During the times when I feel unproductive or that I am not working on the “fun stuff” enough, I try to find a small and somewhat quick project I can do in order to get back on track.

Here is a reporter style notebook that is small enough to use up scraps I hold onto in my studio.  (It is important to use these every once in a while so you can defend yourself when being accused of keeping unnecessary remainders.) The paper was cut to letter size, printed with lines, then cut down to its final size.  The stack of pages were clamped, glued and lined with a piece of cloth so that the pages can be torn away or kept together.

The octopus on the lining paper is a sketch I did after reading a post by BibliOdyssey. This particular entry featured beautiful prints of cephalopods studied during a scientific sea voyage in 1898. The images are breathtaking and the mystery that comes along with sea exploration is always an exciting one to me.  The sketch I made was scanned into my computer and printed on Canson paper. The small image on the front of the notebook was coated with Klucel G in order to keep it from wearing off over time. Finally, I added a paper band that slides off to open the notebook with a stamped “title.”

It was a short fun project, and helped to feel better about “doing something cool.”  Inevitably, while working on this small notebook, other ideas were sparked and the mundane daily activities were endured.