by Steve | Jan 16, 2009 | Notebooks |
Like a lot of other book geeks I like Moleskines. Moleskines interest me because they are a study in the confluence of simplicity, utility, excellence but most of all, marketing. What I don’t like about Moleskines of course is the price. As Borders began winding down their operations though they were liquidating all stationary items at 40% off and as luck would have it they labeled Moleskines as stationary. I was able to grab whatever was left and I scored several ruled journals, about 7 Volants and a load of Cahiers. I was happy to have grabbed the Cahiers; a few months ago I had read an article in HOW Magazine about an artist who was using her Gocco to print artwork on the cover of Moleskine Cahiers and them selling them on Etsy. That’s probably what was on my mind when I bought them, I have a journaling retreat coming up in a couple of weeks and need something to give away. I thought I would just Gocco the Cahiers and use them as my giveaway; and then it hit me, I didn’t have enough of them.
by Steve Salik | Jan 15, 2009 | General |
Strange Journals is a blog about bookbinding, art journaling, photography, print making and other related art forms. I named this blog Strange Journals because the materials I use and the journals I create don’t always follow the standard conventions of book binding. Book binding can have a certain meditative quality to it and if you sit down and talk to a group of bookbinders or people who journal regularly the word meditation will eventually pop up. They’ll talk about how the creative act of sewing a binding for example; the deliberate and repetitive nature of it leads to a meditative state.
I started this blog as a response to requests from several people; those who have taken my classes, a large group of people who know me online and several people who had been reading my intermittent ramblings on one of those free blogging services. Generally speaking, people were asking me to post images of the things I was working on and when possible an explanation of what led to to make that particular thing.
For those of you who may have been reading my stuff over at the free service, thanks for joining me here. For those who were expecting me to start about six weeks ago, I’ll simply blame the economy like everybody else; I’ll catch up. For those who are just stumbling across my blog: I’m a self-taught bookbinder and artist; I started as a photographer long ago but I dabble in things like graphic design, silk-screening and other paper-based art forms. So let’s begin.
