Friday 14 June 2013

Review: 'Making and Keeping Creative Journals'

Making and Keeping Creative Journals, by Suzanne Tourtillott, 2001, Lark Books, $24.95, hardbound, 128 pages. Category/Genre: how-to/crafts. Cover: quite good. Where we got it: borrowed it. Where you can get it: Amazon, Barnes and Noble. 


This book begins by discussing some of the reasons people keep journals, including for health (Tourtillott says journaling with the purpose of making sense of difficult events and emotions helps lower blood pressure), to record a journey (internal or external), for insight, to chronicle events for future generations, and for creative expression.

The author also discusses how to write a visual journal; here one may use photos, memorabilia, magazine reproductions, and personal artwork to express oneself. No-one but you needs to see it, so it doesn't have to be of professional quality.

With the idea that making one's own journal will enrich the journal keeping process, Tourtillott teaches the reader how to make his own journal with various materials.

Several projects follow. Most of the projects for this book were a collaboration between a journaler with a hobby or interest, and a book artist. There's a travel journal, which is durable and portable, with unlined pages; a dream journal with a Coptic binding to make the pages lie flat; poet's journals, the smaller of which is pocket-sized; a gardener's journal with a weather-resistant cover; and many more. 

There's a handy glossary and a small index at the back of the book.

If you like this one, try: Suggestions?  

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