Do I need to carry a sketchbook when I have an iPhone?

I'm packing to leave for Paris on the weekend. I have made my 'Perfect Journal' and am finally the owner of an iPhone 3GS. Both of these will slide into my shoulder bag and accompany me everywhere. Each has it's uses... but doesn't the iPhone win? (if there was a competition).


My iPhone is my new favourite thing. I will take a photo (at the very least) every where I go and these will be geotagged. T will be carrying a supa-dupa camera (it's his passion) and will be taking his own photos. My geotagged photos will assist him in identifying where he took his photos as he sifts through what will be thousands of shots when he gets back.

My iPhone will tell me where I am. We have a month in Paris and we are by nature wanderers. Last time we were there (which was also our first time) we frequently tossed up whether to go to ___ which is what we planned, or keep wandering because it was beautiful right where we were. (That's the thing about Paris, EVERYTHING is beautiful. You don't really have to see 'the sites' because what you are looking at every second is beautiful.)


The downside of being a wanderer is that you don't really know exactly where you are at any given time. We would get back to our apartment and find we had been just near ___ and not known, missed it completely. So our dilemma became whether to go purposefully back through our wandered territory, or go somewhere new. New always won of course, so there were things we missed. This time we will be able to wander AND to know where we are. But not only that, my iPhone will give us access to our Google Map.

We have created our own Google Map with place markers on it of all the places we would like to go "if we end up near there." We haven't put our must-see's on it, just the addresses of little shops, restaurants, markets and streets that we have read about or been told about. You know, you hear about a place and think "That sounds perfect! I must go there" and when you check the map it is way out to billy-o and it doesn't really warrant a full blown excursion just for the 'cute little ceramic shop'. But should we wander that way, we won't miss it this time!


And then there are the applications. It really is the 'apps' that makes the iPhone a winner over and above other smart phones. I have my translator app, the plan and tour app for the Palace of Versailles, lots of other travel apps. Then there are the photography apps. I was worried about the quality of the 3mpx camera, I would have like more, but the quality is surprisingly good and the sheer fun and pleasure the apps bring to taking photos is quite exhilarating. (I took these photos of my sketchbook with my iPhone!)


Oh and I can use it as a phone too. And email. And blogging and flickr and Facebook and twitter etc etc. Or listen to music. Or play games. (I wouldn't of course. I'd draw in my sketchbook instead!) So, my sexy little piece of hardware reduces the number of things I carry quite substantially; phone, camera, ipod, gps, guide book(s) and maps at the very least. And it weighs less than my ipod alone does.

My sketchbook, on the other hand, does the exact opposite. It creates more things I need to carry. I need my pens, my watercolours, water brushes, blotting paper, tissues to clean up with, glue, (and if the world was a different place) scissors or a knife; lucky I don't carry pencils and erasers any more.


The photos I intend to take are different from the ones T will take. They will be shots of patterns, details and reference shots for paintings I intend to do when I come back. I can get a lot of these shots taken in the time it takes to do a single sketch. It was the time it takes to do the sketches that surprised me last time. When you have the possibility of fitting in seeing Place Vendome this afternoon versus finishing the sketch you are doing in Place des Voges instead it actually gets a little stressful. We didn't see Place Vendome last time. It is on our list (and the Google Map) for this time.

This is part of the reason I wanted to stay for so long this time. To ease the pressure around the time it takes to sit and draw and see and experience and even wander. I don't know if we will actually have time to see everything on our list even with a month! But if I didn't take my sketchbook, if I only took my iPhone we could get around it all. I could paint from the photos I take and those photos would take me right back to the spot... or would they?

And I think that is the real difference between my sketchbook and my iPhone. When I look back through my sketchbooks I am truly transported back to that exact moment. I can see, hear, smell it all again. Vividly. When I flip back through my photos of last time I find myself thinking "where was that?"

I'll carry them both. I'll let you know who wins. I suspect there actually won't be a winner, that it will be more of a truce. But I'll let you know.
ps. This time I made my perfect travel journal out of a book with the all-time perfect title. Guess how long I'm going to be in Paris!? I filled it with my favourite paper - all the one kind this time because that is how I wanted it to be. It also has some pages from an old Paris Guide Book scattered throughout. I had another Paris book with beautiful illustrations in it that I was also going to incorporate. The book is in poor condition so a prime candidate for rebinding however I discovered it is a reasonably valuable book and a first edition. I couldn't bring myself to pull it apart. It has an elastic closer and a ribbon place marker, some loose sheets of blotting paper, but that is all this time. I wanted a simple version of my usual rebound journal this time. I love it. It IS perfect!

