I’m working on finishing up the Woodland Gnome cahiers I’ve been making for JournalFest. ONce the sewing is complete, all that remains is trimming them to width and rounding the corners. In the images below, you can see the final two steps of the process. In the first image, you can see a pile of Gnomes being trimmed to width. The second image is a completed Gnome with corners freshly rounded.
I have a certain fondness for small works of art, their size draws you in and conveys a sense of intimacy. That fondness extends to my bookbinding and I often do multiple edition bindings. More than likely that’s what drew me to the County Fair Edition of Field Notes. Fifty books in a custom box, each book representing a different state, what’s not to like? Last week was a little busy and I didn’t want to rush through opening the package so it got put away until today. The county Fair Edition comes in a cardboard box with a map of the United States printed on the top with the familiar Field Notes logo printed on top of the map. The Great Seal of Field Notes Brand is printed on the lower left corner of the lid. The whole package is tied up with some sisal twine.
Opening the box reveals 50 Field Notes books each one representing one of the United States. The stock used for the covers is blue, yellow and red which represents the win, place and show ribbons given out at the fair. Ot the back of each cover, you’ll find details about the state that book represents. For example on the Arizona book, you’ll find out that the state bird is the Cactus Wren, and that Arizona was admitted to the Union of February 12th, 1912. Ironically, the Arizona book is blue.
Finally, the set also comes with six of their click pens, a Field Notes General Purpose Band of Rubber, a special County Fair button and a Field Notes Blue Ribbon.
Will I ever write in these? Who knows — I bought them chiefly as a bookbinding curiosity that I can sit on my shelf as art object. That said, it’s possible I might have to use them someday if i every use up all my other pocket notebooks, possible but given the number of notebooks in the house unlikely.
When I got home today, the Field Notes I ordered Sunday night were waiting for me.
I had ordered the subscription and the first shipment contained two 3-packs of their black Raven’s Wing limited edition, two 3-packs of regular Field Notes, one with graph paper and one mixed. For good measure, I had also ordered a couple of standard 3-packs, one of ruled books and one mixed. Mixed packages contain one each of graph paper, ruled and plain. A couple of goodies were packed in as well, a Field Notes pencil, a Field Notes pen, a Field Notes “General Purpose Band of Rubber” a 1″ button and a decal. Here’s a shot of the contents of the package.
I was talking to a friend about the cahiers I mentioned in the last posting and he turned me on to Field Notes Brand. Apparently these little books were conceived of graphic artist Aaron Draplin. Unlike Moleskines, Field Notes are made is the USA and based on the reviews I’ve read they’re sturdy and well designed. I’ve seen some pictures on the Field Notes Brand website and a host of reviews that discuss the printing on the cover both inside and out.
After watching the preview to this video, I was sold and ordered a subscription. A subscription gets you two 3-packs of the current seasonal offering called Raven’s Wing, two regular 3-packs followed by two 3-packs of each seasonal offering each quarter. Here’s a video that features the selection of colors that were issued over the past year as part of the subscription.
The subscription is $129.00 and while that may sound like a lot of money for some memo books, I’d rather support the people who are making them then the politicians who are screwing us. More when my order arrives.
While I like Moleskine cahiers and I have plenty of them laying around, I still like to go the do it yourself route sometimes. I’ll be making about 50 of them fairly soon and I’ve been doing some prototyping to decide on colors and that sort of thing. Here’s a picture of a couple that I’ve made, the one on the left is the newest one. It’s not laying as flat as I’d like simply because I didn’t have any 2-ply thread and I stitched it up with 4-ply.
The one on the right was made in 2009 and I used a Gocco to put the art on the cover. The interior is a Neenah 60 Lb text, the lines were done with a laser printer. The cover Royal Compliments 100Lb cover. These are the same size as Moleskine cahiers, 3 1/2″ X 5 1/2″.