Junk and Journals

Staying sane in today's world by creating

I have so many thoughts about what is happening right now here in our free country that I have to take time out and do some mindless creative work.

I have not been painting now since late 2020. I know, I know, everyone says just do it. Well, I just don’t want to right now. That is not to say I won’t ever paint again, but right now I am limited on space.

I packed up my studio last year in anticipation of an imminent move but of course that didn’t happen and still has not happened. That is a fraught subject for its own post.

So, I set up a small table in the tiny front bedroom and fished out my glues and markers and Posca pens, and inks, and my stack of paper bins full of ephemera divided mostly by color. I love collage and it lends itself to junk journals.

Over the years I have been fascinated with journals made completely out of what is on hand. Some were made of cloth with stitched bits and embroidery. Some were made of twigs and bark and handmade paper. Still others were themed by subject or used premade stamps and inks. These junk journals seem very intimate and personal journeys of the makers. I have kept sketchbooks over the years that I filled with lines and shapes and colors. Every page its own being. I am a collector of art journals and sketchbooks. I have a box of unused or partially used sketchbooks that I have at the ready. Every country I went to, I would buy a souvenir sketchbook either from a museum gift shop or a local art store. I currently also have an old container that belonged to my in-laws for files that now has all the little books they had for budgets, travel miles, or even recipes. I also have the angsty journals I wrote over the years from age 19 to 30 of all that went on and they are horrifying to read now but the books are so nice! I covered some in lace, one in rabbit fur, some in leather. Others have Kahlil Gibran sayings throughout. All of these will eventually become junk journals with the writings and ledgers becoming background for other things.

I also collect stickers and old stamps, bits of ribbon and string, old tags from clothes.

Anything can be a part of a junk journal and the more the merrier. I have a bag of ticket stubs and airplane tickets. I make envelopes out of scrapbook papers. I add washi tape and old cards and postcards. Anything can make it in the book.

I sometimes start with watercolor and acrylic ink washes on the paper I make the folios from. Other times I use store bought books and because their paper is not heavy duty, I distress them a lot with paint and tea stains. These books end up with broken binding and have to be held together with string or ribbons. I make books with folios or fold out pages. I make covers for the books with scrapbook papers.

It is all engrossing and pretty useless! I wouldn’t sell them. It gives me a time to simply put things together and create something. I did make an interactive junk journal for my grandson. It all seems crazy, and time consuming, yet what is my time for? Doom scrolling? Worry? Anxiety?

So, I am including all the photos I took the other day of the junk journals I have done and am working on. I hope you enjoy them. I also hope you don’t try too hard to understand the way my mind works while crafting these things. It could make you crazy!!! Enjoy…..