5 new books and a sale!

Well I've been busy getting ready for my latest Uni submission (due tomorrow) but that hasn't meant I've been doing nothing else. I've carved out a little spare time to make some more sketchbooks/journals. I chose this bunch from my stash of old books with interesting titles, or some other feature and have rebound them with beautiful papers into something special. I've detailed all their special qualities and their secrets in my Etsy shop and to save repeating myself I've rigged it so if you click on the pictures here it will take you over there where you can read each story for yourself. I hope you will because this bunch is really special.This one, My Confidences has a ticket I found hidden in the pages, a lost bookmark from a time long past.

Rough Justice is the next little beauty. Because I let each book 'speak' to me of what they would like to have when rebound, each book is really different. This little one has the most features of any I've made so far. And it is on special until December 1 as part of Etsy's Black Friday/Cyber Monday promotion.


Those were the days! Our Hearts Were Young And Gay - this amazing title is now an amazing journal for you to record...
...well, record whatever you like! The book was so popular they made a movie about it and this book has photos and illustrations to prove it!
Growing Up has a tape measure page marker so you can keep track of how much you have grown while you journal in this rebound book.
It also held a forgotten fragment of a time past, lost within it's pages for 60 years and now bound firmly into the book and no longer over looked. Click on the photos to take you to the page that will tell you the story.
By Word Of Mouth was just crying out to have it's Library past reinstate and now it has the envelope to prove it.
Turquoise, white and black pattern make this book really gorgeous on the outside while the inside holds yet another secret. If you'd like to know what it is, click on the pictures to visit the Etsy page that tells you all about it.

This is my Christmas stock in the book department of my Etsy shop so if you were considering getting one for someone special, or better still, for yourself for Christmas, this is the time to buy. And as I mentioned before, for the next 4 days they are on a 10% off sale. I've been thrilled with how popular my rebound journals are so have a little look.

I've also Gocco'ed up some Christmas cards which I hope to list in my shop as soon as this Uni assessment is out of the way. I'll try to post some of my work from it here too.
Cheers!

Roly, Randomness and a Sword-Swallower

For those of you who are new around here, Roly is my boxer dog. He is getting on in years now, is arthritic and grey but it doesn't stop him from bounding around just like he did when he was a puppy. This undying love of all people, places and things has meant there are a lot of people around who have a very soft spot for Roly. My friend Monika is one of them. Yesterday was my birthday and look what she made me! This photo was taken hurriedly after we had eaten half of them and suddenly thought to record the moment. You think eating a Roly cupcake is a bit strange? It is nothing next to seeing what two people do when they decide to share one!
Here is the mugshot view. The middle one is Monika's tribute to the face Roly accidentally pulls when his lips get caught behind teeth. Isn't she clever!
In other news, I've just updated my shop with two new rebound sketchbooks/journals. These handbound rebound journals (my Perfect Journals) have been quite popular and sell out fairly quickly so if you are interested in Random All Round or Memoirs of a Sword-Swallower check them out over at Etsy.
The cover of 'Random All Round' is still in excellent condition inspite of being a first edition from 1960. The dust jacket wasn't in such good condition, but still good enough to be reborn as endpapers inside the front and back covers.
I added a ribbon page marker, headbands and when I rebound it I reinserted 36 original pages along with mixed watercolour and drawing papers to make a total of 132 pages.
Memoirs of a Sword-Swallower is the story of the author Dan Mannix and its cover shows its age - it is also a first edition but this time from 1951. Again I added a ribbon page marker and headbands.
In this book I also added a vintage library due-date slip and envelope inside the back cover. The endpapers are retro striped paper.
In rebinding this book I again added a mixture of high quality watercolour and drawing paper pages along with 46 of the books original pages, including two photos, one of Mannix swallowing his sword and the other of him fire-eating.

Both books would make really fun sketchbooks or journals to record your own adventures in. What a lot of fun I had making these! I'll be a little sorry to see them go.

Spider bite*Cellulitis*Shingles - An Update

I'm still getting hits everyday from people searching either spider bite, cellulitis, shingles, fatigue and even all of them together!  I did suffer from all of these together last year.  I blogged about my experience and what I was doing to assist my recovery.  I'm still amazed at how this is not a rare occurrence!  

