NWD Gallery Update: Alchemy Notebook V
Here are the latest pages from my Alchemy Notebook in my Moleskine Pocket Sketchbook. I have been reading Simon Sigh's The Code Book, and have been putting some of the enciphering techniques he details into use. These two pages are a cipher table I devised for the Alchemy Alphabet I am using, to enable me to further encipher the text. Why encipher an already unreadable text, you ask? Because I am a nerd that way. I have enjoyed codes and ciphers from a young age, and have been having a blast learning the different techniques employed throughout history to protect messages. The Alchemists used symbol and obtuse language to protect their knowledge from those they considered uninitiated, so cipher texts fit right in.
I designed each table with its own sliding guide; made from the same Classic Moleskine Sketchbook paper harvested from a sketchbook I have desecrated by removing the pages from it. The grid on the sliders is blank; I will fill this in after taking the picture so that I don't divulge the basis for the encryption. Otherwise, where's the challenge in that? You can bet I will write something more interesting than "Drink More Ovaltine".
See more images HERE in the NWD Moleskine Gallery.
How long does it take you to do one of those pages? I'm amazed at how precisely you've done the whole thing. Is the background browning some watercolor?
Posted by: Rylan | February 01, 2006 at 02:24 PM
Rylan - I'm not sure exactly how long it takes, as I tend to work on it a little at a time over the course of several days. I usually spend a few days thinking about how to put the pages together, and in this case I made a paper model before assembling it in my Moleskine.
See the comments section in this post HERE for an explanation on how I stain the pages. Thanks! - Ninth Wave
Posted by: Ninth Wave Designs | February 01, 2006 at 04:31 PM
Awsome...amazing...fantastic...you are sooooo creative. Absolutely beautiful art work.
Posted by: Davey | February 02, 2006 at 02:17 PM
At quick glance it looks like a paper laptop! ;-)
Posted by: Christopher Meisenzahl | February 03, 2006 at 10:10 AM
Davey - Thanks for your comment!
Christopher - I noticed that too when I put the picture up. It is a bit of a computer in function, but no batteries to recharge in this handheld device! - Ninth Wave
Posted by: Ninth Wave Designs | February 03, 2006 at 11:18 AM