Making and Keeping Creative Journals

by Suzanne J.E. Tourtillott

“Through extensive line-art illustration and full-color photographs of custom journals, it encourages the artist and record-keeper within you.”— RubberStampMadness. “Imaginative crafters...will find projects here for 15 journals constructed from a variety of materials. Public libraries will welcome this to their crafts collections.”— Library Journal. “A mouthwatering menu of intriguing one-of-a-kind journals, whimsical to historical.”— Tabellae Ansatae.

Genres: Crafts, Nonfiction, Journaling, Art, Writing

128 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2001

About the author

Suzanne Tourtillott was born in post-war Germany but lives and works, happily, in Asheville, North Carolina. After studying and then teaching fine art and commercial photography, she turned to writing arts journalism for periodicals and, ultimately, to writing and editing craft books. Suzanne has edited more than 50 titles in jewelry, ceramics, needle crafts--even poetry. Her business/Twitter is @editorious; see the site at http://editorious.org and tweets via #editorious. you can follow Suzanne's visual interests on Pinterest (pinning as username suzanne33).

Reviews

[Chris]

I enjoyed looking at the drawings and pictures of bookbinding and the artistic journal projects created for the book. I remain unconvinced about using two leather work gloves to bind a journal (or book of any sort).

[Karin Bartimole]

This book includes instructions for 15 different book projects - from a gardeners journal to travel journal. Each is beautifully photographed and the reader is led through fairly good instructions for creating the books pictured. These books are mostly for the advanced student though and could be frustrating to a beginner.
Included are statements from the artists who originally created the individual books, as well as the journaler - the person who filled the books, describing how they used them - which was interesting to get to see.

As a book artist, I found this book to be fun and inspiring to go through and I return to it again and again.

[rumbledethumps]

The first section of this book is great. It gives you a good overview of basic materials, and some basic techniques. The diagrams are clear and not at all confusing, which seems to be a common problem in other books in this genre. One complaint: while learning the coptic binding, my daughter and I were able to put the book together, but the lesson seemed to end early. There were no instructions on how to finish the binding and tie the loose thread off.

The projects section felt a bit too advanced compared to the basic instructions in the first section, so I'm not sure who the target audience for the book is. It was as if we were told how to scramble some eggs in the first section, then told to make a souffle in the second section. It seemed there were steps missing between basic instruction and the projects included.

Overall, though, the first section is good enough to recommend this book to beginners, and the second section creative enough to recommend to more advanced book makers.

[Virginia Pulver]

All journals are NOT created equally. This how-to book provides the reader with wonderful insights on how to create handmade journals that reflect the needs of the intended recipients. Those who simply use a journal to record happenings or to write memoirs or to summarize a special trip certainly have different needs than those who journal with paint or collect ephemera or who plan to use a journal to create plans for quilting projects. I enjoyed the author's thoughtful suggestions. I also enjoyed the images of how specific journals were used to reflect meaningful details. I have a greater appreciation into the many details involved in this lovely occupation.

[Linda]

Creating the journal in which to write and sketch is a wonderful means of expressing oneself. Suzanne Tourtillott's book is informative in the process of journal making; it is also filled with good examples of journals made and includes the artists' own statements as to the thought behind the process. A person returns time and again for inspiration and ideas.

[Lori]

This is a great read for those who journal and/or for those who like to create journals. Personally, I like to fill journals with words and drawings, so I am interested in the writing portion. The book contains interesting quotes by famous writers and ways to make beautiful journals. It's an inspiring read!

[Tamela]

This was really a skim read but very informative with lots of creative ideas.

[Diane]

favorite favorite journal is the painters journal on p.69 - leather wrap around.

[N.L. Riviezzo]

Some inspiring ideas but the section on materials and how to assemble your own creative journal needed a bit more fleshing out.