ThermoMix
Originally uploaded by Laura Serra
Images like this remind me that you can see the beauty in the everyday object. the simple, ordinary, and everyday object can be transformed into art if you only look at it the right way. Maybe what you need to do is turn the object on its side and look at it from a different angle, or maybe you need to adjust how you view the world.
No matter this pic is a perfect image of how that works.
This sketchbook contains 80 roughly 110lb plain cream colored pages. They are contained within plastic covered hard black covers. The plastic is imprinted to look like leather. This sketchbook is very often suggested for people started out in art journaling.
The paper is stiff and smooth. It’s good for writing and drawing. I find that the paper has a coating that repels wet media like watercolors, which it absorbs but gives a blotchy appearance. It does the same with some inks. It can be quite a pain in the rear. I’ve found that if I got through my sketchbook and spritz the pages with a little water so they are evenly damp and then allow them to dry before working in watercolor or ink the blotchiness is minimized.
The paper responds favorably to pitt and zig pens. They remain perfectly black and don’t show any blotchiness. The paper is also heavy enough to support many layers of collage and acrylic paint. When working with wet media it’s best to be aware that the paper will cockle and remain wavy even after it dries. I like the wavy paper but most don’t.
The heavy weight paper does not show strike nor bleed through except when using sharpies and copic markers. Fountain pens do just fine on this paper. Some fountain pen inks get blotchy.
The sketchbook has a great form factor with its smooth hard black covers, pocket in the back and elastic closure. I can’t say that the paper would be a reason to recommend it. The pages can take abuse but if you erase too much or scrub the pages with a brush you’ll end up will pilling of the top of the paper. I’ve read reports of the spine breaking on these sketchbooks but I’ve abused the heck out of mine and never had a broken or damaged spine, and I’m not gentle with my sketchbooks and journals. The price however is quite prohibitive at $18 for 80 pages.
If you are looking for a sketchbook that handles a variety of media relatively well, with a nice hard cover, at a ridiculously high price this is a good sketchbook. There are others similarly shaped and sized that will work as well at a lower price.
INterested in purchasing a moleskine sketchbook? Follow this link, it was the best price I could find on them:
It’s wordy Wednesday again! How the time flies. I’ve been sick, yet again, some sort of sinus thing and I managed to catch a company policy manual with my face. Needless to say I’ve been feeling a little under the weather and foolish. Paper cuts on the nose will do that to you, every time.
I’ve been in a rut. There I said it. I haven’t written in about 2 weeks. I’ve done some art but it hasn’t held the kind of feeling that I usually get from it. Instead it’s been flat, lifeless, and without passion. Add to that my weird sinus issue seems to be back, after only a week of it being gone and well I’m making excuses. My face and sinuses hurt, though I suspect the book to the face only did minor damage and really the issue is with my sinus issues.
Excuses. Really I need to let them go and get back to doing what I do. Writing and art needs to be something I stop avoiding, well I’m not avoiding I’m simply too tired after a full day at the DayJob to really get anything done.
I can’t wait for spring, this cold snow filled winter really has been hard.
I'm canceling UStream for tonight. I caught a book to the bridge of my nose this afternoon. (It's a long story) I will stream tomorrow night instead.
Laurel of this blog made me her featured artist on her YouTube channel! *Blush!*
I went on a tirade on twitter about the word tribe. I was annoyed because I’d followed a link to a link to a link for a blog that referred to paying members of an online group and advertisers as their “tribe.” It rubbed me the wrong way. Is that the real meaning of tribe? Or is it that language has changed so much over the last few years that it’s okay to refer to people who pay you for a service rendered as part of your tribe?
Words have meaning, words have power, blah de frickin’ blah. I’d like to go out on a limb and suggest that misusing a word or phrase has power too. I’m not suggesting anything about being political correct. It’s about how people misuse words, sometimes on a daily basis, and not bothering to actually learn the actual meaning of the word in question. My problem here is willful ignorance not the lack of political correctness. It’s the fact that the writer, a term I’m using loosely here, didn’t bother to use dictionary.com or even pick up a dictionary and look up the term before labeling her customers and clients as her tribe. It is clever marketing, if somewhat ignorant and insulting to the reader*.
I often see this trend online. One marketer** will decide to appropriate a term for his/her use and stick to it over and over and over, creating their own meaning and the people that read their blog, books, and articles eventually come to associate that meaning with the word. This mutability is what makes language so fascinating and beautiful.
I will continue to stick to my meaning of tribe that states that unless you are Micmac I’m not a part of your tribe. Otherwise, I can be your supporter, client, customer, and even in your network.
