Left: Photo of shelves with some of my recent visual journals. If you count down shelves from the top shelf where you see the “Cootie” game to shelves 4 and 5 you’ll see a lot of journals with slipcases. These are made with various cardstocks, corrugated cardboard (archival, found in a scrapbooking store), and painted watercolor papers (140 lb. weight). Click on the image to view an enlargement.

After selections from my journals appeared in Danny Gregory’s An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators and Designers several people asked me what type of questions readers of the book asked when they met me or contacted me via email or post.

The number one question people ask is “What do people ask?”

The next most frequent question is a series of questions all relating to media and paper. I tend to be interested in testing art supplies and this came across in the podcast interview Danny did of me as well so people like to ask me about materials and tools.

The surprising question, next in frequency, doesn’t have to do with my journal work at all, but rather relates to the physical journals themselves.

Danny included a photo of a shelf in my studio where the recent journals are kept. Ninety percent of the people who contact me about my work in Danny’s book ask the following question: How do you make slipcases for your journals? (or What are your slipcases made of?)

I thought it would be helpful to write about these cases, especially since a recent post about “unbound journals” raised some questions about cases.