For the final (I hope) installment for this multi-part series of posts, I got lazy and just shot a 7-minute video.

As I alluded somewhere in this blog, I’ve updated my Traveler’s Notebook solution by remaking the leather binder that holds the notebook pages. I wanted to blog about it, but I’ll be honest with you: I simply did not feel like spending a lot of time writing, photographing, and laying out a blog post show-and-tell when a short video could do the job a lot better.

So I shot the video.

I then wound up spending a hour editing it. I was hoping to knock it out with Screenflow, which has been my go-to app for quick video production. But for some reason, Screenflow can’t import audio from iPhone video. (I really need to figure this out because I definitely can’t use anything else for video editing while I’m traveling. I’m apparently too dense to figure out iMovie.) So I wound up using DaVinci Resolve, the amazing video editing tool I used to edit most of my flying videos. Trouble is, I haven’t used it in months so I’ve pretty much forgotten how. That’s why it took me so long.

Anyway, I finished the video and uploaded it to YouTube. So if you want to get a better idea of how I created a nice leather binder for my Traveler’s Notebook style productivity solution, here you go:

You also have to jump through hoops to sell it and account for it.

When was the last time you bought something from the person who made it? A piece of pottery, a wooden jewelry box, a framed painting, a hand-bound notebook, a leather wallet, a pair of earrings?

Do you have any idea what went into that item, from the moment it was imagined by the artist to the moment you took possession of it?

Let’s look at the skills required, which is probably the least considered piece of this puzzle. Babies don’t emerge from the womb knowing how to make things. Their ability to creatively design and then construct a piece of art is something learned over years. Sure, some of it might be natural — lots of people (but not me) seem to have an eye for drawing or making music. But most folks, no matter what their natural skills seem to be, need training and practice to hone those skills. A kid has to come a long way from drawing with crayons in kindergarten to painting fine art images with acrylics on turkey feathers.

The next time you browse an art show, take a moment to consider the kinds of skills the artist needed to hone to make what you see in her booth. Think about how she got them. Maybe it’s self-taught with years and years of practice. Or maybe she took often expensive hands-on classes. (I did a bit of both.)

Now consider the often specialized tools and equipment. I bet you can’t even imagine half the tools a potter or a woodworker or a jewelry artist uses to make their artwork. Next time you’re at an art show, if an artist you admire isn’t too busy, take a moment to learn more about the tools and equipment they use in their studio.

Here’s a photo of a pendant I finished yesterday, and here’s a run-down of the tools and equipment I used to make it:

• Jeweler’s bench (homemade)
• Adjustable jeweler’s stool
• Cutting mat
• Metal shear (tabletop)
• Metal sheer (handtool)
• Steel hammer
• Weighted nylon-head mallet
• STERLING stamp
• Custom Makers mark stamp
• Flush cutters
• Flex shaft (basically a foot-controlled Dremel)
• Sanding wheel
• Bail template
• Bail-making plyers
• Chain nose pliers
• Smith Little Torch setup
• Propane Tank
• Oxygen Tank
• Quenching bowl
• Pickle pot
• Neutralizing solution
• Silver patina
• Tumbler with ceramic media
• Tumbler with steel shot
• Strainers (two meshes)
• Bezel setter

All together, this is about $2,000 worth of equipment. And it doesn’t include the the thousands of dollars of other equipment I use in other work. Not only did I have to acquire all of these tools, but I had to learn how to use them properly. (I’m still working on the Smith Little Torch.)

And then there are the materials. I had sticker shock this morning when I checked the price of sterling silver; it’s up more than 100% in two years. Thank heaven I stocked up earlier this year and have enough to take me through the winter. I’ll need to have a few good shows before I stock up again. I’m fortunate that I now have enough cabochons in my collection to last the rest of my life. (Buying stones is a bit of an addiction for me.)

Now I’m getting into monetary costs and I really didn’t mean to go there. So let’s take a turn back to what prompted me to write this post: updating my jewelry business online shop.

The point is, it’s not enough to be creative and have the skills and tools and materials to turn ideas into a piece of art. Today’s artists need to be able to sell that art to keep making it. And that means they’re usually in charge of marketing and sales — after all, how many artists can afford to hire someone to handle that for them?

