experimentation

After drawing on the front page of my new journal in the last post, I was left thinking just how FLIMSY the paper cover felt.  It wouldn't take much to have it bend and crease.  And, I noticed that it was absorbing oils from my fingers, as I mentioned in that post.  I kept thinking I needed to use some kind of fixative on the cover.  Putting out a call to my fellow CZTs for suggestions, I happily got quite a bit of input on what to do, the most interesting of which was to laminate the cover.  Yes!  It would solve three problems at once:  Preserve the drawing, stiffen the flimsy paper, and prevent oils and spills from damaging the cover.  

But lamination takes a machine and heat, right?  That's when I happily discovered self-adhesive laminating sheets.  It took me a while to locate some, but I've now ordered more.  I can see all kinds of uses for these handy dandy things.

To test them out, I took another old-but-similar journal and drew on its cover, then tried my first-ever lamination on it, figuring that if it was a disaster, I would not have wrecked my other new journal.  This old journal (below) is one I've been using for random workshop notes and it's a mishmash of a lot of my random interests.  And the handwritten notes inside are m-e-s-s-y.  Really messy.  But I love the cover!  My amateur attempt at lamination came out great.  After laminating the cover on this journal for practice, I immediately did the cover on my new journal.  I could not be happier with the results.  What a great idea!  Thanks, fellow CZTs.

Except... I like the cover drawing on my old, half-filled, messy journal (picture to the left) so much that I'm feeling very sorry it's so m-e-s-s-y inside.  

Doesn't THAT sound familiar...as in, the way we labor over our outer appearance to others, and often forget to pay attention to our own inner presence?  I hope this isn't a reflection of my life at the moment, LOL.

Doing this has got me all excited about drawing, all over again.  Doesn't take much...

I bought about ten of these journals in a batch about thirty years ago, thinking I would love them, but the plain covers and the inside strangely textured blue paper meant that after filling up the first one I let the rest languish.  Now, suddenly, I am full of ideas about what to do with them and am glad I have a few left.

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