Pencil Case

Since I need to travel soon, I thought I would like to take a traveller’s notebook with me as well as a pencil case to carry what I need. The only 'portable' pencil case I have is a small leather cylinder that used to belong to my husband. It is beautiful and has a nice patina from having been used for so many years.

Still, a cylinder is not so easy to pack, I found, and so I started to look for a flat pencil case. As I always seem to do, I visited Morgan LeFae's Trinkets shop (link on the left) and I found just what I was looking for. OK, I have to admit, I did have that case in my mind for a long time and now was the right time to get it...

I am used to the thick leather that Monique uses for the traveller's notebooks and this one was, of course, thinner for flexibility but it was still of exquisite quality. The colour I chose was dark chocolate (yummy!) and it matches so well my original traveller's notebook that I also got from Monique. It is absolutely stunning and so convenient: it can be opened completely and tied to one of the elastic bands of the traveller's notebook for better portability.

I cannot wait to start travelling and take the pencil case for a 'test drive'!

Broadening My Horizons

When I created this blog, I had in mind to just share pictures of the drawings and paintings I did, just so that it would be easier for me to show people who might be interested to see what I can do and have everything gathered in one place. It started as a very bird centric blog and then I expanded it to people once I completed the 29 Faces Challenge.

At this point, I decided that a change of name and image was in order. I'm not incredibly gifted when it comes to web designing (although back in the 90's I was able to make a really kitschy website with lots of flashing icons in my sleep). These times have changed and I now rely heavily on whatever tools Blogger has at hand to make this electronically suitable for this day and age.

The changes were made and then I started adding links to my favourite pages and shops. I have 'met' all of these people and I have formed some good relationships with them. Make sure to check them out on the left hand column.

The first person I added was Ray Hendrix from R.M. Noble Designs who does professional logos for companies, clubs, t-shirts. He even designed the logo for my translation company and I am forever grateful for that. He managed to capture what I was about while still maintaining a strong professional appearance.

The second link is for Morgan LeFae's Trinkets. Monique is the maker of stunning traveller’s notebooks. The trend started with the company Midori that was making some minimalistic leather covers that could house several notebooks at once. Monique took the style further and now creates true works of art. Check out her shop and web page on the left hand side to have an idea of what her creations look like and how versatile they are.

The last link (for now) is of a publishing company called Creativia. They have released some really great novels in many genres on Amazon, many of which have gone on to become best sellers. It's definitely worth the detour to discover some new favourite authors (my favourite novel so far is Apparition Lake by Doug and Daniel D. Lamoreux).

I have therefore decided to not only publish my latest artworks but to also share book reviews and talk about my ever-lasting love of traveller's notebooks. So expect to see a lot of variation in the next few posts!

The Deadpool Traveler's Notebook Project - Part 2

LMC TN - Almost finished!

Little leather charm I made for the LMC TN

A6 TN that will be called Lil Wade (front)

A6 TN that will be called Lil Wade (back)

One on top of the other

From top to bottom: Lil Wade, natural leather A6 TN, Big Wade, Original Morgan LeFae's Trinkets LMC

All filled with notebooks

This was quite a journey and I learned a lot on leather and how to use it. I doubt I have learned everything there is to learn about it but it's still a very good start:

- Already treated leather is REALLY hard to work on and modify, ever after filing it...
- Markers seem to suddenly die when they are used on treated leather...
- I can use kitchen scissors to cut leather circles!
- A 50 Cent coin is the right size to make a charm.
- China ink is a good replacement for markers although many layers are needed.

I wanted to wait for a while before I completed the red LMC TN (Big Wade) because I originally wanted to do a lot of sketching inside the cover but because it was so time consuming and more or less pointless to do this on a treated surface, I have given up on the idea. One thing that I wouldn't mind trying is spray paint. I would create a stencil and then spray some paint all over. Ideally, if I'm skilled enough and if the spray paint sticks to the leather, I would love to do something like this across the front and back cover of Big Wade:

That would look pretty amazing!

However, if I do that, I will have to wait for the summer to do that so that I can do this outdoors. So watch this space as there may be more to come at a later date!

The Deadpool Traveler's Notebook Project - Part 1

Before going to see the Deadpool movie and since discovering that you can actually use markers on leather, I had been thinking about making myself a traveller's notebook (TN for short) in red with some Deadpool illustrations. I wanted to do one in large Moleskine size (LMC) and so I started to take some measurements. I already have one TN in LMC size from Morgan LeFae'sTrinkets and I really love how the size is so portable and still big enough to doodle, paint and write. When I measured my TN it was slightly bigger than A4 size by half a centimetre. The difference was too big to just wing it with an A4 piece of leather and I definitely needed something bigger. So I looked for the next size, which is A3 and once I did some calculations, I figured out I could definitely pull off an LMC TN as well as an A6 one!

I went to all the textile and furniture shops that I could find in my town and the general answer I got was that it was difficult to find the thickness of leather I needed for my project.

So I turned to eBay and found what I was looking for.

I ordered my leather and when it arrived, I noticed that the 'inside' of the leather was not suede, like I usually see on other pieces of leather and discovered later that the top side was also treated and polished.

My project isn't finished yet but I wanted to post a few pictures of what it's looking like so far.

Back side of the piece of leather. Completely waxed!

Right side, looking really bright!

The 2 A6's

After the drawing

Both the A6 (top) and the LMC (bottom)

I guess I should have known that the top side was waxed but the penny didn't drop until I started drawing on it and that the marker started to go all funny and stopped working all together. I finished the drawing with some China ink and this morning it's looking slightly sticky. I would love to do a little Deadpool logo in the back of the leather and maybe also write Deadpool above the main drawing but first, I'm going to have to test on the leftover bits of leather.

