The Perks of the Journal Pocket

Scenario: 

A couple of people (x) sit around patiently in a waiting room (y). All of a sudden, an earthquake (z) ! Nothing bad, no one was hurt, except some people were thrown out a window (the poor lads land on the grass outside, again, nothing bad).

Now if we take these x, y and z variables, something interesting happens:

if x = photographs, ticket stubs, horoscopes, postcards, the things that you want to glue onto a page when it feels right,

and y = any page of your journal that x is tucked into,

and z = accidental or unexpected shaking around of the journal, there go your bit o' paper friends!

There goes the visual additions, or the loaded paper memory vessels.

It's not a great feeling, my friends.  

Little bits of paper memorabilia are waiting for a permanent part in your journal's visual texture. 

Question: How can you help them in their paper-bits purgatory? 

Answer: How about a stylish POCKET?

I

The Found Pocket
(an oatmeal bag)

It took me many oatmeal breakfasts to realize that the bag my oats came in was extremely pretty and fit right onto a page in my journal. I cut it in half and then glued it right in, Easy Squeezy!

Going back through the journals of the past (I am currently in my fourth volume), it is an excellent idea and exercise to sort through the old pockets and find a page for those denizens to be glued to. 

The back of the journal is a very interesting place to catch a lot of these random savings that didn't seem to fit anywhere else. Some pocket denizens will never find a page to call its own, that is fine too. There's always room for one more at Mama Pocket's.

II

The Transparent Pocket
(a clear sleeve for homemade cards, sold at scrapbook stores)

My mother is a crafty woman. She scrapbooks and makes homemade cards for the holidays, graduation and wedding announcements, and other special events. She's pretty wonderful, and so is her collection of left over materials. Here I have found a clear envelope/sleeve that one would send the homemade card through the mail without the danger of soiling the paper creation, as well as being more interesting to the mailman than the typical articles of mail. So you can't see this particular pocket but it is in action there holding all of my postcard materials together. It's very discreet and works like a charm.

(I also used tape hinges to make it turn like a page.)

III

The Page Turner Pocket
(map of Prague)

Mind the big hand, it's just demonstrating the turn-able quality of this pocket in my current journal. I have noticed in the past that gluing a pocket onto a page, though sturdy and reliable, still is the loss of a page. Also, the paper in the far back of the envelope could be blocked by the front materials. 

Using a tape hinge to make the envelope flip-able settled a bunch of these problems. 

Hmm.. it seems that this is a slightly early image of this pocket. Do you see how it is positioned about mid-page? This caused problems to the bigger/longer additions in the pocket which peaked over the top edge of the page, making it vulnerable and at risk for being wrinkled, folded over or ripped. I move the pocket down so that the bottom edge was right along the bottom edge of the journal page.

IV

The Happy Ending Pocket
(a pamphlet I was saving in another pocket)

Success story: This particular pocket was crafted out of a monthly events pamphlet for the Laterna Magika (Magic Latern) Theatre in Prague, CZ. Before it upgraded to a pocket, can you believe that this charming pamphlet was once a long time pocket dweller in the journal that preceded this one here? 

Ah, it seems I jazzed it up a little with a pretty white flower, too. That's nice.

YOUR TURN!

There are many different methods to create a pocket for your journal:

1. The Found Pocket: This is the easiest method. 

It could be a pretty envelope your friend decorated and sent you in the mail, or a 6x8" manilla envelope that you cut in half and glue in. It could be an oatmeal bag! Make sure you like it first, or decorate it if you don't?

2. The Found and Folded Paper Pocket: My preferred path.

There is a wide selection of pretty or interesting paper in this world to be made into a pocket.

In the past I have used pages from fashion magazines, pamphlets, origami paper, or maps. Depending on the size of the paper, it may take half of the journal page (to accommodate for more storage), or it could be a tiny pocket for holding little papers. Hear You, Me: It's plenty fun to do a little hands-on project for your journal, don't be intimidated by the task that saves your bits o' memorabilia!  

W.I.Y: The Charming Resume

Write It Yourself, or W.I.Y, will be a series of little projects that I have found in those ah-ha! moments when groping for little paper gestures for the effect of the recipient's surprised amusement. 