Marketing, to me, means mentioning my work on social media, trying (and mostly failing) to keep a website up-to-date, photographing all my new work. I’m lucky (or stupid) because I’m only on one social media platform — Mastodon — so I’m not dealing with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Tik Tok. (I occasionally put videos on YouTube, but since losing my login information for my jewelry account, that’s been a bit difficult.) I simply can’t see spending hours of every day promoting my work on social media when I should be making the work I have to promote.

Sales means applying to and then attending often costly art shows with setup and teardown that suck the physical life out of me. Even just sitting in my booth all day, eating snacks out of a little cooler and having to rely on other artists to keep an eye on things when I run to the restroom to take a leak can be exhausting. Heck, when I do the Leavenworth WA show some weekends, my day is 11 to 14 hours (long door to door), depending on whether it’s a setup day. The show I’m attending in Seattle soon is costing me more than $800 for a 10 x 6 foot space; do you know how much jewelry I have to sell to cover that? (At least it’s indoors.)

Sales also means updating an online shop. I know a lot of folks use Etsy and depend on it for sales. I don’t. I’m tired of them taking such a large chunk of my revenue and displaying my work among so much cheap crap. I’m tired of having to maintain two inventory systems that I have to manually sync up when I make or sell something. I’m tired of giving money to an organization that misleads buyers and sellers. And when you shop there, have you ever stopped to consider how much sellers have to jack up their prices to make a profit after Etsy takes its fees?

So I have my own Square-based shop. It’s free to set up and use; the only fee is the standard credit card fee I pay when a sale is made. But it still takes time to update the site with photos and descriptions when I make new items or sell items outside the square system.

Did I mention that I have to be a photographer, too? Yep. I have to take decent photos of all of my work. I do the best I can, but I’m not pretending it’s good. It’s passable. (Yesterday I considered hiring someone to do it. But I quickly realized I didn’t have the budget to pay someone else to do it.)

And did I mention that I also have to account for all my sales? And file sales tax returns for every state I sell in? So yes, I have to be an accountant, too. (Good thing I got that accounting degree back in the 1980s.)

So I guess that what I’m trying to say is that unless an artist is independently wealthy and can make art for fun, there’s a lot more to making art than just making art.

Think about that the next time you see original artwork available for sale.

I think there are two reasons this time, one familiar and one new.

Let’s face it: I’ve been blogging at An Eclectic Mind since long before it had that name. My first blog post was way back in 2003. The blog had my name back then, Maria Langer, and it could be found at MariaLanger.com — where it can still be found; try it! I wrote about the things that were on my mind. For a while, I wrote computer-related how-to content, but I eventually broke that out and put it into a site called Maria’s Guides which I’ve since allowed to die. I wrote a lot about politics. I wrote a lot about my work and my play. I wrote a lot about my crazy divorce. I wrote a lot about social media. I wrote a lot about building a new life in Washington State.

Heck, I just wrote a lot about anything that was on my mind.

And that’s what I personally think a blog is for. At least this blog.

There are no ads here. No tracking. No annoying pop-ups begging you to subscribe or send me money. It’s just the blog of a writer — a person who has always written — sharing what’s on her mind.

If you come here often to read my latest and actually like a lot of what you read, great! I’m thrilled to have you here!

But if you stumbled in here unknowingly and have concluded that this blog is crap and a total waste of your time, well, just go away and don’t come back. It doesn’t bother me.

And if you think that’s harsh, well blame social media. (Also understand that “go away” is not what I originally wrote.)

The Dearth of New Blog Posts Here

I use an app on my Mac called MarsEdit to compose all my blog posts. One of the features I really like about it is that it keeps a database on my computer of every single post. So I can scroll back through past posts and see titles and dates of past posts. I can quickly link to them in new posts or just view them in Mars Edit or in a browser to remember what I wrote.

What I’m seeing right now is that between April 15 and July 26, I didn’t write a damn thing here. That’s more than three months.

I have two excuses for this dearth of blog posts.

I’m Busy

The first excuse is the one I usually produce for such occasions: I am busy. Unlike a lot of people out there, I live a full and relatively active life that often keeps me away from home and a keyboard I can actually type on. (No, I won’t blog from a phone or tablet. Don’t even suggest such a thing.)