I'm planning on cleaning the leather with some acetone and then using a file to make it a bit rough. I wonder how it's going to look once I finish to use the file... I hope the paint is not going to leave the drawing. But if it gives it an edgy style, I might try it on the LMC...

Watch this space for more updates!

Decorating my Nerdmaids

Since I have received my two Nerdmaids, I have been using them a lot. Well, I have been using mostly the light one and I have added the Hobonichi Cousin for 2016 to Nerdmaid Dark and I'm waiting for January 1st to start using it on a daily basis.

I use my regular Nerdmaid for journaling mainly and I'm applying the One Book July challenge for the month of November. Since I'm doing more writing than sketching, I need to always have one pen at hand at all times. Until today, I had simply placed the pen inside the book and closed the TN with the elastic band and it was working although denting the inside pages a bit.

So today I went stationery shopping and I bought some self-adhesive pen loops by Leuchtturm. I had used them once for my dark brown TN by Morgan LeFae's Trinkets and it was working well.

I used some scrapbook paper that I placed behind the notebooks and where I attached the pen loop.

Back of the scrapbook page

So I went scrapbook paper hunting and after looking at many shops, I finally found some beach themed paper among all the Christmas paper. I also found some pen loops in different shades of blue (there were at least 3 different shades that I saw in the shop!) and I went to work. Here is the result:

And a last family photo for the road!

Nerdmaids

A few months ago, I was feeling very low and I was missing the Ocean. Until I left the nest, I had been spending my life by the Ocean. Then, because I had to find a job and I wanted to travel, I left the Ocean to go to an island (England). I spent a few years there and then ended up on the continent.

This spring, I was beginning to feel low and as time went by, I was getting more and more depressed because I was missing the Ocean. I went to my favourite shop in town which also happens to be a crystal shop and I had a heart to heart with the lady who was working there. It turns out that we both had this in common: missing our Oceans. She had already remedied this and made a trip back home to recharge her batteries. 

Since I was a few weeks away from going back home myself, I decided to express my love for the Ocean by doing the one thing I could: draw. Of course, I had to combine my love of the Ocean with my love of all things Geek (namely Marvel's Avengers and namely Captain America). 

I had been admiring the works of an excellent illustrator called Melissa Ballesteros Parada. If you haven't checked her artwork, feel free to head on over to her FB page. She draws beautiful pin up girls that look both cute and gorgeous.  I am not usually a fan of pin up girls who look very intimidating and unapproachable but Melissa's ladies are quite the opposite.

Channeling Melissa's style, I drew my very first pin up mermaid or Nerdmaid as one of my friends calls her, and it looked something like this:

My mermaid or 'Nerdmaid'

Once I was done, although I was very pleased with the result, I decided that it wasn't enough and I had to do something more. 

One thing I love as much as drawing is stationery. My favourite type is something called a Midori Traveler's Notebook (TN). It's a type of leather cover with a system of elastic bands where you can attach 2 or more notebooks, so you can have one notebook per subject and once a notebook is finished, you just have to replace it with a new one.

The leather covers offered by Midori are hugely popular among many stationery addicts but the covers are either brown or black. So that doesn't leave a lot of choice for colour (or size, since the original Midori covers come in 2 of their own format: regular and passport).

A couple of years back, just when I was getting into leather covers, I came across an Etsy type shop (DaWanda) and one seller in particular was making her own covers and it was even possible to get a specific size custom made. I had one made so that it could fit large Moleskine notebooks. It was stunning. The quality of the leather was excellent and you could see that it had been made with love and dedication.

So when I created my mermaid, I immediately thought of this artist who had made my original cover. This artist is Morgan Le Faes Trinkets. I immediately contacted Monique (the artist who makes all the beautiful covers) and I asked her whether it was possible to reproduce my Nerdmaid onto a leather cover. I was aware that my painting was very detailed and that it might not be possible to get everything in. One thing I changed from my original drawing was to ditch the shell the mermaid is sitting on and to add a shell at the back of the leather cover.

During the process, Monique advised me that she had made a mistake with the background colour and she had forgotten the banner. She immediately redid the cover and I was extremely lucky to be sent both covers. I was so excited when I got the package that I took many pictures and here they are:

It's here!!!

Each TN was individually wrapped

Nerdmaid Dark

Inside cover of Nerdmaid Dark

Leaflet with some info about the TN

Leaflet with some info about the TN

Nerdmaid Dark with the elastic off!...

The Nerdmaid I had in mind!

Nerdmaid with elastic off!...

Inside cover of Nerdmaid

Both Nerdmaid side by side, looking gorgeous

Note by Monique with some extra goodies and replacement elastic bands and metallic bits

Both Nerdmaids and my original TN by Monique

Back covers

Sea shell at the back

Sea shell at the back

To say that I was pleased with the result would be the understatement of the century... Both covers look absolutely stunning and they both came with their hand made notebook.

I honestly cannot recommend Monique's work strongly enough. Not only does she use top quality leather and does amazing preparation and artwork, but the most important thing is that it is so easy to communicate with Monique and to share ideas with her. I am not aware of many shops that have the flexibility to accommodate as much as Monique does.

If this review tempted you to get your own cover or if you want even more info, check out the following links:

- Monique's blog: http://morganlefaestrinkets.com/

- Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MorganLeFaesTrinkets?fref=ts

- Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MorganLeFaesTrinkets