Ninth Wave Designs

The Nerdier Side of NWD: Guilded Lilies.

The Ninth Wave Design weblog has a new sister.  I recently launch a second blog, called Guilded Lilies, as an opportunity to explore some of the nerdier interests of NWD. Nerdier, you ask?  What could be nerdier than graph paper you think?  My interests run far and wide, but quite a few of them cluster around the area of computer technology and computer games. My Typepad account generously offers the possibility of up to three separate blogs, so I felt it was a good time to start blogging about these other areas that interest me.  There are many geekish topics I would enjoy exploring, and rather than make the focus of the NWD blog wider, especially since things seem to be working just fine here, I decided to try my hand at another blog.  This won't make for less posts on NWD, but it will give some of you with similar interests a little more content from outside of the Moleskine Universe - okay maybe not entirely outside the Moleskine Universe, but from a neighboring galaxy at least.

Here is an excerpt from the inaugural post on Guilded Lilies: Grown Women Playing Games:

"Guilded Lilies is my newest blog project designed to explore the unique experience of being a grown woman playing computer games. Let's face it, computer gaming is a man's world, or better yet, a boy's world.  At this stage in the development of computer games we, as grown women, are still visitors in a strange land.  Most of us like it there, like it enough to spend hours at our computer monitors every week, so this is not about complaining.  Perhaps like me though, you have found yourself wondering about these fantasy worlds created, for the most part, from an entirely male perspective."

If this sort of thing interests you then make a visit to Guilded Lilies and leave me a comment to let me know what you think.  I am looking forward to hearing from you on the other side of the NWD universe.

Desperately Seeking St. Anthony

On my list of New Year's resolutions, the very first one was to write or sketch something on every page of my daily diary. Now that January is coming to an end I can report that I am 1/12 of the way to achieving this goal, having something on every page for the whole month.  I realized soon after beginning my 2006 diary that I needed to be a little lenient in my interpretation of what that first resolution meant. Rather than forcing myself to fill one page on each exactly corresponding day, I allow myself to fill more than one page a day if the urge strikes, and to skip days and then go back and fill them on another day when I feel I have something compelling to write about.  My approach is to never face the blank page with a feeling of obligation.  This more relaxed method to Daily Diary filling has been much more successful for me, and compared to the months of empty pages in my 2005 daily diary, my 2006 diary has a nice full feeling to it already.

Here is an excerpt from my Moleskine Pocket Daily Diary from January 13th:

"I was changing the sheets on my bed when I spied a little metal object that had fallen into the crack between the bed frame and the wall.  It was my pocket size statue of St. Anthony in his little nutshell of a metal container.  This made me wonder: Who finds St. Anthony when he gets lost?

I found this tiny item last summer in the local antique store, a secret little man in a secret little tin.  It looks like the kind of thing a spy would stash stolen microfilm in, in a Get Smart kind of way.  But when you open it up there is this tiny metal statue of St. Anthony holding an even smaller baby Jesus in his arms.  It is such a small thing to be the object of so much potential devotion, a secret of faith to carry in ones pocket, a thing so easily lost." 

Moleskine Watercolor Sketchbook Test-Drive

I had a chance to take the new pocket size Moleskine Reporter Watercolor Sketchbook for a test-drive, and here are my first results.  I did these first few pages along the lines of my Alchemy Notebook that I have been working on in my Classic Moleskine Sketchbook, and I am happy with the results.

The pages in the Watercolor Sketchbook are naturally an entirely different experience from the Classic Sketchbook pages.  The watercolor paper is 25% rag, so handles a little differently from the 100% rag paper I am used to working on, and has a nice cold pressed surface that is toothy but not too rough.  The weight is 200 grams per square meter, and seems comparable to 90lb watercolor paper (although I haven't done the math). 

I did these paintings using liquid acrylic inks diluted to watercolor consistency.  I haven't painted with actual watercolor paints in this notebook yet, that will be the next test I do.  I went with the liquid acrylics because that is what I have been working with most lately, so I felt it would make for the most immediate comparison.  I found the results to be very good, and I find the surface of the paper to be very pleasing to work with.  The sizing is good without being too stiff, so the paper is absorbent without bleeding the colors.  There was no bleed-through to the other side, so you will have the option of painting on either side of the page, especially if you don't intend of removing the pages for framing.

The pages curl a bit and buckle when they dry.  This is a common behavior for watercolor paper, but I found that this could be easily fixed by inserting a few sheets of scrap paper on either side of the painted page (as blotters) while the page was still damp, and putting the closed notebook (with blotter sheets inside) under a stack of books until the page was dry.  As this watercolor sketchbook fills up it will have a nice worked-in feeling, with slightly rumpled pages giving it a bulk of having something interesting inside.

