A journal is like a second brain but also a peek into the owner's heart. wonder | wander | women love filling our notebooks with words, scraps and sketches. These journals aren't toys or hobbies - they are our lives and thoughts, set down on paper as they pass through our mind.
When wonder | wander | women were together in London back in 2023 we gave my room a glow-up and put away a lot of things...including one I didn't mean to leave for so long. I have several journals handmade by a dear friend from onionskin paper, which takes fountain pen ink and watercolour surprisingly well and also makes a delightful crinkly noise.
But somehow when we tidied up, the first journal got buried in a forgotten corner and I wasn't able to find it again for a long time. I finally rolled up my sleeves on the next decluttering day and after an extended slapstick comedy cleaning scene, was able to dig up this treasure.
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| Journal entry on Leonardo da Vinci and Marco Polo |
Looking through the journal spreads inspired me and brought up memories of recent years. The years since Covid first appeared have been incredibly strange and we could not have weathered them without a way to process our thoughts and emotions.
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| Journal entry about sending letters and postcards by mail |
More than a simple memory keeper though, this journal helped me develop a visual and tactile way of expressing myself. The textures of different paper layered over one another, the thin and flexible pages that accept card, packing tape, wax seals and different media so easily...I'm free to think with my hands and play around without worrying something will go wrong or look ugly.
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| Thoughts on my favourite animal, the peregrine falcon |
Even though I journal in two dimensions, mixed media artists like Nick Bantock and Joseph Cornell have influenced my art the most. This form of modern art emerged with Cubism and Dadaism, called "assemblage" because instead of relying on drawing or painting, you assemble different objects like newspaper clippings, twigs, toys or keys into a meaningful composition.
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| "Flight Checks" journal spread with boarding pass and old map |
Journal keepers everywhere love this method because although not everyone can paint or draw, you can still create art this way. Many enjoy "junk journaling" because it's a way to collect the ephemera of daily life - tickets, food wrappers, tourist maps - and turn it into a record of memories.
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| Journal entry on travelling around the US |
Of course I can paint and draw, so I love to mix my collages with illustrations. It's a more relaxed way of filling a sketchbook than straightforward illustration. I can work more on instinct, grabbing and assembling parts of the image instead of creating it all from scratch. I can also play with imagery, connecting my drawings with other pieces of art and even random patterns or objects.
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| Watercolour on fountain pen, with art stickers and washi tape |
When I paint with watercolour in this journal, the onionskin paper brings out textures and effects that I don't see in watercolour paper. The paper also warps and crinkles but stays strong and doesn't bleed, so the next page is ready for writing.
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| Journal entry about worldbuilding for comics |
Altogether these attributes make the onionskin journal my favourite. Flipping through the pages make me want to do more art, and making art makes me want to reread the journal. It's a joyful cycle that we know every journal keeper understands, and I'm glad I can keep going in this one again.
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