This week’s addict is the award-winning author of the bestseller Graceling
It’s a fascinating view into a novelist’s process. Read more at Kristin Cashore’s blog: This Is My Secret: Pictures of a Book Being Made
Notebooks from Mussolini’s Italy
From an interesting article at Slate:
“American student Barbara Donahue (then Barbara Finlay) lived in Italy between August 1937 and March 1938, when she was 7 and 8 years old. She attended a Catholic school, the Istituto Vittoria Colonna, in Milan. There, she was issued these small soft-covered government-produced student notebooks, decorated with colorful, dramatic illustrations…. Barbara Finlay’s Italian education came at the tail end of a complicated 20-year project meant to teach loyalty to the Fascist regime in the country’s schools.”
Read more at: History of education in Mussolini’s Italy through illustrated notebook covers from 1938–9.
Eggpicnic Notebooks
Cute notebooks from an Australian company called Eggpicnic:
“Fusing design with conservation, Australian brand Eggpicnic looks to raise awareness of the continent’s endangered fauna through vibrant illustrations and characters. Their first ever stationary launch, ‘Endemic Series’ consists of a duo of limited-edition field notebooks featuring two of Australia’s most critically endangered animals.
Helmeted Honeyeaters and Southern Corroboree Frogs adorn the covers of just 50 hand-numbered notebooks each, created alongside Santiago-based design studio La Mano Ediciones. Every notebook is screen-printed, crafted by hand and made from recycled paper.”
Source: Eggpicnic reveals limited edition, conservational notebooks | Wallpaper* Magazine
Review and Giveaway: Writersblok Double Spiral Notebooks
When our friends at Kikkerland shared these samples of their latest new product, I had to clap my hands– finally a notebook that really DOES do something new! I’ve seen other notebooks that can open from the back or the front, but I have never seen a notebook with both top and side openings in one. Designed by Constantin Boym, the Writersblok Double Spiral notebooks offer some interesting features and embellishments that you don’t see everyday.
The first notebook has wire-o bindings on both sides. When you open it from one side, you get ruled pages, and the other side is blank. The covers are made of a nice heavy matte black board with snazzy metallic corners. A Writersblok logo is stamped on one side– whether you consider it the front cover or the back cover is up to you. The pages have rounded corners on all sides. The page count on the notebook says 140, but by my count each side seems to have 70 sheets/140 pages, so you’re getting a total of 280 pages/ 140 sheets.
The second notebook has a slim top-opening notebook and then a side-opening notebook on the back. It makes for a bit of a challenge in slipping the paper band off without tearing it– the wrapper is bound into the spiral on one side and has to be nudged out from between the pages on the other, as you can’t open the notebook until the band is loosened. The top-opening pad is lined paper, and the side-opening part is squared.
The paper inside the notebooks is smooth and cool white. Show-through and bleed-through are about average, maybe a little bit more bleed-through than average from a couple of my usual pens.
The double thickness of the combined notebooks makes for a pleasingly chunky package, but when you hold them in your hand, it becomes hard to avoid the wire spirals. After a while, it might get annoying to have them digging into your palm. (Shown below with a pocket size Moleskine for size comparison.)
My only other complaint about these notebooks is that the wire-o binding starts on the wrong side– normally, a wire-o binding connects from hole to hole at the back of the notebook, allowing the pages to turn freely from the front. In this case, that part is at the front of the notebook so you have to jiggle the whole wire around to get it out of the way if you want the pages to open flat. Both notebooks have this problem on both sides– I don’t know if it’s just an accidental defect, or if the two-sided design makes it a manufacturing necessity, but it really lessens the usability of the notebook.
So while I love the innovation and creativity and design of these notebooks, the practicality of them may be somewhat limited. I hope Kikkerland will make some other single-sided notebooks with the same styling– the black covers and metal corners really do look great and I would absolutely love to have an 8.5 x 11″ squared notebook in this design to use as my desktop notebook at work, where I always like to have something that I can open flat and flip the pages around to the back.
Look for these at your local stationery store, or you can buy direct from Kikkerland’s online store. (Other Kikkerland Writersblok notebooks are available on Amazon
I’ll be giving away the double side-opening notebook to one lucky winner, selected at random from entries received by these methods:
On Twitter, tweet something containing “Writersblok @kikkerland @NotebookStoriesâ€, and follow @NotebookStories and @kikkerland
On Facebook, “like†the Notebook Stories page and the Kikkerland page and post something containing the words “Writersblok†on the Notebook Stories page.
