, you can check this video:

In the final part, I felt the need to stamp the notebook to show it belongs to me. For that, I quickly designed and 3D printed a stamp that says “tubi”. By the way, if you print something like this, don’t forget to design the text mirrored. If you design the text the way we read it, it will stamp backwards onto the notebook. And if you’re wondering what “tubi” is — it’s actually an abbreviation of my initials: BB > 2B > TwoBi > tubi.

In the end, I got a handmade — genuinely, thoroughly handmade — notebook that I enjoy writing in and touching.

I tried to support the post with some photos and videos. I would have liked to make a video about this myself, but bringing this little notebook to life was truly a long process. I hope you liked it. Until then — stay healthy, may Allah protect you, with love..