Starting My 2013 Fake Journal—Before and After Photos

Above: The sort of before photo, by which I mean, the journal when I'd worked in it for one afternoon on March 21, 2013. Read below for details. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

If you've been reading along so far for the 2013 celebration of IFJM you'll know that I used the Leuchtturm 1917 Notebook for my fake journal this year.

The pages really were too thin for simply drawing on them in ink—all the inks I used seeped through on my test pages more than I would have hoped. But I was already in love with the size of the journal and the dot pattern grid on the pages (which oddly you can rarely see now that the book is filled).

Immediately my mind started working on ways to use this book despite of the paper's limitations for mixed media. By now you've also read how this mind churning happened at the exact time I went to visit a friend who was recovering from surgery and watching Gelli Plate Printing videos on the internet. I realized that I could do a combination of techniques to the pages that would make them more resilient to abuse by the mixed media.

Left: The completed book on April 18, 2013. It no longer really closes, in fact typically the cover just flops open. Two days after finishing this book I made the decision to purchase an archival newspaper storage box for this book and store it in a half open position. It's the only thing I could think of that wouldn't put continued pressure on the already stressed spine. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I began to print monoprints with the Gelli Plate—sometimes on paper I could collage into the journal and other times printing directly onto the page. I did two evenings of printing. The above photo was taken between those two evenings when I had started to stick the papers from the first evening into the journal. I was working with PVA so that water from later painting sessions wouldn't cause the collaged material to buckle up away from the page. Because I was working on several page spreads at a time, and as I worked into April some pages started to have gouache paintings on them, I couldn't weight the collaged material while it dried so that it would dry flatter. (The trapped moisture would have reactivated the gouache paint before the glue had dried and made for interesting pages.) Because the pages weren't under weights when they were drying, and the paper is lightweight, there is a wonderful buckling to every page. The layers of collaged papers are not only buckled across the page but create a stiffness to most pages that makes it a tactile joy to turn these pages. I think you'll see that when I get the video flip through posted.

Left: Detail of the book closed with the book's elastic band positioned around the book. This is the only time I've put the elastic band in this position. The band stretches too much to be useful with this bulk and the front cover is pulled into a curve because of the bulk of the pages. But this image shows how the fore edge of the book is deformed as the thickness of the collaged items keeps the spine from closing properly and pushes the pages out past the cover's edge.

I started working on backgrounds and collage materials on the 18th of March for two reasons. I had a feeling I wasn't going to have the amount of time I had hoped for each day (and in fact that did turn out to be the case) but more importantly my character was someone who was constantly working ahead in her journals and so while she would be finishing up a volume she would be working simultaneously ahead in preparing backgrounds in a new journal.

Left: Detail of the spine now that the book is filled to over flowing. You can see that the ends of the signatures (where paper is folded and sewn together as groups) is now no longer flat against the spine board like it was when I started. Instead it is now convex, creating a circle that is curved outward, pushing the signatures outward. Hence the way the pages jut out at the fore edge. (In my real journals I tend to do only a little collage and I pre-cut out pages, leaving tabs to hold space at the spine. That creates space for the collage materials I do add. Since in this book I wasn't cutting out pages and each page sometimes had 3 layers of collage material there was no way the spine was not going to severely deform. For a description of how and why I cut pages out of my journals you can read "Journaling Superstitions #5: You Can't Cut Pages Out of Your Journal." (About half way through that post I explain my process.) Click on the image to view an enlargement.

If I had waited to work in this journal until April 1 she would not have been in her work flow mode.

When a character speaks so strongly to you, tells you to work on backgrounds for pages she intends to use weeks from now, and insists that you use paper that is unsuitable for mixed media, you simply must listen to the character.

So I printed and collaged and tried to listen to the character as she spoke to me in little bits and pieces during the day. I had hoped to have a "leisurely" month in April where I could take multiple photos of each stage and let you see the gradual growing of the book. But everything happened very quickly—which I learned is what this character likes. You can see some of what happened from photos like the ones in today's post.

I'll have more to write about the interior of this journal and the process. I would like to say this about the Leuchtturm 1917 notebook I used for this year's fake journal—it held up to a phenomenal amount of abuse. Most books would have disintegrated in "pre-production" before April 1, when character  started actually journaling in the book.

Despite the abuse all the pages of this journal are intact and holding firm. No stitches have torn out (this is a sewn book or I wouldn't have tried this approach). The cover of the book long ago lost any remembrance of its hinge space yet even with repeated opening and closing the cover material (which is one of those synthetic coverings that's not paper, leather, or fabric) held up and continues to do so. There is virtually no wear on the cover—except for some acrylic ink that I splashed on it from time to time when I was printing in the book.