On your blog, post something containing the words “Kikkerland Writersblok†and “Notebook Stories†and link back to this post.
The deadline for entry is Friday March 25 at 11:59PM, EST. Good luck everyone!
And please remember to check my posts on Facebook and Twitter for an announcement of the winner. Please allow a couple of weeks for me to check all the entries and determine the winners.
Notebook Addict of the Week: Missy Dunaway
I’ve seen Missy Dunaway’s art on Pinterest, and was always impressed, but I didn’t know her backstory until I came across an article about her on Mashable. Not only does she paint amazing scenes on notebook pages, she has quite a collection of filled Moleskines!
Read more about Missy and see more of her gorgeous paintings at: Traveling artist paints breathtaking scenes in her Moleskine journals
A Fourth Grader Who Writes Novels in Notebooks
I love this kid! Such a cute story, and I bet she will be filling many more notebooks in the years to come!
“One budding author at Aldrich Intermediate School has written so many novels, she has to lug them around in a Dora the Explorer suitcase. Fourth grader Amari Morton not only fills spiral notebooks faster than her parents can buy them, but skipped a grade and is reading at the sixth grade level….
“You know how kids ask for toys? Well Amari asked for notebooks,†added father Sean.”
Read more at: Fourth grader a novelist in the making – Beloit Daily News: News
Grayson Perry’s sketchbook
Some intriguingly intricate pages from Grayson Perry’s sketchbook:
From treasured childhood notebooks to drawing with his daughter, Perry’s sketchbooks are the place where the artist learns if an idea is ‘a goer or a dud’
Source: Inside Grayson Perry’s sketchbook | Art and design | The Guardian
Bellroy Passport Notebook
This little notebook was a surprise bonus when I purchased a Bellroy travel wallet. It’s mainly a piece of promotional material for the wallet, and was tucked into the space where an actual passport is meant to be carried. Now that my passport is in there, there’s no room for the notebook but it does have some travel tips and a few pages of usable graph paper! I rather like the tiny squares, as they are faint enough lines not to be too distracting.
The wallet itself is really nice, too– it comes with a mini pen that tucks neatly inside, and at 9.7cm x 15cm, it is a perfect companion for a pocket size notebook!
Notebook Addict of the Week: Jamie
This week’s addict is a “Rebel Quilter, Writer, Curator, Teacher, Artist, Fabric Designer, Stencil Designer” who says “I am gathering a very nice collection of sketchbooks.” She is decorating them very nicely too, with lots of washi tape and beautiful artwork inside.
Check out the original post for lots more images: Twisted Sister: Pages from My Sketchbooks
Questions from Readers
Here’s some questions from readers that have come in over the last few months. Some of them are stumpers, for me at least, but I hope some other sharp-eyed readers will be able to answer!
From Chris:
Do you by any chance know what type of notebook/journal Bradley Cooper is using in the movie ‘Burnt’?
I haven’t seen the movie, so I hope someone else can chime in!
From Ernie:
Do you know of a spiral notebook that uses yellow pages like a legal pad does? I’m looking for a spiral notebook but the pages yellow like legal pad instead of white.
This may depend on whether you want top-opening or side-opening. There are definitely spiral bound legal pads that open top to bottom, like this one
From Fuzzy:
I’m trying to find a sketch journal that has both lined and blank paper, lined paper on one side and blank on the other. I’m not looking for the journal where the page is blank at the top and lined at the bottom.
The Dialogue notebooks I reviewed have this feature. I also found this
From Jenn:
I’m experimenting with fore-edge painting. Acrylic paint sits on the outside of the page where I want it, so when I bend the pages the image can show, but it flakes after too many openings and when you separate stuck together pages. Oil and wax bases stain the inner paper. So far, water bases are either not opaque enough or stain the paper. Of course, the type of paper is also an issue. The pages of a watercolor pad would be too thick, but too thin paper would soak through to the next page, the finish on the paper is an issue, etc. So maybe a fake gild edge that I can paint then shut the book and wipe off would be the answer. This would need to be a plain blank book. Everything online is expensive and/or has leather. It would also have to be cheap enough to experiment with and throw away if it doesn’t work. If it really does, I’d buy more. Do you have any ideas of cheap, plain, fake gilt edge notebooks?