As I said in my earlier post, this sketchbook is not the same animal as the Classic Sketchbook.  You will find a place in your work-style for both these formats, so there isn't any real one-to-one comparison to be made between these two sketchbook styles.  This little pocket Watercolor Sketchbook begs to be taken out with a set of traveling watercolors, and will provide a lot of creative freedom for painting in any location.   I will continue to use my Classic Sketchbook for all the things I have been doing, but the new Watercolor Sketchbook will be a great creative companion as well.

I have added these new pages to the NWD Moleskine Gallery, and you can see larger versions of the individual pages by clicking HERE.

New Moleskine Notebook Styles: A Lesson in Patience.

The new Moleskine Reporter Watercolor Notebook, which was originally slated for release next month, has had its release date shifted to sometime in April (read: May).   Modo & Modo, the Italian manufacturer of Moleskine notebooks, has reported an error in production for the new format watercolor notebooks, having used the wrong glue to attach the cover material.  This glitch will push the release date up a few months, and even the April projected release date is not a sure thing.  We'll get them when we get them.  Patience is a virtue.

This puts the Watercolor Sketchbooks on the same estimated delivery schedule as the new format Moleskine Planners for 2007.  I am hoping to have them available for sale by the first week in May, but I have no guarantees that this will be the case.  Stay tuned to the NWD blog for delivery updates.

Also, thanks to everyone for the great feedback on the new Planners.  I want to make sure there isn't too much confusion on what the new styles offer, so here are a few points I would like to emphasize:

The Red Hardcover Planner will be available only in the pocket size, and only in the 12 month new weekly format.

The Extra-Large size Soft Cover Planner is only available in the 12 month new weekly format.

The soft cover planners are really soft.  If you were to carry a pocket size soft cover weekly diary in your back pocket it would soon take on the shape of your butt the way a wallet does.  They have a similar feel of a pocket leather bible, and will be great for thumping on the table to emphasize your point during business meetings.  It is difficult to describe, but if you have any Volants on hand, stack three of them together and you get a sense of the feel of the soft cover planner.

Stay tuned for more updates on expected delivery times, and practice your relaxation breathing techniques.  Good things come to those who wait.

 

Naturally, a Notebook: Umberto Eco & Recovered Manuscripts

I am reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco for the second time.  Considering all the books I have waiting to be read it seems a little decadent to read this one again, but  I enjoyed it so much the first time I read it that I feel it is a worthy indulgence. Plus I need some moody fiction to fill the void until the next Harry Potter book is published.  To add depth to my reading experience this time through I picked up a copy of The Key to "The Name of the Rose" by Haft, White and White.  It includes translations of all the non-English passages in the book, plus some handy reference sections such as "An Annotated Guide to the Historical and Literary References in The Name of the Rose."  This should be fun.

In the first few pages of The Name of the Rose I came across this passage:

"I completed a translation, using some of those large notebooks from the Papeterie Joseph Gibert in which it is so pleasant to write if you use a felt-tip pen."

I am naturally curious about this little detail inserted casually at the beginning of this very complex story.  As a Moleskine notebook enthusiast, any reference to the merits of a particular notebook attracts my attention. Additionally I am someone who is admittedly biased in my appreciation for the superiority of European-made stationery products.  I did a pretty thorough Google search on "Papeterie Joseph Gibert", to see if Eco was mentioning an actual business, but was unable to find anything conclusive.  I would be interested in hearing anything related to this passage, especially if anyone knows for certain what type of notebooks he is referring to. 

In my search I did come across this insightful passage on Eco's notebook reference (on THIS website):

"Authors often use seemingly irrelevant references to mundane objects to foreshadow broader textual elements. The importance of writing material is particularly prominent in fiction using the recovered manuscript as a plot device. Umberto Eco, Edgar Allan Poe and Paul Auster all use writing material for foreshadowing plot or to illuminate the inner workings of characters."

In addition to explaining Eco's notebook reference this also offers an explanation for the connection between my fancy for modern notebooks (especially of the Moleskine variety) and my fascination with ancient manuscripts.  I love the concept of a recovered manuscript or discovered artifact as a plot device.  This is the single most compelling element that attracts me to books like The Name of the Rose.  The "lost manuscript found" captures the fantasy of ancient wisdom revealed.  I can't quite shake the feeling that we have traded off a greater part of our earlier gains in wisdom for technological advances, so the idea that there may still be some old wisdom out there to be rediscovered, even if it is just in fiction, is tantalizing indeed.  This also explains in part the voracious success of The Da Vinci Code, in that it seems to offer a key to discovering lost wisdom.  The backlash for that book only began to arise when people overlooked the most important function of the writing, that it is a work of fiction. But I digress. . .