So how am I doing?  Very well thank you!  I have learned so much in this 6 months so here is a brief rundown for those who are interested.  The most important thing I learned is that if I had a strong immune system at the time the spider bit me, I would not have ended up with cellulitis or shingles.  I have a mild condition that I live with that has nothing to do with my immune function at all - well that is what I thought!  It seems this condition which comes and goes (I won't go into details, but it really does surprise me that it can have this effect), any chronic condition really, just keeps taxing the immune system.  Throw in a few immune hurdles, it is taxed more, then whammo, get bitten by a spider and there is nothing left to fight it all off.  

I'm told that it will be at least a year of strong supplements and self care before my immune system recovers from that whammo.  Then it will be a further year of the same before I will have built some reserves.  I now feel lucky that I got bitten by that spider and all I got was shingles and cellulitis!  I am pleased I found out before the story got worse.  I am now happy to take medication for my condition.  I've always thought that I 'should' be able to deal with it without resorting to medication, because really, it is not that bad.  I am also happy to take a handful of supplements a couple of times a day too!

So what's working?  I take 2000 - 3000 mg vitamin C, a mega-B, a good quality multi, a liquid mineral supplement, olive leaf extract, fish oil, B5 and a womens herbal blend.  I'm told it's all necessary.  My information has come from my GP, a medical specialist and my Kinesiologist.  I have Kinesiology treatments at least once every month and I find it is invaluable.  It is difficult to describe how, but I am certain it has helped me become physically stronger, and to consolidate and stabilise my improvements.  

So if you found this post by doing a search for those medical problems, let me suggest you ask lots of questions about your immune system and take vitamin C and olive leaf extract as a minimum.  And all the best to you!

I know these pictures don't go with the post, but it would have seemed awfully boring without some images.  So I've included pictures of my latest rebound book.  I LOVE this book.  I know I say that each time - but this one I'm especially proud of.  It IS gorgeous! It would make the perfect European holiday journal with it's title 'Our Hundred Days in Europe' elegantly printed in gold on the spine.  It has a whopping 216 pages - 64 of them original pages from Oliver Wendell Holmes book.  And it is available in my Etsy shop.

More Bookfest Bounty

Back to Bookfest and I'm so glad I did. Another inspiring stack. A couple of great pick-ups today. SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas for one. SCUM stands for Society for Cutting Up Men and Valerie is the sweet lassie who shot Andy Warhol. I'm giving this one to my daughter (for academic purposes only!). The two "Sam.." books will make a great present for someone I know (and there is a long tradition of 2nd-hand-weird-books-as-presents there!). The best repurpose-as-journal buys of the day for me were "The Choir-Boy in the making" (Oxford University Press 1923) with great advice included, like the bit on selecting boys. And "Our Hearts were Young and Gay" with delightful pictures.
Ahh, I wonder if I'll get back tomorrow?

In search of the 'perfect' perfect journal

Look at this little hoard! What beauties! This is my booty from the annual Rotary Bookfest - day 1. And all it cost me was $5 for the lot!!! Some classic titles and books here. My favourite being from the "Teach Yourself Building" series and titled "Electricity in the Home". I can see these little gems rebound and reborn as quirky sketchbooks and journals. And that is really what this is all about. The 'perfect' journal was the subject of previous posts here and resulted in my Guide France, Perfume in Provence, Path to Rome and The Function of Voluntary Muscles sketchbooks. Each one 'perfect' for its purpose. But what about all those other purposes I might have? I feel the need for a 'perfect' book to contain each one of them. And so I hoard, because I also don't quite know what purposes I might think up in the future either. This gorgeous little stack will be taken upstairs to sit next to those other stacks I already have. Together they make a fabulous mound of future possibility.

Can't for Rotary Bookfest - Day 2!!! And it goes all week!

Out there

I've been surprised and very pleased with the response to seeing my rebound Paris sketchbook. Tonight I've been notified that it is featured on http://www.whytraveltofrance.com/ (16th Sept). I was pleased to learn this, mainly because I found out about such an interesting website. I will be reading the posts there before I head off to France shortly. I also discovered 'Guide France'is mentioned on http://bibliophilebullpen.blogspot.com/ (13th Sept). I wasn't contacted by Bibliophilebullpen about their post and I must say I felt a little trepidation when I scrolled down and saw what kind of site it is (old book lovers*). I was afraid of a bashing there for my 'treatment' of old books, but was please to find they have the same idea as me about it - it's better to have a use (in my case, a loving use) for an old book than to see it go to the scrapheap.