Back in April, I was dealing with getting my boat across the mountains and having it serviced and put into the water to join a charter program. Everyone (other than me) was working in slow motion. It was incredibly frustrating and anger inducing. And costly. I paid to have my boat sitting in dry dock for two weeks when it only needed to be there for a few days — if the people doing the work would have done it promptly.

Okay, ’nuff said. No reason to get worked up about something that I dealt with months ago.

They got my boat into the water on April 8. Before that, it was in dry dock. After that, it was at it’s new home at Squalicum Harbor Marina. As I type this, it’s at Stuart Island, earning me about $3,200 for the week.

Anyway, I spent most of the month of April on the boat doing the things I needed to do and nagging everyone else to do what they needed to do. The boat lives in Bellingham WA now and that’s a 4-hour drive from my house. I spent more time on the boat in April than I did in my own home.

Then May. One of my Hobbies Gone Wild is silversmithing. I make jewelry out of gemstone cabochons, sterling silver, and copper. I’ve been at it since about 2018 and I’ve actually gotten pretty good. I sell my work at art shows in Washington and Arizona. May was the first two art shows I’d participated in since summer 2023. (Regular readers may recall that I did a 8000+ nautical mile boat trip between 2022 and 2024?) Before I could do the shows, I had to gather together all my show equipment, make sure it was ready to use, and make a bunch of new inventory. That first show was Mother’s Day Weekend and I had my second (now third) best weekend ever. The next show was Memorial Day Weekend, just two weeks later, and I had more inventory to make after selling so much at the previous show. So yeah, I was busy.

And in between all that, also in May, I was the instructor on a 5-day “Learn ‘n’ Cruise” class for San Juan Yachting. And then a half-day class refresher class for the first client to charter my boat. (Please don’t ask.) Around that time is when the problems with the new rudder indicator reared their ugly head. That fiasco took up a lot of my time, too.

When June rolled along, I taught another 5-day class. And then I took the boat out with my good friend Janet for two weeks in Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands with a stop in Victoria BC. If you’re keeping count, that’s 19 out of 30 days. I spent another 2 days on the boat before I went home.

By this time, it was pretty obvious that neglecting my yard and garden was paying off negative dividends. I split my time between making more jewelry inventory and trying to get control of the weeds and irrigation system. My boat trailer and truck camper remained parked in the driveway, which is absurd when you realize that I have a 2880 square foot garage.

Then July came and I had two shows to do. One was local but four days long. The other was all the way out at Sequim on the coast — a 5-hour drive. I took my camper. While I was out there, I dropped my laptop and broke the screen. I had to stop at the Apple Store on the way home to get it fixed. I also stopped at IKEA to buy some organization solutions for my jewelry studio. And a friend’s house. And a consignment client. It took me two days to get home. I camped overnight up in the national forest near Stampede Pass.

And now it’s still July. I’ve been home for nearly a week, thrilled that I don’t have to lock myself up each day in my jewelry studio to make inventory for yet another show. I’ve been pulling a lot of weeds, using a chainsaw daily, and assembling IKEA furniture. But tomorrow I head to Fort Walton Beach FL to help the owner of a Beneteau Antares 11 reposition the boat from there to Jacksonville, a distance of about 750 miles — if we go through the middle of Florida instead of around the bottom. The forecast on Wednesday is 81°F with a 50% chance of rain and at least 80% humidity. And have you heard that it’s hurricane season? Fun times!

I also spent part of this month writing two boating articles for publication and being interviewed for a podcast.

So yeah, I’ve been busy. And when I get back, I’ll still be busy, with yet another art show coming up at the end of August.

(I admit here that I’ve shuffled the deck a bit and hope to get another boating gig at month end — something interesting enough to get me to cancel that art show appearance. Cross your fingers for me.)

Excuse #2: The Journal

And now I’d like to introduce a second excuse for not blogging as regularly as I should: my journal.

Back in 2024, I started making daily entries in journal. I completed every day in 2024 and, so far this year, have only missed about 10 days.

In my journal, I write down what I did that day, along with any thoughts I had in my head. There’s nothing really great about it. I’m using it as a memory device for when I get older and my memory fails. I can look through the book and remember the things I did and thought.