Back to Eco: As a reader of this blog you are most likely a Moleskine enthusiast too.  Doesn't that line from The Name of the Rose peak your interest?  Don't you want to know all the details of Eco's fictitious notebooks?  And what kind of pen?  A felt-tip; perhaps something along the lines of a Flair (since this book was written in 1980, before the birth of the gel pen)?  The hidden meaning underneath this innate curiosity for the perfect pen, the perfect notebook with the perfect paper, may have more to do with the desire to create the kind of "lost manuscript" for future generations: a relic of the future's past.

At the very least, it means you will be a sucker for The Name of the Rose, and may even find yourself reading it for a second time.

Click on the image above for a larger version.  This image features my own "lost manuscript": Alchemy Notebook pages from my pocket Moleskine sketchbook.

Moleskine: So Many Planners, So Little Time

As promised, here are some pictures of the new Moleskine 2007 Planner samples I received.  The pictures are of the following new styles:

• Soft Cover Pocket Weekly Planner (18 Months)
• Red Hardcover Pocket Weekly Planner (12 Months)
• Soft Cover Extra-Large Weekly Planner (12 Months)

The samples I received were prototypes, so there may be some slight changes with the final production.  There are a few differences in production for the soft cover versions, primarily that they use a thinner elastic for the closure.  They have ribbon place markers, and inside back pockets, but the pockets are not expandable with gussets as they are with the classic Moleskine design.  The front matter in the 2007 Weekly Planners is slightly different, with the addition of a four page fill-in-your-own time table.

The red hardcover diary has garnered the most interest on the NWD blog.  It has been produced with all the same production qualities of a classic Moleskine notebook, except all the details are in red.  There is something very Italian sports car about this version of the Moleskine planner, and the bright red color will mean that it will be easy to distinguish from your other Moleskine notebooks.  What runs through my mind as I look at this sample is the refrain from Prince's song Little Red Corvette.  Moleskine's gonna party like it's 1999 2007!

I am not the best person to assess the functionality of a planner.  As I have mentioned in this earlier post, I rarely have an appointment, in fact, rarely get out from in front of my computer.  Also, working for a business with a total of 1 employee (me!) I don't exactly need to schedule meetings.  I live in the wooded splendor of northern New Hampshire, just down the road from the neck of the woods that nurtured Bode Miller.  Here we're always on "Miller" time; things to do present themselves in a constant stream of needing to be done.  I don't know anyone who keeps an appointment book around here.

Many of you have the kind of jobs where a planner makes you a better employee.  It is a different way of life entirely that you live, and your planner is an important tool of your trade.  Now that there are ten different Moleskine ways to keep track of your life (as it rapidly slips by) how will you choose?  From my perspective ten choices seems like too many.  From the perspective of having to guess which versions will be more popular and then ordering accordingly, having to fight with monsters like Barnes & Noble for the limited inventory available from the distributor, and having to keep them all in stock just the right length of time to meet demand, ten choices is a challenge.

For those of you who do rely on a planner for increased productivity, why not help me out by voicing your preference?  Do you want an 18 month planner or a 12 month planner?  Do you want a soft cover version or a hardcover version?  Red or black?  Do you want your planner to be pocket sized, large, or extra-large?  Do you like this new page layout or will you just stick with the previous year's options?  Do you really feel you need this many choices in a planner?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Click on any of the images above to see larger versions.

New Year's Resolution # 10: New Shipping Policy for NWD Online.

I finally had a Zen moment, and clarity finally arrived concerning how to simplify the shipping policy on the Ninth Wave Designs online store. This means I can now check off item # 10 from my New Year's Resolutions listed in this previous post. I have eleven months and only nine more resolutions to go.

The previous policy was only working for about 50% of my customers, and was too complex, even if it was designed with good intentions.  Now it will just work as it is without any additional input from the shopper: It is simplicity itself. 

Here's are the new shipping rates:

• $5.95 for order up to $60.00 in value
• $7.95 for orders from $60.01 - $200.00 in value
• FREE for all orders over $200.00

These rates are good for all orders shipped U.S. addresses (including APO's).  Shipping rates will be added automatically to your shopping cart during checkout.  All you need to do is fill up the cart and follow the steps for making payment.  As always, your orders will be shipped within one business day, via USPS Priority Mail.

