Studio Journal

Life Update | 7.27.25

Back to Studio Journal

It’s been about 3 weeks now since I left what I consider the big social media apps (Instagram & TikTok). I know this is Tumblr so it’s, technically, social media, but I’m in much more control over what I see & interact with so I think it’ll be better for me. Still let me get some form of social exposure so my family doesn’t think I’ve been committed (yet!).

Work

I have a work retreat to Minneapolis on Tuesday that I’m nervous for. It’s been years since I’ve flown, and this is my first time meeting my coworkers since we all work remote. Nervous but still looking forward to it. Mainly because there’s an indigenous restaurant right by the hotel that I’m really excited to try.

They had us submit something for a time capsule they’re doing this year that we’ll be opening up at next years retreat. I had no idea what to include for my part of the time capsule, so I just sent a photo of the journal entry above. IDK, I felt it was good enough for a time capsule & I didn’t want to think about it any longer that I had to.

Life

Got a haircut. That’s about it.

Projects

I don’t think I’ve really posted about my current project much in the past. Essentially, I’m working on making a leather journal, similar to Traveler’s Notebook, Louise Carmen, & Paper Republic. Although the one I’m working on has some key changes to it that make it better suited for how I use this notebook system. That includes:

• Extra leather to have a spine for larger notebooks
• Side-by-side elastics rather than top-bottom elastics
• Extra leather for some overhang to protect the edges of the inserts when the notebook is full
• Rounded corners
• Beveled edges
• Better sealed flesh on the interior
• Burnished (& possibly painted) edges

I’m still workshopping a name for this project, but I think I’m going to go with Project Horizon. Kinda corny, but I love the idea of that name since it’s a traveler’s notebook, & I think of these notebooks as a way to expand the horizons of not just the world, but our own emotions and mind. Maybe I’m overthinking it.

But I’ve made decent progress, & will work on it some more once I’m back from my trip. But I’ve finished two prototypes so far; Galileo & Tabei.

Galileo

Galileo is just cardstock with some cheap elastic cord from Michaels. It’s size for an A6 notebook, which I’m not sure why I did that since I don’t have any A6 notebooks to test it, but the measurements all line up so it should be the proper size. It was sized with a 50mm spine width, with 4 elastics, doubling what’s usually available in notebooks like this. Although I did find that I can shrink the spine width down to 40mm, it just had more space than needed to fit the grommets for the elastic holes.

Tabei

Tabei is A5 sized, which is good because I was able to actually test it with the notebooks I have, and they fit great! I did shrink the spine width down to 40mm for this prototype, and it worked just fine for what I was needing. It did only fit 3 hardcover A5 notebooks, but I think that’s because they were hardcover, so they had a lot more bulk to them. There was also about 1cm of overhang of cardstock over the edges of the books, when there should be only 5mm. This may have just been because it’s cardstock and not leather, so I won’t make any adjustments from the sizing when I make my first leather prototype.

That’s really all that I have for now. I’m sleepy, so I’m just posting this & going to bed. Goodnight!