Choosing a Book Style and Format
We make our own journals; we have a format worked out that fits our journaling style well. Over the years we have used many different styles of books: Medieval leather journals, basic Coptic style journals, codex style, pamphlet stitch, Japanese stab, and accordion fold. Our current favorite is the Medieval leather longstitch journal. Our covers are soft leather and inside we use a variety of papers including Mohawk, Arches, and Stonehenge, each having different qualities and thickness. Differing the pages throughout allows us to use pastels, watercolors, gouache, pencil, or glue in artifacts or photos from our trips. Our page size allows for two photos vertically or one horizontal. We also use accordion fold journals on some trips. Both of these styles allow for glueing in lots of photos. Since most of our trips are at least a couple of weeks in length, we often end up with 60 or 80 photos to go in the book, so it is important to have a book style that will accept a stack of photos 3/4 of an inch thick!

Another style of book we use specifically for backpacking is what I call a Backpack Journal. It is essentially a single signature from a codex style journal covered in Tyvek. (A signature is simply a number of sheets of paper folded in half.) The signature and its cover are held together by a simple stitch pattern. When enough of these are filled they are then stitched into a leather cover, along with empty signatures in between each one for photos relating to the backpack trips. A detailed explanation of the Backpack Journal can be found in a Desert Explorer blog post from April, 2009.

Various travel journals in different formats and book styles.

Discipline
Keeping a trip book requires discipline. On our trips, each of us writes or sketches or paints in the book every day. If this doesn’t happen, the book eventually has “gaps” in it that detract from the story of our journey. We add to the book whenever one of us feels like it, but usually it is in the mornings and evenings. On river trips, sitting on the river’s edge with a cup of tea, watching the sun rise over the desert is a very motivating scene, and always easy to capture in words, sketches, or paintings. Evenings on the river, at a campsite, or in a hotel are another time we work on our books, and then often as a family.

Just as important as adding content to the book daily is finishing the book once you get home. Choosing photos and having them printed needs to be done as soon as possible. We dug out an unfinished book recently from a river trip two years back. The photos were missing. The book is nearly done now, but it took much longer to finish after the fact.

Accordion fold journal with extra pages stitched in.

What We Record
We write, draw, paint, glue and otherwise add to the journal in whatever way strikes us along our journey. We all write notes nearly every day, sometimes just a page, sometimes many pages each day. Our son Nicolai likes to draw; he fills many pages of our books with his sketches and paintings, often in panoramic views across multiple pages. We all make lists: we keep track of our campsites and travel times on river trips or drives, the weather, plants or birds or animals we have spotted, and even meals we have made. Each of these can include photos as well. Often we add decorative borders to a page as a highlight. There is a series of books carried at Two Hands Paperie called Zentangle, introducing various forms of “doodling” that can make a page jump out.

As we fill a book we leave empty pages for photographs. We always note in pencil ”photo”, so no one else will use our page. Others pages will have more specific notes: “photo of cairn on top of Bowknot Ridge” for example.

Some of the foods we ate on our trip to Utah.

Art Materials We Carry
Depending on the trip and how we get to where we are going- driving, flying, floating, or walking, we might take along a sampling of every different medium available in our travel kit, or nothing more than a pencil, eraser, and a single .5 black Micron pen. On most trips other than a backpack we carry at least a selection of Faber Pitt Pens, a set of watercolor pencils, a set of Micron pens- colors, and all five sizes in black, a set of graphite pencils, and a set of gouache half pans. Those are our basic tools, and along with them goes brushes, eraser, pencil sharpener, glue stick, a roll or two of Washi tape, small pair of scissors, and stamp pad with date stamp. We also have a new addition: a Polaroid POGO printer. It makes small, sticker-backed prints that are great for sticking in amongst the pages. A full review of the POGO will be in an upcoming post. Even on days when we are feeling not-too-artisitc, with a kit like that at our disposal, it’s easy to add something to the book.

Photograph with associated watercolor and text.

More Information
There are many books available these days on visual journaling and related journaling techniques. Our favorite is called The Illustrated Life by Danny Gregory. If you are wondering exactly what a visual journal looks like, take a look at Gregory’s book. You’ll be ready to start your own on the spot. For basic book structures and bookbinding techniques, we recommend Cover to Cover by Shereen LaPlantz. It discusses and has directions for all of the book styles mentioned in this post. Both of these titles, along with the Zentangle series and many other motivating works, are available at Two Hands Paperie. For those in the Boulder area, we still have classes on many of the book styles, as well as classes on visual journaling, scheduled over the next couple of months. Visit the Two Hands Paperie website for more information.

