New Fall Class: The Art Of Letter Writing

Starting in September, I will be teaching a new class at the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland, Florida. This class will meet once a week for six weeks and cover the following topics:

• Class One: Introductions, History and Review of Tools
• Class Two: Letter Writing Basics and Stationery
• Class Three: Fountain Pens 101
• Class Four: Envelope Addressing – Centering & Handwriting Tips
• Class Five: Envelope Embellishing - Wax Seals and Postage Art
• Class Six: Thinking Outside the Envelope – Adventures in Mail Art

Tool kits will be included in the cost of the class. Here's a breakdown of the tools we will be using:

• Fine Japanese Writing Papers
• Pens (includes fountain pen with cartridge and converter)
• Envelopes
• Wax Seal Kit
• Postage
• Mail Art Materials
• Decorative Storage Box

If you are interested in this class, please sign up here.

All About My Journals

In the world of YouTube, a tag video is a video made to answer a certain set of questions. The questions are determined by another YouTuber and they proceed to "tag" others in an effort to get to know them better.

I have always enjoyed tag videos. Especially ones about reading and writing. Recently, I came across a tag entitled "All About My Journals" on one of my favorite YouTube channels. It seemed like the perfect fit for me so I gave it a try. Below is the result of my first tag response video. 

Credit: The original tag was created by Journal Tree. I learned about the tag from Burgess Taylor. 

The Moleskine Postal Notebook

The Moleskine Postal Notebook has been out for while. It first caught my eye over a year ago when I noticed it on Instagram. It's a cool concept, but I've always struggled with how to use it. Here's why.

The notebook cover has flaps allowing it to be folded into an envelope and mailed. Some people mail the blank notebook to their pen pals. Once received, the flaps can be removed and the recipient has a nice little Moleskine notebook. I like the design. It's clever. Unfortunately, the paper used in these notebooks is not fountain pen friendly. And most of my pen pals are serious fountain pen users. So, I knew few of them would want to use the notebook for writing.

Then I realized there are just enough pages to tell a story with a few printed photos and a nice fine tip marker. Check out my video below to see the end result. I'd love to know how you use this charming and interesting product. I think it has so much potential.