But I think that writing in the journal has made it feel less important for me to blog. In a way, the journal is taking away my need to share what’s going on in my head. So blogging doesn’t seem as important.

Does that make sense?

Going Forward

I’m going to try to get back into writing or blogging on a regular basis. Over the past three days, I’ve written a bunch of blog posts for this blog as well as My Great Loop Adventure. I’ve set the publication dates and times so they don’t all get published on the same day.

As usual, they will be a mix of what’s going on in my life and what I’m thinking about. Some of them might interest you. Some of them might not. But then again, isn’t that what my blog has always been?

I’m also going to try to share links to blog posts and other online content that I’ve really enjoyed and can recommend. Hopefully, I’ll be able to share those on a timely basis.

Your comments are always appreciated.

Four months on, I’m using my notebooks regularly and have made them part of my life.

Note: This is part 3 of my Traveler’s Notebook saga. You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here. – Maria

Time has gone by. I haven’t written much in this blog, mostly because April, May, June, and most of July have been crazy hectic for me. I finally got my boat into San Juan Yachting’s charter program, I made jewelry inventory for and attended four art shows, and I even managed to spend just over two weeks on the boat with a good friend of mine. Along the way, I planted my garden, maintained my vehicles, cared for my home and pups, and socialized with friends.

In other words, I lived a busy life.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What I’ve Learned

I learned a few things about my Traveler’s Notebook solution along the way:

• No one uses Traveler’s Notebooks anymore. It was a craze that faded at least 6 years ago. Although the inserts are still available to purchase here and there online, they can’t be found in stores.

• 
  My design for daily planner spreads is similar to Ray’s but starts the day earlier, ends the day later, and includes spaces to record exercise and water consumption. (I don’t drink enough water.)

  The Daily Dashboard solutions I’d downloaded from Ray Blake’s website weren’t quite what I needed to plan my day. Because Ray is a Brit, his week starts on Monday so the month-at-a-glance calendars were difficult for me to use. And I didn’t like his labeling. So I made my own version, which I printed and turned into books. August is the first month I’ll use.

• I like making the little books that I insert into the leather folder. I really like sewing paper. It’s so relaxing. I’ve been using paste paper I made months ago as covers.
• I’m not 100% happy with the leather folder. It does the job, but I wish it was stiffer. I’ve been thinking a lot about using newly acquired bookbinding skills to fine-tune it, possibly to glue the leather onto book board with a hard spine. I’m not ready to possibly ruin the leather yet, so I haven’t done anything.

The Notebook in My Life

I’ve incorporated the notebook into my daily routine.

I start my day with a cup of coffee and my iPad, which I use to do a series of word puzzles and sudoku that I share with friends. (Lately, I’ve been doing it out on my deck in the cool morning air, often just before dawn.) Then I pull out my notebook and my journal. I journalize the previous day’s highlights and my thoughts about them while adding the things I need to do that day to the day’s to-do list.

The binder has inserts for the current month and next month. This makes it possible to add events and tasks for dates in both months.

Once that’s all done, I get dressed and get ready to start doing things on the day’s list.

I don’t journalize in the notebook. I have a separate journal book for that. The only thing I use the lined day page for is taking notes during phone calls or just writing down things I need to remember.

I leave the notebook open on my kitchen counter so I can consult it and stay focused throughout the day. This is exactly what I did with my old looseleaf planner pages, but now the pages are portable.

Speaking of portability, I take the book with me when I travel. I travel an awful lot. Sometimes I use it when I’m traveling but most times I need to admit that I don’t. My morning routine is difficult to keep when I’m on the boat or in my camper or staying with friends or in hotels. I don’t know why. I need to work on that.

The Bottom Line

The Traveler’s Notebook style of notebook meets my needs for organizing and note taking. Although I don’t use it as much as I could/should, I’m definitely sticking with it for day planning. When it’s part of my routine, it helps me keep focused and be more productive. It also helps me track how I spend my time.

Will I blog about this again? No, not unless I find some new and exciting way to use it. How likely is that?

I make my own Traveler’s Notebook and fillers — with limited success and lessons learned.

