The idea origin: nowhere but my mind!

To what I believe is the first of its kind ever (I think, I’ve never seen it anywhere else!), it just dawned upon me one day- “what if I combined watercolour papers in the first half, and sketch papers in the second half of my sketchbook?”. Why? Because I paint some times, and I sketch other times, and deciding which sketchbook to tag along with me (and getting it wrong) is frustrating. Nor do I want to start sketching on watercolour paper just because that’s all I have on me.

I was so excited about the idea that I immediately started cutting up watercolour papers and Bristol Boards to size. In the afternoon scorching heat of my bindery, on my work table, I started creasing and folding them, and sewing them together to form this new hybrid sketchbook that I have never seen elsewhere. To differentiate it from the Watercolour or Sketch sketchbooks (shameless plug: you can buy these in my shop), I had these beautiful dark grey Japanese canvas that I knew would look amazing to form the sketchbook cover.

And now for the imprinting. I have ‘watercolour’ and ‘sketch’ already imprinted on the front covers of the respective sketchbooks. What would convey the sense of artistic nature of someone who loves to express themselves artistically in more than one form of medium? (Do not be offended, I do not actually mean that you are less of an artist if you only prefer one form of medium). But the term ‘the artist’ is so simplistic, would look gorgeous on the cover, that I decided that’s what I would love to have imprinted. And let’s not forget that signature gorgeous bright RED (being my favourite colour) Japanese elastic band to finish it off.

When it was finally completed, I was extremely pleased with the final result. The view from the sides, where the watercolour paper ends and the sketch paper begins, reminds me of a delicious and beautiful layer cake! It came so well together, half white, half ivory, fully unique. My thought?- I just cannot wait to get these sketchbooks out there for folks to give it a go.

I am pretty sure you’ll be pleased with it, but do let me know if you enjoy creating in them as I do in creating them! You can find ‘the artist’ hybrid handmade sketchbooks and other range of sketchbooks in my webstore.