Today's W.I.Y is the Charming Resume. 

Approximately one year ago I was pursuing a barista position at a thriving little coffee shop of great repute in my college town. This local business has the cozy-cafe charm, bakes the best scones and desserts in town (not a biased opinion but a city-wide survey fact!), and roasts their award winning beans a block away. As a coffee shop is due, this spot is heavily pursued by job-seeking college students. I was one of them. 

I've heard of creative ways to present le curriculum vitae, such as the Resume T-Shirt, which looks exactly as it sounds and leaves little for mystery where revealing your work-experience to everyone else is concerned. Chill-y jobs, like our Hippie Gypsy on 4th avenue, takes an artistic or crafty submission first and asks questions later! 

Standing out in a stack of computer paper can be difficult, and especially so if its THAT sort of establishment or position where the expected resume style leaves little for personal touches. 

Luckily, my coffee shop was not so.

I faced minor obstacles like living out of town for the time being and lacking a working printer, but the effort put in to hand writing my resume on a pretty shade o' blue paper with mindful attention to layout, spacing, font size and fancier things (like bold or italic print, hey it's a 'simple-fancy'!) paid for itself. 

A couple weeks later I got a favorable response to the charming resume and an interview with the managers who thought it was very appropriate to the space.

and I am trying to repeat my luck!

Today I entered a favorite vintage clothing store and found that the business was purchased by a sweet lady that I know from my coffee shop. One good talk and the suggestion to bring by a resume later, I devised a scheme to get a second job in a familiar, creative way.

Behold!

First half picture frame fodder...

I visited a nearby book shop to pick up an art print. 

I was hoping for a vintage-y clothes related print but happily settled with a flower-y still life by Picasso.

There was some print on one side. I chose a gray-toned paper from my sketchbook to cover it up. 

The aesthetics of deviating from the sterile white works too well sometimes.   

...second half CV!

I had my computer with me so I settled down at my local Time Market, opened my most recently updated resume document and scrawled it out.

Tools:  

-Straight edge 

(ie. ruler, postcard, architect's transparent triangle edge

-Lite pencil lines 

-My blue-gold Gelly Roll pen 

(for the heading and contact information) 

-Two black ink-y pens of varying line thickness.

-Steady nerves and legible handwriting.

-a cold bottle of Maine's Ginger Beer.

Cheers!

The Traveled One: (33) Tangerine Suns

One year ago, I returned from studying abroad in Prague, Czech Republic. For 9 months I documented the hell out of the experience of living in a central/eastern European city. Prague, the city that touches the stars! I won't expand upon to the variety of ways I pine for the timeless city, but I certainly trapped enough of the wonderful aspects, pictures and memories of Praha for me to make the longing all the more magnified and my separation more excruciating.

No regrets! 33 Tangerine Suns* is a gem. His/her charms inspired colleagues on my trip to document their experiences too (I think they still partake in the activity, even a year post-departure).  

Front cover of 33 Tangerine. It's difficult to make a move on the cover, but I find the gut and/or instinctual feelings to be the most reliable driving force when making aesthetic moves in and outside the journal.

It's a fact that making the first move and mark on a fresh and untarnished journal is an intimidating task. Taking time to "see the page within" is not as silly as I make it sound, but what you start with is the foundation for its proceeding pages, so it doesn't hurt to think before you write/glue/tape. 

and so,

May I advise...

when the time has come to make the first marks and entries in a journal, begin (at the earliest) on the face of the second page (not the back of the first page, no, not that "second" page).

The inner-cover and the first page make a wonderful aperitif when decorated with visuals over time that reveal the theme or relative images to the contents of your journal. 

For example, in the left image I combined....

Student metro passes, old friendship bracelet, a seal from a bottle of Becherovka, colorful clippings from tourist brochures, business cards of favored hang out destinations, flower petals, plane ticket stubs, passport photos, a drawing from a friend, and a chocolate wrapper.

Simple, meaningful or symbolic things I collect and collage into the work over 9 months of time.

also,

May I advise...

that you install one of these into your journal:

A lightweight memorabilia envelope

Here I cut an oatmeal bag in half and glued it to a page. I can save my charming little pieces of found paper for a later time. (I will have an entry on how to make a journal envelope from paper soon...)

