A Delightful Journal

Feb 2

My husband and I went on a date this past week and visited some bookstores in our city. Bookstores, gift shops and art supply stores are a few of my favourite things.

I had a gift card to use up so when we wandered around Indigo (a bookstore) I was so delighted to find this journal (see the picture below) with it’s torn pages and delightfully artsy look. I totally just gravitated towards it.

I took it home and have been stealing a few moments here and there to discover how it takes watercolour. I really like it. There is no extra information about the paper so I do not know if it is acid free or archival but it is very absorbent and thankfully the watercolour doesn’t show through on the back of the page.

But I showed the journal to one of our sons who had quite the response. He said, “It looks broken! It looks like a sheet was torn. I wouldn’t buy that.” Ha ha. I laugh every time I think about this comment. Different personalities, right? I’m sure that many of you will understand my delight (wink).

At any rate, it has been lovely to feel its soft, imperfect pages and to discover how it holds up to watercolour. I will try some ink soon and see how that goes.

Just a side note here… just incase you are wondering about papers. Many papers perform differently due to how they are processed. Papers are made to have specific qualities and properties, such as being ideal for watercolour or made for mixed media. Some papers are smooth and others are textured. Sometimes your art supplies will bleed through the page and other times it won’t. So there is always a process of discovery when you try a new (to you) brand or new-to-you type of paper. It’s a bit like trying on a new sweater that you like but you’re not sure if you’ll find it as tolerable. It might end up being itchy. Lol. At other times it performs beyond your expectations!

As you can see above, it has wonderful torn edges and it features a coptic stitch spine. You can see the lovely cover in the photo below. It is simply the same paper but with this printed design.