I have not seen anything particularly cheap with gilded edges. The Object Series notebook I reviewed is $16 with gilded edges but it does have a leather cover and might not be suitable for painting on.
From Frances:
I do lots and lots of note-taking and have been using 3×5 cards (cheap ones) since I have filled up entire shoe boxes with my notes (separated in small cheap envelopes with the content indicated on the outside). Using so many, I can’t justify those nice cards from Levenger at 10 cents a piece! But, the Oxford/EssLT card packs in stores here (middle of nowhere New Mexico) are so rough I can’t hardly stand to use them. Back when I was still working, I used the Levenger circa junior size paper/notebooks and some smaller sizes, but have not been buying those lately due to budget constraints. Have you found a ‘system’ that includes nicer paper AND is economical AND with refillable pages?
I haven’t tried the Staples Arc system notebooks, but they are said to be pretty comparable to Levenger yet lower priced. I wish I knew of a brand of index cards made from nice paper, but I don’t!
From Doug:
I have used the following sketchbook for a while, and generally like them… the Hand Book . I live in Canada however, and sometimes this can make it harder to find. Anyhow, I use it for art, sketches, etc. I like the buff colour (not pure white), and I like the slight tooth it has. Do you have any recommendations for similar style notebook style sketchbooks that are good for artists?
Check out the Art Alternatives Sketch & Draw
From Richard:
Years back I bought a 7 x 10 notebook from a company called writers block. The paper was lightweight and had a dot grid. The book weighed only four oz.  It fit well alongside my iPad I’ve been searching high and low for something similar.
I am guessing you mean the Writersblok notebooks from Kikkerland. They have changed their offerings in the last few years, but their recent Writersblok notebooks are quite nice. The larger ones are the size of an iPad Mini. If you want something closer to the size of a regular iPad, the Extra Large size Moleskine Cahier might be a good fit. But neither of these options comes with dot grid paper. If you want dotted paper, Leuchtturm might have some options for you, particularly the medium or large softcovers.
notebooks are quite nice. The larger ones are the size of an iPad Mini. If you want something closer to the size of a regular iPad, the Extra Large size Moleskine Cahier might be a good fit. But neither of these options comes with dot grid paper. If you want dotted paper, Leuchtturm might have some options for you, particularly the medium or large softcovers.From Dmitri:
I was planning to buy a Moleskine Hardcover, Plain, 5×8.25 notebook, but had heard the pages were very thin, which is something I am trying to avoid because I am planning to use pens, paints, glue, etc. in my journal. What I’m really looking for is a plain notebook around the size of 5×8.25 with pages thick enough for me to freely use whatever media I would like and sturdy enough so it can withstand thick pages and last a good amount of time.
You could try the Moleskine “Art Plus” Sketchbook
in that size, as it has heavier pages than the regular “Classic” plain notebook, though they may still be not quite heavy enough for some kinds of pens and markers. HandBook Artist Journal
would also be a good option, as they come in portrait and landscape versions in 5 x 8.25, as well as pocket and square formats. If you need something even sturdier, Stillman and Birn has lots of options for different papers and sizes and bindings. You can find a guide to their paper types here.
in that size, as it has heavier pages than the regular “Classic” plain notebook, though they may still be not quite heavy enough for some kinds of pens and markers. HandBook Artist Journal would also be a good option, as they come in portrait and landscape versions in 5 x 8.25, as well as pocket and square formats. If you need something even sturdier, Stillman and Birn has lots of options for different papers and sizes and bindings. You can find a guide to their paper types here.From Brent:
I have been looking for some notebooks I used to get at Target that I just loved.  They weer about 3×5 or maybe slightly larger and had a cardboard cover, were spiral bound (which was big enough to carry a pen in …. the main reason I liked them), and some had an elastic closure (the second reason I really liked them).  I used to get them all the time about 10 years ago, but have been unable to find them recently. Are you familiar with these and if so, do you know where I might be able to purchase them?
I don’t have the opportunity to shop at Target very often so I’m not sure what these might have been. Hopefully one of our other readers might have an idea!
Thanks as always to our readers for sending in questions, and helping answer questions!