This is the title page(s) from my rebound Rome sketchbook. The Path to Rome was the right size for my rebinding project, but not as exciting as Rome and It's Environs which had a plethora of fold-out maps (I love fold out anything, especially maps!) and plans of all the historic buidings and more more more. But unfortunately RAIE was verging on too small, but worse - it had a plastic cover that prevented the pages from opening flat and just wasn't suitable for rebinding. Also the 56 year old pages, thin to begin with, were very fragile. The solution was to add pages from both to my rebound sketchbook. Once again I used hot and cold-pressed watercolour papers and stonehenge drawing paper for the 5 signatures (groups of pages). I added a ribbon page marker, an elastic closer and a velum pocket inside the back cover.

*In reading over this post before pressing the 'publish' button I realised I should change that from "old book lovers" to "lovers of old books"! But I thought it was a nice little pun and I'd leave it as is.

My Local Sketchbook

MyLocalSketchbook76,77
Originally uploaded by Jan and Roly.

'The Function of Human Voluntary Muscles' by ND Royle, published by Angus & Roberston Sydney and London in 1938. I rebound the book including new pages of hot and cold-pressed Arches and Waterford watercolour papers and Stonehenge paper. I was able to re-use almost all of the original pages when rebinding, because of how it had been so badly bound when released. The spine had been way too big for the size of the text block. So even with many new sheets added when rebinding, the new textblock was the right size for the old spine. Unfortunately the old spine was in very poor condition because of this and needed reinforcing with a glued on muslin hinge before the new textblock was added. I also added a ribbon place marker and an elastic closer.

I chose this book because of the diagrams that look like 'how-to' move your arms etc. I will use the book for local sketching and probably alter some of the original pages.

Perfume From Provence

Perfume From Provence 6,7
Originally uploaded by Jan and Roly.

I have rebound a 1937 copy of 'Perfume from Provence' by the Honorable Lady Fortescue, illustrated by EH Shephard ('Winnie-the-Pooh' fame) into a sketchbook to take with me on my trip late Sept. I included some of the original pages when I rebound it with hot and cold pressed Arches and Waterford watercolour papers and Stonehenge paper.

This will be my Provence Sketchbook. Check out my Flickr site for more images of this book including the cover and title pages.

I find I am really enjoying all this rebinding of books. I've made handbound books before and really enjoyed it, but I always found I was confounded when it came to the covers. I often felt the cover wasn't quite right for the book in some way, or I felt compelled to put too much work into the cover which somehow added psycological 'weight' to the book I'd rather not had.

Rebinding has solved all that for me. I choose a book I like and whose title or subject suits and away I go. Somehow it feels even more personal than my painted covers. It creates an feeling of attachment that I love.

In search of the "Perfect" Journal

I've been looking for the perfect book to take on a trip to Europe. Of course I want paper that will let me use ink, watercolour, gouache, and take collage. I don’t want heavy covers, too many pages, spiral binding or too big. I want it be functional AND gorgeous.

Not finding exactly what I wanted, I decided to make some myself by 're-purposing' old books.

I collected books of suitable condition, size and subject including a 1969 French language Guide France, a 1947 edition of Perfume from Provence by Lady Fortescue which has illustrations by E.H. Sheppard (of Winnie the Pooh fame) and As for Italy because I liked the title and it’s size. I also want a book to experiment in before I go, so I’m using my strangest find The Function of Voluntary Muscles which I chose because of the illustrations showing how to move your arms and legs!


To transform them I started by cutting the book block from the cover with a craft knife, then separating the signatures buy cutting the threads between them and picking away the old glue and cloth. (A signature is a folded book section.) The final act of destruction was to separate the pages.

I cut slots in the back cover and attached a Moleskine-like elastic closer.

New pages were cut from both Arches and Waterford hot and cold press watercolour papers and Stonehenge paper and combined with some original pages to form the 5 signatures. For Guide France I cut the endpapers from an old atlas.

I re-used the original hole positions and sewed the signatures together with linen thread, forming the new book block, lastly gluing the endpapers on. To make the spine strong I painted its edge with glue, added a strip of muslin cloth, and left it to press under a weight. I then glued the new book block back into the original cover by the endpapers, pressing it for a couple of days while the glue dried and hardened. Finally I added a velum pocket inside the back cover.


All ready for my trip and a bit of practice before I go!

**For more images and annotated images - see my flickr site**
(Having Blogger trouble and can't get them on here!@#%*)

Update:
This post and the others like it have been so popular that I now sell my books in my Etsy shop. I search out interesting titles, covers and illustrated books if possible and they make really quirky journals and sketchbooks. If you want to see what I mean check out my Flickr set. If you want to see what I did in my travel journals on Flickr here is Paris, Provence, and Italy.
Jan
11 Nov 2008