Part two is forthcoming: more about art materials and techniques.

This blog was originally posted at the Desert Explorer blog.

Feel free to drop off a photo and a blurb about your work the next time you are in the store, or you can email it to us if that is easier. Send submissions to Lauren@twohandspaperie.com. The book will be a work in progress- there is no deadline to submit. We will add to it as long as people continue to provide us with photos of their work. We’ll have the book out very soon, and we hope to see your work in it.

It has been some time since I have attempted a post, and for this I apologise. There is certainly a bit of irony in the fact that Two Hands Paperie promotes the ancient arts of writing with a pen on paper, making books, sending letters, and general tactile creativity, and the fact that we now communicate with so many through the new medium of the Internet. In these past few months, whenever I sat down to write- and I have done this plenty of times over the last few months- that fact has given me license to not write a blog post. “I’d rather do things with paper and my hands- the blog can wait,” was my justification, shunning the digital for the analog.  Call it a lame excuse if you will, but it was enough to put off the writing for some time.

I think the time has come to stop putting it off, to address the need for inspiration in our lives, and for directing that inspiration towards our artistic endeavors. We have endless responsibilities in our lives- we take out the trash, clean the house, rake leaves, go to work, etc. and so on, ad infinitum. We also have  a responsibility to the artist within to create. This personal responsibility often (usually?) gets pushed aside, relegated to the very bottom of the list, even below taking out the trash. I think it’s time to move it to the top of the list. Call it a new year’s resolution if you will, but I have decided that this year I will write at least 5 days a week. There, I’ve said it. The world now knows.

And this is one of the recommendations that Judy Reeves makes in her incredibly inspiring book A Writer’s Book of Days. When we let others know of our intentions, we are then held accountable. If we are held accountable, we are more likely to follow through- this is the logic behind the idea. This is a good place to begin. State your intentions, and show up to write. Reeves’ book is filled with tips, quotes, exercises, and trivia by and about famous writers. My favorite tip is from the very first pages- just sit down and write, keep the pen moving, don’t stop, reread, or think about puctuation. Among the interesting trivia, Reeves notes how Mark Twain could smoke 40 cigars a day while writing, how Annie Dillard writes in a room with no view, and how D.H. Lawrence wrote nude.

Another inspirational title for writers is Hal Zina Bennett’s Write Starts. Like Reeves’ book, Bennett’s is full of exercises for “jumpstarting your creativity”, as the book’s subtitle goes. And like Reeves, Bennett discusses places to write, tools for writing, and offers quotes by famous authors. Bennett’s exercises will help you develop characters, create scenes, and capture details in your own stories.

Finally there is Danny Gregory’s Illustrated Life. I was introduced to this book by Cynthia Morris, local artist, coach, and teacher of  the class called “Journal Juju”. She has lectured, and taught this class at Two Hands Paperie and will be teaching it again in the spring (our spring class schedule will be up by the first of February).  Gregory’s book presents a graphic approach to journaling and contains the most inspirational collection of sketches I’ve seen in one place. The book is full of color, filled with perfect lines and images that are presented in a format that lets you know you can achieve them (or at least something close, in my case). Just opening the book leaves you with the desire to grab a pencil and sketch!

If you made a resolution for the new year to be the artist you know you are, good for you! If you haven’t yet done so, now is the time to see your ideas materialise on paper! Whether you are making books by hand, journaling, writing a novel, sketching scenes at your local cafe, or filling a sketchbook with intricate drawings, the new year is the perfect time to make it happen.

Not only is the site more visually up to date, but it is more easily navigable and more user friendly. We will be adding to the site over the next few months, choosing some of our favorite items from the store, so be sure to check back if there is something you have seen in the past and do not see now. Also, feel free to email us with questions about products you have seen in the past and presently do not see.

You will see new pages added to the website, including this blog. One very exciting addition is the page for classes and events. In the past the store offered classes on bookbinding, creative journaling, and a variety of related topics. We are planning to bring these classes back and are in the process of putting together a fall class schedule. This will be posted by mid-August. We will also post any free in-store events, or community events that we think might be of interest to our customers.

