My parents have a couple of birch trees in their front yard. I was heading in to the house, and reflexively grabbed some bark (this stuff has a magnetic appeal for me), only realizing the next day that this was a perfect opportunity for this task.



So, I was sort of expecting this to be easy, it's just like paper, right? Not so much. I now know why people quit using this stuff in favor of paper -- it's obnoxious. It sticks together, so you wind up with holes in your sheets and tons of little fragments of bark all over everything. It's also not really sturdy enough to hold up to a ball-point pen. I might have had better luck with a felt-tip. Not to mention the bugs. I soldiered on, regardless, and managed a more or less cohesive document.



I chose Theodore Roethke's poem "The Waking" for this book. It's one of my favorite poems. And a lot shorter than, say, "The Wasteland".



For the covers, I used some thicker sections of bark, rather than peeling all the sheets out separately. I did the binding with embroidery floss and a needle. The bark held up to it better than I'd expected, since it was only a day off the tree, and still springy and moist.



It's easier to read in person than in the pictures, but this should give a general idea. Bugs and fragmentation aside, the book was a success, and I may make more in the future.