Being abroad meant the occasional letter from loving family and friends. This particular arrival from my lady friend in Tucson was enchanting from the envelope to the contents of the letter (it got wet from the rain in Prague, and the marker writing bled a bit, but for an animating effect). 

When stored away, the letter is folded up  (the back of one of its quarters is glued to the journal page); when it is in action, it folds out while remaining in its place.

More samples from this traveled journal to come.

--------------------

*The "33" (as in 33 Tangerine Suns) comes from an enlightened moment in my education at the Anglo-American University (Anglo-americká vysoká škola). In the course Art as Inquiry Research, my little class read the Situationist Manifesto; being deep in the documentation of my travels, I found myself particularly drawn to #33:

Though separated from what they produce, people nevertheless produce every detail of their world with ever-increasing power. They thus also find themselves increasingly separated from that world. The closer their own creation, the more they are excluded from that life.     - Guy Debord

I found it to be fitting between 33 and I.

("Tangerine Suns" originates from the name of the journal print that Watermark Bindery makes.)

Salad Days

I would care to declassify that I lack credentials that state my word is bond on the subject of writing as a hobby; I have not gone to school for professional / creative / personal journaling, nor have I received official recognition of having been sworn into any field that recognizes Journaling as a "serious line of work". If all this were possible, if I could make at best a four figure salary by doing this play-work, I guess, the creative non-fiction experience might be cheapened?
We shall see...
As of now, My office is any surface in any coffee shop, bar, park picnic table, dry, well-ish lit, relaxed and secluded corner; the view is of my ever growing collection of Gelly Rolls, Le Pens, and .3 mm mechanical pencil [this and more, they can now stand alone in the reformed (clean) sock that lost its partner and now serves a noble purpose]. My work surface is acid-free, archival Paper from my trusty source of Fine Journals and Notebooks. I take my work and vacations simultaneously. I get hand cramps, but have never called in sick.

Here's a taste of what I do and what I'll refer to when informing prospective creative journalers and readers of my humble blog how to journal with flair:

Found images and notes

Metro map inserts and watercolored drawings

Many uses of transparent tape: flower pressing and paper hinging 

Limitless entry orientation and collaging

Street maps and hair/etc. how-to's

Event planning

First Things Burst!

Francesca Woodman, Self Portrait at 13 years old.

I'm finished, THROUGH! The silence that pro-lengthened my premiering post to the Writative Manners and the Mulberry Tree, it ENDS!/!! The Intra within 'intra-personal' replaces one vowel for another, switches letter positioning, and loses a hyphen et voila, helloo 'Interpersonal' ! Where clear articulation will (suddenly) matter and socially acceptable manners will separate the British from the Americans (but possibly bore the Eastern Europeans). But to hell with social conventions, I've been practicing my racy voice and figurative language for (at most) 15 years now and I'm very pleased to be here, at long last!

alors.

My name is Caitlin. In contrast to my relatively unsuccessful/flop-of-a-blog past attempts, Writative Manners is a journal and personal-writing blog that was conceived by a passion and results in creative communal action. & I'm not messing around! 

This is the real (creative, explorative, explosive) deal! I kid thee not. I wouldn't call me a professional on the subject, but by the enthusiastic responses that I receive from my family, friends (and even strangers) when I bring my beloved journals to the public's eye, I feel like a Journaling Guru! I thank my support group for boosting the ego of me and my craft. A considerable percentage of my life has been caught in this filter of non-acidic, archival, paper mulberry net, and if these...people are struck by the surface aesthetics, well I thank the gods that I made it so attractive looking that they don't actually read the material. Eek.

Well, dang. I am spent. I think the first entry is the hardest: Do I introduce myself? Should I get right to the meat, (will my mom be reading this?), can I actually pull this off? 

Luckily, I am seated in my most confident of pants (metaphorical ones, of course. This is Arizona I'm in, it's getting fuckin' hot! NO pants! Non!).

I'm ready, & I hope you will join me..

P.S. If there are any grammatical errors to report, will you see me after class? Teachers always have room for improvement. (That means you! Thesis writing friends! But finish your thesis' first, and then join me, in my journal writing dungeonss. (aka: cafes, bars and designated j.write-ful events)