I didn't weigh the book when it was new and empty.  By now it must weigh 4 or 5 times as much. It is unpleasant to hold it is so heavy.

I loved working in this book, and if all you do is take notes and you test this paper and love it for that and the pens you use then I have to say you couldn't find a better, more user friendly, and attractive notebook.

And if you want to get all wild and crazy with it and go extremely wild with mixed media—well it's going to hang in there with you.

My character isn't concerned with such niceties. I on the other hand am very, very grateful. And I find myself passing the book as it sits half open on the drawing board, awaiting the arrival of its archival box, and I can't help but page through the encrusted pages and savour the fun of working in this book all over again.

A Peek at a Page in Roz's 2013 Fake Journal

Left: Pages 78-79 in my 2013 Fake Journal. Page size is approx. 9 x 12 inches. Read below for more details and some views from the earlier stages before the background was painted over with white to further isolate the sketches. Arrows are rubberstamped. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

I feel a little frustrated that I haven't been able to post any pages from this year's fake journal. For several weeks I've been the go-to family member focusing on getting my extended family in a stable situation.

I have one rule I've held to ever since I started blogging at Roz Wound Up in 2008. Creative production trumps documentation. If it's a choice of meeting my creative goals or posting about what I've been making, then posts always lose.

I haven't had time to put two thoughts together for my blogs (and I'm going to have to start doing that soon as my prepared posts that I pre-schedule are all used up!). But it looks like I'm going to fill this journal by the 18th so I wanted to post something in advance of that, and in advance of the video flip through I mentioned the other day.

I can't really start at the beginning today and fill you in on what's happening as I only stole a few minutes to post some particulars about this spread. I'll write more, in pieces, in the coming weeks.

I've been using the Leuchtturm 1917 Notebook with dotted grid pattern that I wrote about on Roz Wound Up.

Above: The page spread at the start of the process. You can see the Gelli-Arts printing plate prints on the pages and the collaged paper in the top left (also gelli-plate printed). And you can see my finch sketches—Faber-Castell Pitt Artists' Calligraphy Pen. Click on the image to view an enlargement.

The journal is totally unsuitable for the type of mixed media visual journaling I've been doing in it and my character finds it totally suitable. Most of my friends who have seen the 42 page spreads (84 pages) I've completed so far, think I'm off my nut. I am.

I asked a friend I trust artistically on Saturday if she liked it or hated it (she had a look of horror on her face). She diplomatically said, "Wait until the end of the month, put it away until June, and then look at it."

We had a good laugh.

Above: Detail of the finch sketch at the top center. Click on the image to view an enlargement. (This is before the background was overpainted with white.)

I hope you are all having a good laugh at least some of the time with your 2013 fake journals.

I can say that I've discovered a lot of things about me and a lot of things about materials (art materials). I can't wait to share them with you.

I'm working in brief bursts of writing to make intelligible and helpful posts that won't overwhelm your day with "reading." Because after all, you have pages to create too.

So there's one peek, and more to come. I have to say that while the jury is still out about the entire book (and that's a story in itself) I have to admit that I really liked this page of aviary birds, especially when I put in the white background paint—they look like those old printed bandanas people wore in the years before "Survivor" popularized the stretchy "buff."

If you hit a time crunch, keep working on your project and worry about showing it to people later. (Yes, Roz should have picked a more manageable approach as she's always telling people to do—but we never really know what's going to happen do we?) So keep working, and work hard, and have fun.

See another page spread peek, and discussion of the process, at Roz Wound Up on April 16, 2013.

The Leuchtturm 1917 Notebook Review Is Up

If you read my Friday, March 8 post about my 2013 fake journal prep you'll know I mentioned the Leuchtturm 1917 Notebook. This morning I put my review of this journal up on Roz Wound Up (so it could be easily accessible to the other reviews I've done on commercially bound journals).

You can read more about my tests using mixed media on the Leuchtturm 1917 Notebook here.

I will be using one of these books for my 2013 fake journal so you'll begin seeing pages from it here sometime in April. (It's a 9 x 12.5 inch book and finding time to scan the pages is going to be a bit difficult given my current schedule, so I'll probably start posting pages a week or so into April.)

I hope that your plans for 2017 are going well and the pieces are falling into place.

Later this week I'll post the new button design.

And I have to give some thought to this year's contest.

We are getting close!