Artists’ sketchbooks always fascinate me, and this one has a particularly poignant story: Bella Chagall, the great love of Marc Chagall, began to write in a small hardcover sketchbook in 1942, the year after the couple arrived in New York. On the first eight pages, she translated Yiddish poetry into French as a means of … Continue reading Bella and Marc Chagall’s Sketchbook
Here’s a writer who is an enthusiastic advocate for using a pocket notebook, in his case, a Paperblanks. What I’m advocating is having a small notebook (and a mini-pen — those things don’t break when you sit on them, and can fit in a front jeans pocket) ready with you so you can be ready … Continue reading Howard Andrew Jones’ Writing Tools
This sounds like a great book: Field Notes on Science and Nature Why are scientists’ field notebooks so valuable? And do notes really matter anymore, with global positioning systems, laptops and digital cameras available to document information traditionally recorded through sketches and barely legible scrawl? In “Field Notes on Science and Nature,” edited by Michael … Continue reading New Book: “Field Notes on Science and Nature”
I got an email a while back from a reader named Hope, who along with her husband runs this Etsy shop specializing in hand-decorated journals, cards and postcards. Among their products are Writersblok and Moleskine notebooks with some cool designs: Check out the wares at Blackbird and Peacock.
I’m more of a Yankees fan myself, but here’s a neat story about a man who captures moments from Mets games in wonderful watercolor sketches: Turning Woeful Mets Into Works of Art – WSJ.com. Every morning during baseball season around 6:15 a.m., after driving to Midtown from Manalapan, N.J., Petruccio takes a cup of coffee … Continue reading Sketchbooks Full of the Mets
I recently changed my “What I’m Using Now” photo after several months of its being out of date. I’ve gone through at least 2 or 3 daily notebooks since I last updated that image, a couple of Moleskines and a Piccadilly. I’ve been alternating between plain pages and squared– I keep coming back to squared … Continue reading What I’m Using Now
Remember Deafmessanger? I reviewed one of these handmade notebooks from Prague a while back and loved it, but they were only sold at a few small shops in the US. Well now I am happy to report that my friends at LoveNotebooks are now distributing these beautiful journals, and sent me a sample to give … Continue reading Deafmessanger Now Available at LoveNotebooks!
Frequent commenter David wrote to me with some thoughts on the Moleskine Passions Journals: When I first encountered the film, food, kitty and wine notebooks I thought, “‘Molie’s marketing people are nuts!” I found the design of the pages and data layouts way too rigid. Then I opened up the gardening journal. It’s quite different. … Continue reading Moleskine Monday: What Do You Think of the Passions Journals?
I love the visual journals some people keep in Moleskine diaries. This is a fantastic example, found at Doodlers Anonymous: Loops! is a mommy living in Brussels and she fills her sketchbooks like a diary in living color. You’ll see drawn pages of her family’s travels, her kid’s being sick and the generally overwhelming and … Continue reading Moleskine Monday: Loops!’s Visual Diary
I’d noticed Michael Roger’s Decomposition books in several stationery stores– they’re a clever twist on the traditional composition book, but made with recycled paper. I hadn’t realized at first that the company also makes some other very cute notebooks in the 3.5 x 5.5″ size that always sets my heart a-flutter. When I spotted their … Continue reading Review & Giveaway: Michael Roger Notebooks