My Adventures with Nature Journaling

I have made books and taught Book Arts for several years. Over time my books became more organic as I sought out materials from local forests, beaches, and fine woodworkers. I started using wood for covers, heavy linen threads for medieval sewn bindings, and sticks, stones, and shells for embellishments.

I also began to feel a need to fill the journals rather than just make them. I took art classes in watercolor, drawing, and printmaking. But there was still the question of “What do I want to say”. On a whim I signed up for five days of workshops with the Wild Wonder Nature Journaling Conference 2020 and discovered a whole new world of nature journal enthusiasts. After the first day I knew I was hooked. This kind of journaling combines so many things I love:  drawing, writing, science, book arts, and research. The workshop was an instant hit with this mathematician. These classes felt different to me – the emphasis is more on making sense of place, raising questions about our environment and recording impressions with data, drawing, and writing. My internal critic was nowhere to be found and I completely lost track of time. Good things.

I will chronicle my experiences in future posts and plan to teach a Nature Journaling class for OLLI in February. Details later. I hope you can join me.