My to do lists are a mess
Originally uploaded by featherbed
While this isn't my to do list (Follow the link below the image for more great pics) I am a to do list keeper. Mine are less pretty than this mess, I write in my chicken scratch with whatever pen comes to hand, they are multi-colored barely legible lists of things like "Don't forget the TP. Pick up milk. We need dish detergent. Find the broom*"
*True story, I can't find our "in the house" broom. No idea where I put it. Its driving me nuts.
MiquelRuis 300page Grid Notebook with Red vinyl cover
I bought this notebook 4 or 5 years ago while searching for a Ciak brand notebook. As a notebook snob and a bookbinder I find this book to be just MEH.
First it’s perfect bound- glue with no stitching. Eventually with hard use pages will fall out. It’s just a matter of when not if. Perfect binding is simply not sturdy enough for the kind of abuse I put my notebooks and journals through. I will say that I’ve been carting this notebook around for 2 or 3 months and it’s held up pretty well so far. Also due to the binding and thickness of the book, it will not open completely flat while writing, which is a nuisance.
The pages are 15 to 18 pound in weight and very thin. Almost every pen I own strike through (is visible on the reverse side) and 90% bleed through. This means I can only use one side of each sheet of paper. So that drops the 300 pages of the book down to 150 usable surfaces. So even if I wanted to brave the non-flat writing surfaces of the left side of the notebook, I could barely read what I wrote. Additionally some of the inks I own feather like mad on this paper. I’m talking about relatively well behaved inks like Diamine Chocolate Brown.
The paper is very smooth and has the best light pale blue grid I’ve ever seen. It’s what drew me to the brand in the first place. After looking at a dozen or so gridded notebooks, I fell in love with the pale blue of this grid. It’s pale enough to blend into the background and not interfere with the writing when you are referring back to your writing. The pen glides over it. It’s not as smooth as Rhodia or Claifontaine paper but its way better than Moleksine paper. Ink is better behaved on the right side of the MiquelRuis paper than moleskine paper. The paper definitely has a right and wrong side for fountain pen use. One side is smooth and the other has a little more tooth to it and grabs the tip of the pen ever so slightly.
The format of the book I purchased is great- at 6×8 inches I’m finding the page size perfect for writing and recording thoughts and sketches. The size is good for slipping into a book bag.The 300 pages is a tad on the heavy size for every day toting about but if it were the only notebook you were to carry it wouldn’t be bad. They come in 100 and 200 page counts as well.
Would I buy another one of these notebooks? Probably not. The bright vinyl cover is nice but doesn’t speak to me the way a leather cover does. The paper’s lovely pale blue grid is about the only thing I really like about this notebook. Using both sides of the page is important to me, using just one side seems very wasteful to me. I prefer a stitched notebook for durability. I have to mention that pale blue grid again; it’s why I keep reaching for this notebook. This would be a good gift idea for the vegan writter on your shopping list. They also offer a host of recycled vinyl options that I'd like to see.
I purchased mine about 5 years ago at Barnes and Noble. I notice that the brand is no longer listed on their website. When I purchased this particular note book it was the last one on the shelf. It cost $10. You can buy these notebooks at the miquelrius website here.
Noodler’s Bulletproof Black, Eel Blue, Walnut, Beaver, Eternal Brown and anything BUT Herbin Bleu Nuit in an EF nib.
I’ve been reading a few personal blogs. One is the blog of a woman I went to college with but didn’t know, after all UMaine was a big school, we played high school softball against each other, that is not my point. I’ve been reading these highly personal blogs of people I don’t know well that detail things like the personal aspects of their lives, their kids, intense situations and frankly they occasionally make me uncomfortable. They give lots of details, location and photos of their homes, pictures of their kids, and a lot of family life details.
You see, I used to keep a blog similar and I had a stalker. Having a stalker isn’t fun, it’s pretty scary and getting things finished can be hard. I’m lucky in that my stalker* lived 3000 miles away from my then location. I’m much more careful with giving out details online. I don’t post pictures of the exterior of my house, and certainly not one where you can see the street number. I only post pics of my office and my studio.
I feel uncomfortable in the same way I used to feel when I read perzines. Stuff needs to be shared but sometimes it’s too much. A blog isn’t a diary, scrapbook or art journal it’s a public place, where people of all persuasions can read and comment or worse yet read but not comment. They can download your pictures, figure out where you live, find your eBay auctions and soon enough know where you live. A few miscreants ruin the internet for the rest of us.
On the good side of it, it’s fun to see that my people are the same, similar interests, and family life seems to be alike. It’s comforting to see that people grow age and mature into better people and raise kids with values. Now that I’ve affirmed that I’m mostly normal I’m going to cut back on my reading, I feel creepy.
This journal is made of strathmore 140# watercolor paper with a cold pressed finish. On these 2 pages I wrote with Rapidocraft pens and then washed watercolors over the top. ON the right side you can see a working to do list, items written on and crossed off as I planned for my vacation. This is the way I keep a lot of my art journals.
