Laurel Martin - Artist
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Up-cycled Art Journals.

3/8/2011

7 Comments

 
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I’ve done a lot of watercolor painting in my time and my pile of half finished paintings was getting rather large!  I decided that I should up-cycle some of these paintings into art journals for my store.  I use Arches 140 lb acid free watercolor paper so the quality of the paper is very good.  Some of the pages have paint and some are blank.  Unlike a store bought journal, it's rough and imperfect and will hopefully inspire creativity in the owner.
I liked the idea of using book rings because you can easily add, remove or rearrange the pages.  However, my daughter, who is a huge collector of journals, didn't like the book ring binding.  This unleashed a hole pandora's box of questions.   Will people not want journals with book rings???   What kind of binding do people like.  I got a  book out of the library which is entirely on binding journals.  There are many other types of binding! 
So my question to you is: What type of binding do you like for your journals?  Please leave a commment if you have a preference.  I'd love to hear.



7 Comments
whyte link
3/8/2011 10:32:39 pm

Personally, I love the book rings. It keeps the journal flexible to add new thoughts randomly. But that also is because journals I have in mind are mostly collections of photos, memorabilia, ephemera I already have that I'd like to collect in journal form. Meaning that I might run into something in a shoebox somewhere that I know will be perfect in a certain journal or on a certain journal page.

I must admit though, that I love the artistic and beautiful handmade bindings many talented binders add to journals.

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Liz-Anna link
3/9/2011 02:49:12 am

I love the look of bound journals but prefer the flexibility of the rings. I ruin too many journals by tearing out pages plus the ring journals give the option of adding pages anywhere and including bulkier ephemera without having to cut out pages.

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Nikkie link
3/13/2011 04:10:55 pm

What a great idea! I love spiral bound journals because I like to fold back my papers. And you dont have to worry about them getting thick with all kinds of great things collaged inside.

I do prefer the look of the other bindings though.

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Jodi Ohl link
3/19/2011 10:56:38 am

I love how you upcycled your water color papers into such a beautiful journal! Love it. I haven't really ever made my own journal, I usually used store bought but I have been using children's board books for journals as well which I love :)
BTW--congrats you are the winner for my Art at the Speed of Life giveaway. Please email me your addy:
jodiohl@hotmail.com

Woot woot!

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Susi
4/10/2011 03:30:49 am

First off, I love your concept of offering fragments of your own creativity as jump starts to someone else's. For me jump rings are IDEAL because they give me so much freedom. A tightly bound journal can be limiting...I love, for example, that I can take a page or a spread OUT of the journal and happily and sloppily work them and let them dry...all without mucking up other pages in the book. Finally, there is nothing to stop the journal artist from more formally binding the pages when they are done...or adding decorative fibers to the jump rings or substituting ribbon for the rings etc. What you provide with this model is great freedom and I love that!

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Susi link
4/10/2011 03:47:56 am

Laurel, will you be offering any more of these journals in your etsy shop, and how much does one cost?

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Point of sale systems link
5/31/2012 07:12:51 pm

It is the most to the point and the latest information I found on this issue. Positively glad that I came across your url by luck. I will be reading your feed so that I can acquire the up to the minute news. all the information here.

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    © Laurel Martin 2010
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