Customer Reviews

Making & Keeping Creative Journals

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a lovely and inspirational book for making interesting journals. I was pleased to see that the projects in this book were fresh--not the same old thing, revisited. The photographs and examples are so beautiful I found myself thinking, "I want to make this one and this one and this one..."

This is probably not the best book for beginning book makers. I would describe myself as an intermediate book maker with several years of experience in binding different types of books. In making the Gardener's Journal, I had some difficulty interpreting some of the illustrations and one of the templates is flat-out wrong; however, these problems did not prevent me from completing the Gardener's journal and the finished product is really beautiful.

Also, some of the bindings and materials suggested are tricky. For example, several journals include leather covers and the instructions seem to gloss over what type of leather to use, how to prepare it, etc. For the less commonly used book binding materials, such as embossed metallic foil and dollhouse nails, a list of suppliers would have been extremely helpful--even if I had to go online to access it.

On the plus side, this is a great book to get ideas on keeping different types of journals: bird watching journals, gardening journals, etc.

Another fresh idea this book provides is the viewpoint of both the journaler and the book maker. The journaler defines the purpose of the journal and the book maker creates a journal to meet that purpose. Very cool.

...but what it isn't is a book about writing journals.

This is mainly about crafting journals -- that is, putting together paper and covers, stitching and gluing and the craftsy part of creating a physical book. It does give lip service to information on why keep a journal and the different kinds of journals people keep: external or internal journey, healing and insight, confessional, chronicle for future generations, catalyst for creative expression. Techniques like freewriting and list making are mentioned along with narrative description, dreams, and poetry but the emphasis here is on putting together pages and covers; how to make booklets from different kinds of papers, etc.

Illustrations are photographs of journals people have made and drawings showing various methods of folding, stitching, joining and binding. There are specific projects that include intricate instructions on how to make different journals: a travel, dream, yoga, poet's, grandmother's, painters, gardener's, bird lover's, etc. journals. The child's summer journal even has a spiral binding. The covers of the reunion journal are two gloves.

If you want to hand craft books this should show you how. Each would make a special gift which you could give with pages filled with your own writing or as a blank book.

I've only been playing with book making for a little while....took one class at a rubber stamping show and really enjoyed it. I found this book shortly after that and having been using it, along with a few others to teach myself techniques. The pictures throughout the book are inspirational as well. The first chapters talk to things like the materials you'll use in book making (choosing papers, threads, tapes, adhesives) and how to actually do the book making (stitches, how the binding should look, etc). The nice thing here is that the author gives you leeway saying you could substitute this for that etc. Then the rest of the book is focused on creating specific types of journals/books: travel, introspection, confessions, dreams, poetry, grandmothers book, etc. Material lists are given as well as step by step instruction with both hand drawn pictures and photos of specific parts of the book like the binding. The only thing that I had a little trouble with was some of the terminology since it was new to me but as with other things, we pick that up as we learn. I think this is an excellent book for someone who has the basics under their belt or who has made a book to two before. For the beginner it's a book you can easily grow into, just need some patience. The results are well worth it.

i write this as an experienced amateur book maker and keeper of a "creative" journal.

i think the author bit off more than she could chew. the book purports to tell you both how to keep a journal and how to make one of your own. the initial part about how to keep a journal is thin and insubstantial and focuses almost exclusively on writing [not a bad thing, but there are other ways to journal].

the two major sections of the book focus on basic book making and descriptions of collaborative projects between book artists and journal keepers. the book making instructions are incomplete and confusing, even for experience book makers. the diagrams are very confusing and poorly labled. the collaborative projects include some great books, but the idea that you can replicate these projects from the scant instructions provided is laughable. i wish there had been more photos of these books.

the text reads like an undergraduate term paper with too many exclamation points. the only redeeming features are the pictures of the collaborative projects. there are better books out there if you want to learn to keep or need inspiration for keeping a creative journal, or if you want to learn book making. this book does neither.

Has the best Coptic binding instructions I have seen. Other instructions are very good also. It is a books arts book that is about more than just journaling.