I will still ship orders to destinations outside the U.S., but these orders cannot be completed using the shopping cart anymore.  You can browse the NWD online store and then email your order.  A customized invoice will be emailed back to you with the international shipping rate included.  For more details on international orders you can go HERE.

As Moleskine notebooks become available in more brick and mortar stores you may wonder why you should shop for them online at all.  Here are four good reasons to get your Moleskines from Ninth Wave Designs:

• Firstly, as a NWD blog reader, your orders through the Ninth Wave Designs online store help support the NWD blog, and will keep this source of Moleskine related information going.
• Secondly, you can find the full line of Moleskine notebooks in one place, saving you the search for the harder to find styles.
• Thirdly, as a Moleskine enthusiast myself, I offer unique customer service and a depth of information not usually encountered at a retail location that sells items from thousands of makers.  I know Moleskines, and will answer all of your questions gladly.
• Fourthly and finally, you can now get free shipping on larger orders, giving you all of the above for the same retail price you pay in stores.

After you fill up your current Moleskine notebook give the new Ninth Wave Designs online store a try, and let me know what you think of the improved shopping cart checkout process.

NEW: Moleskine 2007 Planners

Modo & Modo is increasing the number of options available for 2007 Planners, with six new planners to choose from bringing the total number of options to ten.  Before I describe the new planner formats I think it will help avoid confusion if I make a list.

As in previous years, the following four planner styles will be available in 2007:

• Pocket Daily Planner (1 page per day)
• Large Daily Planner (1 page per day)
• Pocket Weekly Planner (1 week per 2 page spread)
• Large Weekly Planner (1 week per 2 page spread)

From what I can tell, the Planners in the above list, what I will call the Classic Planners, will remain the same in 2007 as the 2006 versions.

New to the Moleskine Planner line for 2007 are the following six planner styles:

• Soft Cover Pocket Weekly Planner (12 Months)
• Soft Cover Large Weekly Planner (12 Months)
• Soft Cover Extra-Large Weekly Planner (12 Months)
• Soft Cover Pocket Weekly Planner (18 Months)
• Soft Cover Large Weekly Planner (18 Months)
• Red Hardcover Pocket Weekly Planner (12 Months)

The planners listed in red are the ones I have actual samples of.

The 18 Month Planners begin on June 26, 2006 and run through the end of December, 2007 (actually until January 6, 2008, since that is how the page layout worked out).  The 12 Month Planners run from January 1, 2007 through December 2007 (also ending on January 6, 2008).  The Pocket, and Large sizes are the same as the classic Moleskines, with the Extra-Large being the same as the XL Cahiers.

The new Weekly Planners in the second list have a new page layout format.  The left hand page is divided into unlined slots for each day of the week, and the right hand page is a lined page, the same as a classic Moleskine ruled notebook.  This format is the same for all six of the new planners, with just the number of months and the size of the planner being different.  The only other distinction is that the first 5 on the list have a soft flexible cover, and the last one listed has a classic Moleskine hardcover done in red "Moleskin".

About the covers:  Modo & Modo appears to have resurrected the Volant in its choice of cover material for the new soft cover planners.  If you are familiar with the Volant then the material will seem similar, although the planner covers are put together in a sturdier fashion than the Volants were.  For example, the Soft Cover Pocket Weekly Planner (18 Months) is thicker than a Volant, actually closer in thickness to a classic hardcover Moleskine, but also comes with an elastic closure, a ribbon marker, and an inside back pocket, all features that were not part of the Volant line. The elastic used for the closure is thinner than the type used for the classic notebooks.

The one hardcover version that is new for 2007 comes in a rich scarlet red "moleskin" oilcloth cover.  It is the basic Moleskine black but dyed red, the US release of the special edition Feltrinelli Planner available only in Italy in 2006. The page format is the same as with the soft cover planners and comes in the 12 month format. The elastic closure, ribbon marker, and the gusset for the inside back pocket are all a matching shade of red.

So that's the low-down on the new Moleskine planners for 2007, at least an early peek at what is coming.  I expect the new versions to ship in late April, so I hope to have them available in May.  The classic planners usually ship in late summer for August availability. 

I will have more pictures and analysis in my next post, so come back for updates!
   

