[Ghilayne]

Creativity seems to grab me when I'm at my bread&butter job and supposed to be focused on that instead of clay! However, I keep a little notebook and jot things down in that. It's one of the heavy-duty sorts that Barnes & Noble carries with the thick wire binding, heavy cardboard covers (usually nicely decorated) and thick paper that doesn't mind being erased or having correction fluid slathered on it. These little notebooks are usually inexpensive; some have lined paper, some don't. I prefer the lined paper since I'm a wreck with drawing, and at least if one side is straight, between scribble and written description, the idea stays reconizable.

[Idaho Potter]

I have two notebooks. The studio form is a small bookkeeping ledger that was hanging around--I liked the size of it. It has horizontal lines (that I use) and vertical lines (that I ignore). I have indexed sections so I have a (30% --??) chance of finding the note again without re-reading everything. House notebook is a steno tablet which has horizontal lines plus one vertical line bisecting each page. I have no idea how old this tablet is. Are there people alive who even know what a steno is? Oh, oh, showing my age again. Some pages just have Post-It notes stuck to them.

[Ghilayne]

Idaho Potter, on 22 May 2011 - 07:25 PM, said:

House notebook is a steno tablet which has horizontal lines plus one vertical line bisecting each page. I have no idea how old this tablet is. Are there people alive who even know what a steno is? Oh, oh, showing my age again.

Oh dear. A steno is not a what, so much as a who. A steno pad is that specific sort of notebook used by a stenographer, someone who can write in short-hand. There are various versions of shorthand... and yes, there are still some of us alive who can read and write it (You're really just teasing in asking this question, right?). Anyway, steno pads have remained popular even though the day of dictation to a person has long passed to dictating to a machine -- and on the verge of moving to the sort of machine that doesn't need a human to then listen and transcribe. Why is the little notebook so popular? Who knows. But for me, it's just the right size to take with me, the covers are hard enough to act as a clip board, and the line down the middle is list-making-licious.

[Chris Campbell]

I use mostly unlined books ... Art paper ones from craft stores ... Large one in the studio, small ones for travel.
Lined ones only if I am somewhere I need to take notes.

I remember an artist I saw while on vacation ... without any theatrics, he pulled out a small watercolor set, tiny water jar and paper and started to paint the scene we were watching. Just a quick sketch for later, but how lovely to watch him capture the moment that way.

[Up in Smoke Pottery]

Typically, all my firing and workshop notes are jotted down on printer paper on a clipboard, and typed later. Any sketches are scanned in. For random ideas when out and about, I enter them into the note app on my phone and can access them when i need them or add them to the computer journal.

[Seasoned Warrior]

Up in Smoke Pottery, on 25 May 2011 - 03:36 AM, said:

Typically, all my firing and workshop notes are jotted down on printer paper on a clipboard, and typed later. Any sketches are scanned in. For random ideas when out and about, I enter them into the note app on my phone and can access them when i need them or add them to the computer journal.

Being the dinosaur that I am I use an engineering field book (engineering supply) , sewn in, hardbound, with waterproof paper ruled on one page and graph paper on the opposite page. Moleskine makes a very similar book and available in most stationery stores. I keep the books in chronological order and save them forever. It works for me YMMV!

Regards,
Charles

[Denice]

HerbNorris, on 21 May 2011 - 04:33 PM, said:

a notebook.
Please describe what kind of notebook you use, where you get it, and whether or not it has lined paper.

I usually use unlined sketch books, but for NECA or seminars I spiraled wired a lined notebook and sketch book together. For other outings I have a small sketch book that fits in my purse and I always carry pencils, eraser and a pencil sharpener with me. I can never tell when I might get a quiet moment or be inspired. Denice

[Lucille Oka]

HerbNorris, on 26 May 2011 - 03:35 PM, said:

Right now most of my ideas come to me on my couch at one a.m. and later (earlier?) I am drawing and making notes on blank paper punched to fit in a three ring binder.
I have to admit, some of my earlier efforts from three or four years ago look kind of naive/amatuerish, so I don't know if I could save these pages forever, they might be too embarassing! Course, it is a good way to see your growth, and development of ideas through the ages.
I shall have to look into the engineering notebooks ("Look into", get it? Haha!) and also keeping notes on my iTouch when i'm oot and aboot.
Does anyone ever go back and make anything they have drawn two or three years ago? I find I am always most interested in what is going on now, so I never revisit my earlier sketches with the REAL intention to make any of it.
Then why do I do it?

I go back all the time. I have given myself an involved method of creating vessel designs. First I sketch vessel ideas on pieces of copy paper torn into quarter size pieces. On the backs and fronts of these pieces of paper I put notes including but not limited to size, colors, patterns, etc,. After I have accumulated a few of them I proceed to draft formal proportionate templates of the sketches.