Note: This is part 2 of my Traveler’s Notebook saga. You can find Part 1 here. – Maria

About two weeks ago, I blogged about my attraction to and doubts about the Traveler’s Notebook system. If you didn’t read that post and don’t want to, the very short story is this:

• Traveler’s Notebooks — originally by Midori, a Japanese company — combine a leather folder-like cover with inserts held in by elastic cords. They are highly flexible, allowing you to build a notebook with the components you need.
• Traveler’s Notebooks were wildly popular about 10 years ago and still have an almost cult-like following among people who journal or take notes on the go.
• Traveler’s Notebooks are relatively expensive to set up, but YouTube has dozens of DYI videos to teach you how to make your own.
• I decided to make my own, following the very detailed instructions in a specific video.

And that’s where I left off. I’ve since made the notebook and started using it. Here’s what I’ve learned.

Making the Notebook Binder

I decided to stick to the standard sized Traveler’s Notebook, with the thought that I could accessorize, if desired, with manufactured components. To that end, I followed the instructions in Ray Blake’s excellent video. He’s very specific about measurements and I think that may have been my first problem. Well, actually, my first problem was using leather that was too soft.

I had some nice leather pieces I’d gotten as scraps for bookbinding projects. One piece was a gorgeous red leather that I suspected might be too thin to use for the job. But I used it anyway, since it was the best option I had. And let’s get real here: it’s not as if I can run out to the leather store and find something better. There is no leather store around here.

I followed Ray’s instructions and cut it exactly to size. Then I used a leather punch to punch holes where the spine would be. I did not follow Ray’s instructions for this. I followed instructions I’d seen on another video that had a much better way to secure multiple fillers inside a Traveler’s Notebook. I then pulled out the elastic cord I’d purchased online and strung it through the holes in such a way that I ended up with three loops inside the binder and the ends sticking out a hole in the middle of the book. Tying off those loose ends gave me the secure closure I’d need when I closed up the book.

And this was my biggest problem. I’d gone with some thick bungee-style elastic cord. It was simply too thick and heavy for the book. No matter how I strung it, the book wanted to fold up.

Well, I thought, maybe it’ll be better when I put the filler books in. So I spent about an hour making three filler books, exactly the right size. And that’s when I realized that the holes were too far in. When I inserted the fillers, the elastic cord bent the books. It was a mess.

This didn’t make sense. I followed Ray’s instructions. I took each filler to my guillotine cutter and trimmed it down so it would fit between the holes that hold the elastic and keep the books in place. It was still a mess.

Discouraged and more than a little pissed off, I set the whole project aside. Clearly, I needed a way to stiffen the leather and I needed thinner elastic cord.

The Fix

Life went on. I’m working hard this month to prep my boat for a season in the charter fleet for San Juan Yachting in Bellingham. I spent a week on the boat, mostly on the hard, to coordinate the work done by detailers and a maintenance crew.

The nice thing about being on that side of the mountains is that they have a lot more options for shopping and buying things. Although I didn’t try to find a different piece of leather, I did focus on finding better elastic string for the job. I found it in — of all places — Walmart.

(And yes, we have a Walmart about 14 miles from my house in Wenatchee. I just really hate shopping in there. The only reason I was in there in Bellingham was to buy four gallons of Rotella for my boat’s oil change. It’s $15/gallon in Walmart and $25/gallon or more at just about any marine store. It’s the same stuff and it meets Volvo’s specifications for engine oil. When you’re buying four gallons at a time, it’s nice to save $10/gallon. And Volvo can pound sand if they think I’m putting Volvo oil in there, which I’ve paid as much as $50/gallon for.)

I got home on Thursday. Yesterday afternoon, I brought my Traveler’s Notebook mess back to the workbench, took out the thick elastic, and replaced it with the thinner elastic. I then stuck my trimmed down fillers into the leather binder. It got bunched up at the bottom of the spine, but did not bend the books. The problem is that the books are now too short so they don’t hold the spine properly.

I printed out the May 2025 Daily Dashboard pages — similar to the journal pages I always use — punched them with a cover, sewed the pages together, and trimmed them to the size the books are supposed to be. I stuck that in as my middle book, figuring I could use it now to start planning for May. It pulls the soft leather binder up nicely.

The other thing I did was use some of my beeswax paste on the outside of the leather (before restringing the binding elastics). I’d read online (on a leather site) that you can stiffen leather by painting it with melted beeswax. I already had the beeswax paste I made and thought it might be a good (and a lot less messy) shortcut. I think it stiffened the cover to a certain extent. I know it darkened the color. It’s probably waterproof now, too.