NEW: Moleskine Reporter Watercolor Sketchbooks

I finally have the new Moleskine Reporter Watercolor Notebook samples in my hot little hands.  They arrived last night via UPS and I tore right into them.  I had imagined that these new watercolor notebooks would be more or less just a change of paper quality over the Moleskine Classic Sketchbook.  I also wondered if the new watercolor sketchbooks would eclipse the use of the old classic ones.  Now that I have these here I can see that this is an entirely new animal altogether.  Modo & Modo hasn't redesigned the Moleskine sketchbook as much as they have reinvented it.

The Watercolor Sketchbook is being made in the Reporter format, with the binding on the short end of the pages, the elastic running the short way, and the inside back pocket that opens on the short end.  In all ways of construction these are the same as the Reporter notebooks.  The pages are made of 200 gsm cold pressed watercolor paper with 25% cotton fiber content.  They come with 60 pages in the pocket size, 72 pages in the large size.  Here's where the big difference comes in: All the pages are perforated at the spine and are removable.  This design aspect challenges the basic concept of the Moleskine sketchbook - a bound book of personal artwork - by adding this option that all the pages can be removed, and will seem to many to be an unwanted element.  I was skeptical about this feature myself until I actually saw these, and now understand why this is such an important innovation.  Modo & Modo has designed a sketchbook with the needs of a professional artist in mind.  This is a painter's sketchbook.  This makes me very happy, and I know it will make many other people happy as well.

Here's why: I can see artists filling these notebooks full of paintings, and as with most artists some pages will turn out better than others. These good paintings can be removed, matted, framed and exhibited, without destroying the integrity of the binding in the process.  I have often thought about taking out pages from my classic sketchbook to matt and frame, but doing so would undermine the structure of the binding.  A friend of mine is planning on taking her whole pocket classic sketchbook apart to mine the good artwork from the bad, but if you don't want to do that you now have the option of removable pages with the watercolor sketchbook.  The flip side is that if you have painted a page that you feel is just pure crap you can remove that too.

The other scenario that I can imagine with these watercolor sketchbooks, especially the pocket sized ones, is taking it on vacation with a traveling watercolor set.  You could then paint your own post cards from your vacation, remove the pages and mail them off.  The same function can be accomplished close to home too, say, in your local cafe, or hiking in the woods.  Whatever the use, the perforated pages allow for sharing your artwork in different ways than are possible with the classic sketchbook.  If you are concerned that pages will fall out unwanted because of the perforation, it does appear to be a sturdy connection that will take some working to remove the pages.

Ready to try out the new Moleskine Watercolor Sketchbook. Click images for larger versions.

I have tested out the paper briefly and the results are good.  I will need to spend some time working on these pages to see how the results are, but everything about the surface of the watercolor pages looks to be very nice to paint on.  I will post the results as soon as I have something.

The Moleskine Reporter Watercolor Sketchbook will be shipping from the distributor some time in February.  I will let you know on the NWD blog as soon as I have these available for sale.

The Moleskine line also has some new Planner formats for 2007, including that little red beauty that was only available in Italy last year, as well as some 18 month versions that start in June 2006.  I have samples in hand and will write those up in my next post, so stay tuned!

Molskine Inspirations: Flickr Stream

One of the defining features of the Flickr photo-sharing community is the keyword tagging component.  It provides the opportunity to explore what other Flickrites are posting along the same themes and can make for some really enjoyable browsing - beware, this could eat up the better part of your afternoon!  Enterprising individuals of the Flickr community also craft their own clever Flickr based utilities, called Flickr Toys, that provide even greater (and subsequently more time-sucking) entertainment while browsing.  I recently have been captivated by a Flickr toy called Stream, created by FD (flagrant disregard).

FD describes Stream thusly:

"This application will show photographs from Flickr in a steady stream for as long as you care to watch.  The default view shows photos as they are uploaded to Flickr. All photographs are from Flickr, the best photo-sharing application in the world."

The default Stream loads the most recent Flickr photos from all Flickr members, and ends up being a strange visual flow of the current Flickr consciousness.  The Stream utility allows for custom settings, and it was this specific feature that got me hooked when I entered the tag "Moleskine".  What results is a slow moving slideshow of every photo uploaded to Flickr with the Moleskine tag assigned to it.  I have been setting this up in a separate browser window and letting it run in the background, taking a peek from time to time as I work.  I am amazed by the full impact of all these Moleskine related and inspired images, and the range of creative expression being captured between the pages of these notebooks.

Next time you are feeling a little dull of wit when confronted by the great yawning maw of blank pages in you Moleskine, load up the Flickr Moleskine Stream for a little inspiration.  Just make sure you don't have any other plans for a few hours.