As a child I often made weak attempts at and imitations of being crafty. No worthwhile projects came of it, and I didn’t pursue anything along that line. But I still find myself wishing I was crafty. Especially when I see things like this post, which showed up on WordPress’ “Freshly Pressed” page:
move over cardboard there’s a new hard cover in town.
Gorgeous. Follow the link for more photos and a description of the process.
Tolle, Lege! 
Yea, so I’ve actually thought quite a bit about making ceramic books, or at least book covers. Ultimately I have been hesitant because ceramic doesn’t like to be flat. The molecular composition of clay is like little hexagons that do well stacked on one another, but are very weaky when flattened out.
I think the best solution would be something more akin to old school bible cases, which are more…boxes than they are “covers” as such.
I dunno, I suppose it depends on the book in question, for a journal? Terrible idea, it would be far too brittle (unless you had cover for your cover, but that’s just cumbersome). But something like a family bible that inhabits the family shrine? It would probably be more feasible and less likely to be destroyed.
I like your idea about the box, in part because I can imagine more creative leeway in a box than a book cover. The cover is, to a large degree, restricted by the signatures.
I agree the ceramic cover is a poor concept for an actively-used journal. On the other hand, I would be thrilled to see her design incorporated into a hand-written book not necessarily meant to be read often. I’m imagining a collection of poems, a Gospel, the psalms, or something of that nature.