Using the Notebook

Am I using the notebook? Yes and no.

I started using the Daily Dashboard insert for April on April 1. I just brought it with me when I traveled to the boat. I didn’t bring the leather binder since it wasn’t set up properly. I use the Dashboard insert to plan each day on an almost micro level, keeping track of how I spend my time and checking things off a daily to-do list. It really helps keep me focused and prevents me from forgetting to do important things. I have a shit-ton on my mind these days — I’m managing three companies now, prepping my boat for the charter season, making inventory for my jewelry business and upcoming art shows, and trying to finish a book. And get my garden started. And keep my house clean. And get rid of the wasps that have taken over my eaves.

(The to-do lists never end. It’s part of the “joy” of home ownership.)

Now I’ve got everything set up inside the binder: two months of Daily Dashboards and a lined journal for taking notes. When I head back to the boat next week, I’ll take the binder with me.

The big problem I have using the Notebook regularly is that you have to carry it with you to use it. While I’ll definitely take it when I travel, I doubt I’ll take it with me when I run errands or do other things out and about in town. The problem is, unlike most women, I don’t usually carry a purse. The little binder isn’t large, but it’s too big for a jacket or pants pocket.

(Years and years ago — I think I might have been in a college job at the time — a coworker told me that she doesn’t carry a purse because it’s like having a kid with you. You have to keep tabs on where it is all the time. 40+ years later, I still remember this wisdom.)

And that’s the problem with any notebook or journal a person wants to use: you can’t use it if it isn’t with you.

So that’s where I am now. I’ll try to update you in about a month. Stay tuned.

I catch the Traveler’s Notebook bug and make plans to dive in — with a homemade notebook and fillers.

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a YouTube video about something called the Midori Traveler’s Notebook. Originally made in Japan, it consists of a leather folder with elastic straps on the folded edge that you can stick accessories into. As you can imagine, there are lots of accessories, including all kinds of little notebooks — either blank or printed with lines, dots, grids, calendar days, etc. — folders, zippered pouches, credit/business card holders, etc., etc.

Here’s one of the marketing photos from the Traveler’s Company website.

If you want to fall down into a rat hole of information, just go to YouTube and search for Traveler’s Notebook. You’ll see hundreds of videos from people reviewing them, using them, blinging them out, and making them. The one I think is best if you know nothing about them and want to learn is this one on the SuffandThings channel. (Don’t let the intro music turn you off; it eventually goes away.)

I should add here that Traveler’s Notebooks, which are now sold by the Traveler’s Company (with accessories sold in many places on the Internet), have a bit of a cult-like following. So if you do any Internet or YouTube searching, you’ll find a lot of sometimes crazy content about it. The guy in that video refers to this and he’s dead-on right.

My Thoughts — Before Trying it

What I liked about the Traveler’s Notebook is the ability to have multiple notebooks in one binder. These are notebooks that I choose — not ones chosen by someone who thinks they know how everyone will use it. Total customization.

So, for example, I can have a dot printed notebook — is that the same thing as a bullet journal or something different? — for notes and drawings, a lined notebook for a commonplace book, and my daily planner pages. I grab the book on my way out and I’ve got it all with me. Or I lay it out on my desk or countertop as I work or do chores and can consult it or make notes throughout the day. Sounds like a great analog solution to a problem I was tackling with a handful of apps.

There were three things holding me back from embracing the Traveler’s Notebook craze:

• The notebooks are not cheap. The regular sized leather folder with elastic straps is $55. It comes with just one insert. Inserts run from $5.50 to $13 each, with other accessories costing even more. I was looking at nearly $100 to get started, and that would not include my custom daily planner pages.
• I wasn’t sure if I’d stick with using the notebooks. If you’re like me, you’ve started using multiple journaling or note-taking or organizational tools throughout the year, only to abandon them. It’s one thing to abandon a daily planner you bought at Walmart for $5 on January 15, but another to abandon a system that cost $100 to set up.

• 
  One of the great thing about knowing how to bind books is to be able to create custom books to meet your needs.