From the template I make a numbered work sheet. I include more detailed information and variations, if any. I glue the original sketch to the back of the work sheet. The work sheet image is copied and reduced to 25% and placed in a numerical catalog by categories such as lidded vessels, bowls, etc. I can then take a quick glance at my designs when I am ready to make ware and I choose from them.

[Lucille Oka]

HerbNorris, on 01 June 2011 - 08:32 AM, said:

Thanks, Lucille, maybe I should look into adopting your system, or customizing it, then I could get more work out!

You're welcome. The idea of the catalog I got from readings about Thomas Chippendale (1718-1780) the furniture maker and Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) the architect both having had product catalogs. It seemed to me a splendid idea for my ceramic ware.

[Marcia Selsor]

I have lots of notebooks. I like the small black hardback type with a pencil loop that travels well in a purse. I take it to museums, on travels etc. It is always good to make notes of experiences. When I do residencies I keep a journal also. No lines. I have many of these on the book shelf in my office. Lots of them.
Marcia

[TheSmartCat]

I love notebooks and sketchbooks. I keep a small graph moleskin book in my bag at all times. (I enjoy drawing on graph paper, hate lined books for drawing.) Because I do so many quick sketches on various sized paper I have a 9x12 portfolio. I also have in my studio a larger dedicated book for a year long project I am doing. I love the feel of pencil, pen and/or brush on paper.

[Idaho Potter]

Yes, Ghilayne, I was teasing. Secretaries have been renamed Administrative Assistants, and shorthand is almost as lost as Sanskrit. I actually started looking for all my past notebooks after this thread started and low and behold my steno books keep my words (impressions of mine and other works or happenings), but most of my drawings have been done on newspaper art pads--most of them with Mickey Mouse on the covers. Found out something else I didn't realize, my pot shapes come from doodling, my sculptures from words. Strange.

[MadMudder]

For workshops I use whatever notebook I happen to have on hand. As far as drawing ideas, i can't draw at all.

An excellent pottery coach in Oregon, Kurtis Piltz tried to make me draw what I wanted to make. I just could not do it. My brain works it out and then it just sort of shows up in the clay.

I love coloring books though, I get so many ideas from them. Good coloring books with great designs like you find at art stores.

Take those designs and see what they turn into on a piece.

Pictures make great references. My kids have taken all our cameras. My husband does television production and yet we don't have a still camera that works well.

GRRRRRRR

Beth

[Kabe]

HerbNorris, on 26 May 2011 - 06:35 PM, said:

Right now most of my ideas come to me on my couch at one a.m. and later (earlier?) I am drawing and making notes on blank paper punched to fit in a three ring binder.
I have to admit, some of my earlier efforts from three or four years ago look kind of naive/amatuerish, so I don't know if I could save these pages forever, they might be too embarassing! Course, it is a good way to see your growth, and development of ideas through the ages.
I shall have to look into the engineering notebooks ("Look into", get it? Haha!) and also keeping notes on my iTouch when i'm oot and aboot.
Does anyone ever go back and make anything they have drawn two or three years ago? I find I am always most interested in what is going on now, so I never revisit my earlier sketches with the REAL intention to make any of it.
Then why do I do it?

I am making a chess set that has rattled around in my head since college, just to get it out of my head, The edges are smoother now, kind of like a rock tumbler i guess. and I don't even play chess. I just liked the idea and there are a few other ideas that might be fun, left over from note taking during a english class. For me college was a while back. happy firing kabe

[buckeye]

since my sketches look like a kid scribbling I have to throw from memory of an Idea. If I want to take pottery related notes and I am out and about I use my I-phone. If I am home I have a place on my computer where I keep all the notes.

[SShirley]

I use a sketchbook for sketching (go figure) but I also keep a composition book (like the ones used in Chemistry Class - where the pages are sewn in) to keep track of various things I think I'll need again, like a particular motif - I will sketch it put and add notes about what glazes go where. I also use that book to keep records of firing schedules, results and other stuff that I need to remember. I keep it on the shelf on top of my glazes. I have a really big purse with a small sketchbook, just in case I am blasted with inspiration while I'm away from the studio. I also like to have a small notebook next to the bed to write down things that come to me in the night.

[Pres]

HerbNorris, on 21 May 2011 - 04:33 PM, said:

a notebook.
Please describe what kind of notebook you use, where you get it, and whether or not it has lined paper.

Notebooks? Use all sorts of sketchbooks and paper. All so often an idea rattles around in my head until it finally takes form, sometimes it is convenient and I have a sketchbook, sometimes it is not and I just grab anything to keep from losing the idea. In the end the back of the placemat, the paper towel, bit of lined paper or whatever is folded up put in a pocket until I get home to redraw it. The originals get kept often as they are usually better than the copy. At times, if I am really having a rough time I will do it out on the computer in either a 3D program or a 2D drafting program-Corel Draw is mine of choice at it has measuring tools that allow the figuring of angles and any length in inches, feet, millimeters or what ever. These are pretty easy to learn, and in the end if the idea is complicated-time saving.