Recently, it has been nice making journal covers from various material formats. Old leather bag cut up got five covers. A couple of diary covers were useful once all the pages had been removed. An. old Nepal handmade paper jotter (the paper was not fountain pen friendly at all) was nice to string up traveller notebook style once, as said before, all the pages were removed. It is now made into a small Kraft covers notebooks housing and my song lyrics and chords will be going onto the pages.
All in all, it is nice just pottering about with stickers, typewriter, pen and ink, different little notebooks, a bunch of vintage stickers to make collage covers for the notebooks/journals……and generally create a Mindful Focused vibe.
With the two journals, within a lovely old roughed up bit of leather cover to house them, it can now be dedicated to recording the proper Mindful Meditation, Chakra, Reflection and Mantra mumbling sessions.
Even though the journals are both fountain pen friendly, I have made the choice of adopting simplicity. So bought some Blackwing pencils to write sessions with. The Natural (extra firm graphite) and the 602 (firm graphite). These pencils are also to be used with some exploration into watercolour painting. As an absolutely awful artist……it should be fun to see how I can dodge the dedication to seeking acceptable art form and create a Summers’ alternative weirdness.
Here’s a bunch of photographs so as to make sense to the words above.
If you tap on the smaller ones….they jump up to Billy Big Screen and say hello.
Cheers everyone.
Gray Summers 
Gray, you have the making of an Etsy store. Those journals are impressive.
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I agree wholeheartedly
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Cheers Danny. Currently, it is just a case of finding therapy in naive craft and mish mash try outs. I wanted some themed journals for my own use. I bought the nice looking leather journal with the pockets off Amazon. But I have been looking at how to make similar ones and am getting along nicely with managing to use hole punches for sewing lines, grommet and eyelets, page placement ribbons, etc. I made a fair few simple single leather ‘Traveler’ style covers of different sizes. But gave them away.
Like yourself Danny, I love vintage and, as we are both blog writers, it was thought that it would be nice to compartmentalise individual interests. A themed journal for each interest seemed ideal. Okay, have done this in the past by buying a new journal from the local stationery store for hobbies and interests. But it’s nice to get something more personal and unique for myself to add more atmosphere. Imagine one for favourite vinyl ownership where you include a small image of the album front, inside and back cover and write or type out the song list onto beautiful hand made papers. Then a bit of a review as to your thoughts and emotions on how the album impacted you in life. Info? Maybe add date released, musicians included and weird oddity inclusions. That would be fun. Very Mindful focused.
I have always messed about with, for want of a better phrase, flotsam and jetsam. Beach walks found pick up driftwoods, rusted metals, sea glass, odd little pebbles. I used old pallets or paint distressed woods that were brought up on the beach after being in the sea to make frames for pictures made from findings. In my pottery days I would make the mythical and mystical characters in pottery centrally. But add in bits and bobs found in nature or engineering. Verdigris copper spirals, rusted tin cans, etc. I got a lot of inspiration from an artist called Patrick Woodroffe, and especially his book Hallelujah Anyway.
A music journal of my songs? Currently, it’s nice to type out a line or two from my song lyrics onto ripped hand made paper and then distress them into a vintage vibe with one of the Tim Holtz Ranger distress ink pads using an application sponge to stain the paper. It can be lightly done or you can really ‘tobacco’ it out. I could build a songbook or poetry book in this way. So all in all. It’s just a bit of experimenting presently. Fun though.
All the best Danny.
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As you would say, Cheers Gray. We share many similar interest. The vintage finds add one-of-a-kind character/atmosphere, is entertaining and fulfilling. Themed journals are the best. The theme generates its own topics.
I was recently reading about Emily Dickerson – I was hoping to learn about her choice of ink – no luck. She did not sit down and compose poems, as the lines came to her, she would jot them down on whatever scrap paper she found. Only later would she transpose the poem and eventually folded the sheets of paper to form a “fascicles” – homemade booklets.
All the best.
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I thought Emily wrote with a pencil later in life. As you say, on scraps of paper. So maybe that’s why you are having difficulties in your research. I haven’t looked at much poetry lately. Brenda suggested a poem by Norman McCaig in one of her recent blogs. So I bought his book a few months back. I haven’t truly delved into it yet. I don’t know how your reading style and inspiration works Danny. But I read fairly slowly and find that long episodes of time can pass without reading anything. Then a few months of intensity where I read book after book. Funnily, as the Books about Books is my favourite theme, Emily has been written into a few fictional books, as one of the characters, with that theme. I haven’t read any of them yet, but when I get a bit more able to splash out on some books, I will be seeking them out.
Recent filling of the oil tank, last week, for our central heating has been eye watering. To be honest, cost of living is crazy really isn’t it. So, recycling for journal making and other interests is ideal.
Interestingly, I still have my late brother’s hand made notebooks of his self written poems and lyrics. He would write them on the back of printed office paper, etc. A real recycle fan. All stapled together naively. Brilliant ethic.
Cheers Danny.
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She used both a mechanical pencil and pen. The pen was her preference when younger, she transitioned to a pencil only later in life. I read slowly; generally speaking, poems are not my thing.
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Thanks for the information re: Emily. Always interesting in how people write and the idiosyncrasies that they adopt in order to produce their work. Poetry is only readable by certain styles for my comfort. I love William Blake. And novelists that write poetry too. Tolkein for example.
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In addition to agreeing with Danny, looking at your images and reading your post transmitted your zen state through the Internet to me 🧘♀️
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Thank you Brenda. I replied to Danny long style. So it is an answer to you too really. So, thank you for agreeing with him. Much appreciated.
It’s good to just chill out I suppose. Writing many songs presently and waiting for the right time I feel the vibe to pick up the guitars and record them. This interlude of messing with visuals has purpose. Trying to find an artistic vibe for CD cover and video inclusions. Gaining inspiration for the Frail Autumn vintage and nature vibe with the distressed art imagery inclusions. Will dig deeper to find some unique individuality related to my past experiences. Little time capsule feelings. I’ve rewritten a few of my XCerts songs from 1970/80s. Would be nice to link some imagery from back in the days.
Cheers Brenda.
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Sounds like you’re having a lot of fun and lots of creativity. Its really encouraging to hear this, im so pleased for you.
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It’s nice to relax, whilst still doing some activity, at times isn’t it. I suppose it lets the mind find new outlets. And often, the enquiries can lead to more interesting finds. Cheers Brenda.
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