  I wasn’t sure I needed this solution. After all, I use Scrivener for commonplace book style note-taking, I have a hard-bound daily journal I’ve been writing in regularly since January 1, 2024, I use Apple’s Calendar app and the 2Do app, synchronized on all of my devices, to keep track of appointments and things I need to get done, and, on a daily (micro) level, I have my daily planner pages, which I’d just bound into month-at-a time books. Was I trying to solve a problem that I didn’t have?

I went through this thought exercise a few weeks ago. And then I got busy with other things and forgot about it.

New Skills Lead to Rethinking

Recently, I’ve been taking baby steps on my bookbinding skills. I’ve got the “pamphlet” style book nailed and have made numerous little books over the past few weeks. I really enjoy the sewing part of each project. It’s so relaxing and meditative.

But now I’m thinking of hardbound books with multiple signatures and leather trim or all leather bindings. In preparation to tackle future projects, I bought some scrap leather pieces, some of which are quite large. Large enough, perhaps, to make a Traveler’s Notebook of my own. Instead of costing me $55, I could probably whip one up for about $10. And I already had the bookbinding skills to make the inserts, including ones customized for all of my needs. They’d cost me about $1 to $2 each.

Of course, if I’m making everything myself, I don’t need to make it the same size as the Traveler’s “regular” sized notebook. I could make it any size I wanted to. But then I wouldn’t be able to buy any of the special accessories that might interest me, like the zipper pouch or card file. It made more sense to just make it exactly the same as the Traveler’s Notebook people buy.

Fortunately, there are many, many, many videos on YouTube that explain how to make them. Personally, I can’t watch videos by (mostly) women with high-pitched or uptalking voices. If I start a narrated video and the person doing the video has a voice I can’t stand, wastes too much time blabbering about things that don’t matter, is making something downright juvenile or ugly, or is taking shortcuts to save money on materials or tools to create a low-quality product, I turn it off. There’s a lot of content on YouTube. Watching crap wastes time.

The one I watched and liked best was on Ray Blake’s channel: “Making Your own Midori-style Leather Traveler’s Notebook.” Clear, easy-to-follow instructions without a lot — or any, actually — time-wasting bullshit. This video is 11 years old and although he hasn’t done any videos about these notebooks within the past 2+ years, he still provides PDF files on his blog for printing out calendar and planner books. His Daily Dashboard is remarkably similar to my own Daily Planner pages.

And that’s what sold me on making my own Traveler’s Notebook.

The Plan

And that’s where I stand today, as I type this. Once I get my work and chores done and have some time to play, I’ll go down into my studio, pull out those leather scraps, fire up Ray’s how-to video on my iPad, and follow the instructions (with some modifications I saw elsewhere) to make my own leather folder in the Traveler’s Notebook style. I’ve already printed out the pages I need to make a dot journal, a lined journal, and a two-month Daily Planner book (thanks, Ray!).

Tomorrow (or maybe Saturday), I’ll report back with photos of what I’ve managed to do. Wish me luck!

Note: Want more of this story? Part 2 is online now right here.

I spend a few hours making decorative paper for bookbinding projects.

I don’t know if I mentioned it here, but I’ve taken up another hobby (as if I didn’t have enough): bookbinding. So far, I’m amusing myself by making little notebooks and the occasional hard covered book with a purpose. I made my friend Jason a Guest Book for his boat and am in the process of making another one for my boat. I’m taking baby steps now, working on easier projects and honing skills before I get more ambitious. It’s fun. I especially like the sewing — yes, all of my books are hand sewn.

One of the things that’s commonly used in bookbinding is decorative paper. While it’s true that I can go out and buy pretty papers to use as book endpapers or covers — and I have, to a certain extent — I prefer to make my own. I want my books to be entirely handmade, except for the paper inside the covers. But I plan on making paper, too, and I’ll probably use it for book covers. One thing at a time.

Paste Paper

Paste paper is a type of decorative paper that’s created by covering paper with a mixture of wheat paste and (usually) acrylic paint. Wheat paste is nothing more than a mixture of flour and water, in the correct proportions, cooked for about 20 minutes.

It’s not difficult to do and it’s kind of fun. You can’t do it wrong. It’s cheap and easy enough to experiment and learn. I find it kind of relaxing, except cleanup. It’s easy enough to clean, but you have to clean the workspace after every sheet. That gets tedious.

