January 25th
Guest blogger Lito Apostolakou is a freelance author, historian, and feature writer at Suite101; she also has a fascinating blog on the history of writing instruments. Here, she writes about seeing one of Leonardo’s notebooks.
It doesn’t look like much, in fact the humble notebook is no bigger than a pack of playing cards, yet it is one of the most precious objects on display in the new Medieval and Renaissance Galleries in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The notebook of Leonardo da Vinci which dates from 1490-3 is one of five owned by the museum and it was bequeathed by English collector, John Forster in 1876.
It is packed with tiny handwriting, notes about geometry, hydraulics and weights and (curiously) with drawings of hats. At the time Leonardo compiled his notebook he was working for Duke Ludovico Sforza in Milan and he was probably required to create costumes for court festivities – hence the hat drawings. The notebook seems to be suffering from ink corrosion (due to the iron gall ink Leonardo used) and is very light sensitive. It was a privilege to have seen it.
January 8th
Stephanie forwarded a link to this terrific post at A Penchant for Paper about deciding what to do with a new Habana notebook.
Should I just keep it for the future? … Perhaps it would be better suited to a pocket-sized, portable sketchbook? Or perhaps I could use it to write poetry in. Or perhaps to keep notes on the books that I am reading, and lists of books I want to read in the future. Or perhaps…
I often purchase notebooks for specific purposes — a Bloc No. 8 to use as a reporter’s notebook (fits handily into back pockets), a Steno pad to keep on my desk for work-related to-do lists (the red line down the center helps divide essential from inessential tasks). But there’s something really lovely about getting a notebook without a specific task in mind. There’s the sky’s-the-limit joy of speculating about potential uses, and the joy of experimentation, then the joy of discovery when you find the use that fits…
Mind you, I’m not trying to endorse mindless consumerism here (buy now! think later!). I just think it’s nice to be open to possibilities.
September 14th
Fall is back-to-school season for many of you, and I’m wondering: how many notebooks, sketchpads, fountain pens, and art supplies do you bring with you? Do you wait and buy new supplies at school, or are there certain essential items that follow you from home?
I moved at least twice a year from the age of 18, in college, till I was 28 or so, and there was always a core set of books I’d tote with me no matter where I went (Beckett, Musil, Woolf). But I never brought any writing supplies except a couple of Pilot V-Balls — I’m a pretty recent fountain pen convert — which gave me a nice excuse to visit a stationery store in whatever new neighborhood or city I was going to. I suspect that’d be different now (I was careful to pack one Habana and two Rhodias on vacation last month), though of course I’m now quite happy in my little Brooklyn house and have no plans to move.
What’s your routine?
August 4th
I know we say it a lot, but Karen and I are so awed by the creativity of the people we’ve gotten to know through this blog. The most recent example: this lovely, subtle, and evocative drawing that Gentian made on an Exacompta sketchpad (see a close-up here).
Keep it coming, everyone…
June 29th
Thanks to Pentamento for the first review of our new Equology eco-friendly notebooks and planners… Reading it reminded me that I’ve been meaning to post my own photographs and impressions, so here goes.
I, too, love the heavy duty rubber-like cover, to which pictures don’t really do justice—it’s soft and bumpy and dry, sort of like a cat’s tongue:
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June 24th
One of the new products from Rhodia this year (already available at Vickerey!) is the no. 10 staplebound notebook, an adorable 2 x 3 pad that fits right in the palm of your hand.
I fell in love with it immediately at the Stationery Show, but I still haven’t decided what to do with the one that Karen sent me. Ink tests? Tiny notes, or sketches? I’ve got half a mind to create a mini flip book, but it’ll probably take me a while to get around to actually doing it. (In the meantime, I’ve discovered, it’s not half bad as a paperweight.)
Closeup after the jump… What would you do with this notebook?
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May 13th
I love the Office Supply Geek’s idea of keeping his Rhodia pads closed with a binder clip. Even cooler is the way that clip can double as a notebook stand.
At any rate, it got me thinking about how to customize notebooks and planners to make them more functional (as opposed to more pretty or unique, which is obviously great, as well). The possibilities are endless, of course, and the hacks both big and small. Geralin Thomas keeps her life organized with a customized alphabetic planning system. I use a paperclip in my Habana to keep track of my place. John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, goes so far as to make his own planner every year with custom-made rubber stamps and a cloth-bound Clairefontaine notebook.
What are your notebook hacks?
May 1st
Thanks to Kate, Jonel, and Julie, our first ‘Where to Go’ contest entrants…
In honor of the contest’s first month, we decided to forego the drawing and send each of our entrants a prize—a free Clairefontaine “Basics” notebook. So, congrats to all!
And to everyone else, it’s a new month and there’s a new notebook on offer… So just send us a couple paragraphs about your favorite spot (with pictures, if possible!) and tell us ‘Where to go.’
Learn more about how to enter here.
March 23rd
Susan Cianciolo is an artist and designer–and a fan of Quo Vadis planners–who treated us to a night of eco-friendly fashion a couple of weeks ago. I caught up with her via email to learn more about her work…
I understand you’ve been working with recycled, organic, and eco-friendly fabrics since 1995. What prompted you to seek these materials out—ecological principle or simply aesthetics?
I seek out these types of fabric because it was what I found and what was available, damaged materials I could make special with silk screening and natural overdyes, also going into the woods and finding materials that we untreated and turning them into prints by hammering onto organic fabric that was always very simple and fun to make it your own, as well as using yarn and wools from local mills and farms in New England where I am from.
Does each piece of fabric inspire its own design, or do you first come up with a design and then look for fabrics that will help you realize it?
Both the fabric and the sketch come at the same time, i have just now begun next season and i am sketching my ideas from recent inspiration, and i have already received organic hand dyed hand woven fabric from japan -kyoto from hinaya who i collaborated with this season and the last six years, so inspired by them is happening while being inspired by new ideas for shapes and patterns, forms and conceptual development.
It was great to see your drawings at the fashion show last month. Do your drawings often translate into actual items of clothing, or do you see them as a separate endeavor?
Yes, my drawings are the first step, for all aspects that follow, meaning the clothes and the set design.
What materials do you use to sketch?
I use recycled paper to sketch my drawings.
Any particular kind?
Whatever I have in my house: blank pages from old notebooks, blank pages in books, the backs of old documents, etc.
February 20th
As I mentioned earlier, I have a bunch of different notebooks that are dedicated to various work-related tasks— to do lists, special projects, clients, and so forth. But I can’t even begin to fathom how to count or categorize the other notebooks that are lying around the house.
Like many writers, I carry a notebook with me pretty much wherever I go to jot down thoughts and ideas or remind myself of things I want to look up when I get home. Most times, it’s a black engraved Domo Habana, which sits in my bag, but I have a bunch of tiny Clairefontaine and Moleskine staplebound books that live in smaller purses, too, along with a Memoriae that I keep in my backpack when I go hiking.
I don’t keep a journal, but I dedicate at least one or two other notebooks around the house to random non-work musings. And I’ve had an irrational fondness for those black-and-white Mead composition books since high school (awkward size! flimsy paper! but so clunkily charming, somehow), which I keep on a table near the armchair that’s in my office. Still, there’s never a single notebook that’s the *only one* I use at any given time.
One of the nice things about this distributed system is that I rarely “finish” a notebook, which means I don’t have to worry about whether or where to “archive” it (though I was quite impressed by Biffybeans’s crated collection). Of course, it also means I may have to hunt for a half an hour to locate something I’m sure I jotted down somewhere.
How many notebooks do you use?