We have also added a “Custom Printing” page. We offer custom letter press and ink jet printing through the store. This will be represented more fully on the website in the near future. In the meantime, if you have any questions on custom printing, please stop by, call, or email us at the store.

We appreciate everyone’s patience while we worked out the details of our new website, and hope that you all agree it was worth it. Please be sure to check back regularly as we will add products daily and will do our best at adding a blog post each week.

Yours,

Mia and Gerald

Many customers ask us if we offer journaling classes.  But recently we talked with one of our customers about teaching journaling classes. Cynthia Morris lives in Boulder and teaches, among many things, journaling and creative writing.  While in the store she showed me a couple of her journals that she had in her bag.  Seeing her journals and our conversation during our brief visit in the store was very inspiring to me.  I decided then and there that I would approach the new journal that sat on my desk in a different way, including more sketching and art work with the writing . We are hoping to have Cynthia teach a class at Two Hands in the fall so that anyone interested can be equally inspired.  If you are hoping to enhance or tap into your hidden creativity, this class may be for you. You can learn more about Cynthia at her website- OriginalImpulse.com.   Watch our website for the class schedule to appear later in the summer.

For pen lovers, the new Visconti Homo Sapiens line of pens will be out soon. We have the pens on order and are very excited about carrying them. The pens are unique in many ways.  Besides the flexible nib, wide-opening spring clip, large ink well, and customisable cap which are standard on most Visconti pens, the Homo Sapiens  line are made from lava from Mount Etna in Italy. The black body of the pen is enhanced by bronze trim which, on the pen I tried out, had a beautiful patina already forming.  The pens are available in fountain, ball point, and rollerball.

At Two Hands Paperie we have a selection of  ballpoint and roller ball pens, as well as a variety of fountain pens, all of which are very popular. We carry fountain pens by Jean-Peirre Lepine, Namiki, Delta, Faber-Castell, Taccia, Visconti, Retro 51, Lamy, Online, and Spalding.

One of the most exciting aspects of the fountain pen is the ability to choose inks. There are a large number of inks available for fountain pens, both in cartridges and bottled inks. Cartridge inks are more limited in color in some brands, but ink manufacturers such as Herbin make all of their bottled inks available in the International cartridge style. Nearly all fountain pens come ready for cartridges.  Converters can be purchased for most pens to allow the use of bottled inks.

Fountain pens that accept cartridges are handy for travel and for those who carry a fountain pen daily. They can be carried onto airplanes while traveling. Bottled inks lend themselves better to use at your writing desk, simply because carrying bottled inks can be cumbersome and potentially messy.  At Two Hands Paperie we carry inks by Herbin, Waterman, Taccia, Lamy, Caran d’Ache, Namiki, and Visconti.

For those not ready for a fountain pen, there are ballpoint and roller ball cartridges that write as smooth and flow as freely as fountain pens.  Caran d’Ache ballpoint cartridges are very smooth. Faber-Castell ballpoint cartridges flow across the page as if they were a gel or roller ball cartridge. If you are not familiar with these brands, or with the differences in pens, ask to try them out the next time you visit us. We would be happy to explain  their features and let you try them side by side for comparison.

Because of these interactions, I recently decided that I needed to write a letter myself.  I gave it quite a bit of thought- I asked myself “Who do I know that would really enjoy receiving a letter?” When I finally hit upon the person, I sat down immediately and began writing.  I have to say that the tactile experience of writing, of addressing an envelope, and sending it off was something I had forgotten about. Not to mention the challenge of not being able to cut and paste, and the fact that I had no spell check! I plan to write another letter soon, once I realise who the next recipient is. 

For us, the answer can be daunting- because there is so much you can do with it! We keep a list of possibilities on hand in the store and are always happy to talk about new ideas. Here is a short list of possibilities: make a book, make cards and invitations, cover a lampshade, collage, make origami, scrapbook, wrap a present, line drawers, or frame it and hang it on the wall. Some recent discussions with customers have added the following to the list: use it as photography backdrops, make paper ornaments, decoupage glass Christmas bulbs and pink flamingos, cover watering cans, line the inside of a ceramic lamp, hide the clutter in glass-front cabinets (a popular use), or cover the glass in a door.

The possibilities really are endless and only limited by the imagination. Stop in and look over our decorative sheet papers and let us know what you will do with yours.