Although I have space in my jewelry studio for bookbinding projects, I make paste paper up in my kitchen, on one side of my island’s countertop. This makes it easy to rinse sponges and clean brushes and other tools because the sink is right there. Although there is a bathroom downstairs near my studio, it has a tiny bathroom sink and really isn’t convenient. Why make things more difficult than they have to be?

Cheap Paper

Today I worked with extra large pieces of mixed media paper. I got a smoking deal on the paper at Hobby Lobby the other day. I really hate shopping in a Hobby Lobby — it’s about as close as I get to going to church — but it’s the only game in town around here. They stopped selling a lot of name brand, quality merchandise and, instead, sell their own store brands. The art paper is Master’s Touch and its wood pulp. (I don’t think they sell any cotton or linen paper at all anymore.) It’s pretty much junk and no professional artist would use it. But folks just getting started? Maybe.

I went in for sewing supplies and took a detour to visit the art paper aisle. That when I saw that the largest pads they sell for watercolor and mixed media — 18″ x 24″ — were on clearance for crazy low prices. This pad, which was normally $27.99, was on sale for $6.99. The watercolor pads, which normally sell for $45.99, were $10.99. How could I pass that up, especially with all the bookbinding stuff I’ve got going on? You can always cut large sheets smaller but you can’t make small sheets larger.

So I bought all they had: three watercolor pads and two mixed media pads.

The Process

If you’re interested in learning how to make paste paper, there are a lot of videos about it on YouTube. I think this one by DAS Bookbinding is the best intro, although he doesn’t get very creative. James Williams gets more creative in this demonstration, but his video is a bit verbose.

But if you don’t want to do it or watch a video, here are the basics:

1. Put some wheat paste into a cup.
2. Add paint and stir well to mix the color you want. I usually do one color at a time, but you can mix a bunch at once.
3. Lay out your paper and use a clean sponge with clean water to soak it. If the paper was smaller and I had the right size bin, I would literally soak it in the water. (That’s the best results, in my opinion, but it’s tough to do with large paper. Also, not all artists wet the paper first. I follow DAS’s instructions; that guy knows what he’s doing.)
4. Make sure the paper is completely flat on the work surface. This is important. If there are any bubbles under the paper, the paste will not spread properly on it.
5. Use a brush or roller to cover the paper with colored paste. The way I make my paste, the color of the paper always shows through, but I like that. I use a brush and there are brush strokes.
6. Use a variety of tools to drag or draw lines and patterns in the wet paste. This is where the creativity comes in.
7. Lay it out to dry.
8. While one is drying, you can clean your work surface and make another one. I made nine today.
9. Once it’s dry, put it under a weight to flatten it; the edges want to curl.

Although most folks seem to really like using a comb to make parallel lines and patterns on the paper, I’m not particularly impressed with that. Instead, I’ve found a pair of rollers that I use to make regular random patterns or I paint with swirl strokes instead of straight ones. I got fancy with one sheet, and used a roller on light green paint, let it dry, and then used stencils with two different colors to add leaves and flowers. (Unfortunately, it looks like Christmas paper, which was not my intention.) DAS Bookbinding has a video that demonstrates using a pattern roller and also demonstrates waxing and burnishing.

I’m satisfied with today’s efforts and now have enough large paper for any project.

Beeswax Paste

I don’t usually wax my paper right after it dries. Instead, I wait until I use it. I cut first and then wax. This way, I’m using less wax paste.

I make my own wax paste from beeswax (from my own bees) and mineral spirits. I got the basic instructions in this Annesi Bindings video. It’s basically 50% bees wax and 50% mineral spirits (by weight) melted in a double boiler. I cook it up right in the canning jar I store it in. If you cover it tightly, it lasts a long time.

Getting Creative

I read somewhere that retired people do things like this — take up creative hobbies. Until I read that, I didn’t realize I was following the pack.

But I really do get a lot of pleasure out of all my creative efforts, whether it’s writing, which I’ve done all my life, or making jewelry, fiddling around with watercolors, making decorate papers like these, or bookbinding. It’s just so relaxing and rewarding to make nice things with your own hands.

What do you think? What’s your creative outlet?