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wombat1138My brain cell is feeling very muddled right now, so this will be a terribly rambly post :b
Have been experimenting with making itsy memo books that can fit into my pocket. I really like gridded "graph paper"-type pages, but typically the smallest size available for those is the semi-hardbound "lab notebook"/"composition book", which is definitely not pocket-friendly. Their grid sizes tend to be either 4/inch or 5/inch, which is okay, but for various reasons it would be nice to have an even smaller grid.
The local office supply stores' gridded pads/looseleafs are usually also limited to 4/inch, or in some weird cases 4/inch on one side and 5/inch on the other. It's getting surprisingly difficult to find graph paper in stores now, perhaps because it's becoming more common for students to just print out a few blank sheets at a time-- which is fine for their purposes, but I really need the grid on both sides of the paper. (I suspect I still have some polar coordinate paper somewhere from the package I had to buy for intro calculus *mumblemumble* years ago.)
So I've gotten hold of a big old box of 8x8 grid paper, printed on both sides-- someone on Craigslist was liquidating the stationery supplies of a small business that was shutting down. It has a faintly musty smell and some of the wrappings are faded, but the paper itself is okay-- 8.5x11" sheets with slightly rounded corners, pre-punched for a standard three-ring binder.
Initial proto-binding experiments were built around/inside folding a 3x5" index card in half as the cover for a 3x2.5" mini-booklet, cutting plain printer paper to the same size for the pages, and simply securing them with a pair of hair elastics knotted together-- one slips over the spine; the other one stretches across to hold the booklet closed when not in use. The basic size is certainly small enough to fit into my pocket, though it's on the edge of being too small to keep track of-- I may have to tart up the outer color scheme to make it more visible.
I'm also still flailing around the concept of paper grain; I've sliced up a few 8x8 grid sheets in various directions to see how much difference it really makes on this scale. (The booklets aren't intended for really long-term use, just as a compact daily log for a week or three or however long the pages will last.)
The 3x5" index card doesn't do very much other than provide a protective cover, and I'd like to find some way to secure a small pen/pencil to it. This has led to an additional phase of test-folding larger (5x8") index cards down to that size in various configurations. The three most useful-looking ones so far are a horizontal trifold with a partial bottom pocket (the third section could either fold over the outer edge or inside the front/back cover; the inside fold would make the outer pocket on that side more secure for holding things), a double-layered bifold with partial bottom pocket (the double layers create full-sized pockets inside both the front and back covers, which might or might not retain things inside when the second hair elastic is stretched across to hold the booklet closed), and a bifold with partial top/bottom pockets and partial inner flaps.
I like the last one best so far-- it locks into place when the inner flaps are fitted over a 3x5" card, and it should be possible to slide objects between the top/bottom cover pockets when the booklet is open and secure them in place by simply folding the booklet in half again (and latching it with the second elastic). Further progress will depend on waiting for the teeny pencil/eraser set I just ordered from JetPens; the pencil is just 4" long, which should theoretically fit into the diagonal angle across the cover-- if not, I can try refolding the 5x8" card into a slightly larger final size.
OTOH, I think the double-layered bifold is the only one that's correctly oriented along the cardstock grain, though theoretically I could upgrade from blank index cards to scrapbooking cardstock. The pockets are completely open along the edge opposite from the spine, so some extra length like an envelope flap could be useful for keeping things inside.
I'm also thinking about cutting slightly smaller-sized pages to make more efficient use of the available uninterrupted rectilinear area of the 8x8 grid paper, which is about 7.5x11"... which cycles back to the question of paper grain direction, though.
Ack my brain is melting :b
Have been experimenting with making itsy memo books that can fit into my pocket. I really like gridded "graph paper"-type pages, but typically the smallest size available for those is the semi-hardbound "lab notebook"/"composition book", which is definitely not pocket-friendly. Their grid sizes tend to be either 4/inch or 5/inch, which is okay, but for various reasons it would be nice to have an even smaller grid.
The local office supply stores' gridded pads/looseleafs are usually also limited to 4/inch, or in some weird cases 4/inch on one side and 5/inch on the other. It's getting surprisingly difficult to find graph paper in stores now, perhaps because it's becoming more common for students to just print out a few blank sheets at a time-- which is fine for their purposes, but I really need the grid on both sides of the paper. (I suspect I still have some polar coordinate paper somewhere from the package I had to buy for intro calculus *mumblemumble* years ago.)
So I've gotten hold of a big old box of 8x8 grid paper, printed on both sides-- someone on Craigslist was liquidating the stationery supplies of a small business that was shutting down. It has a faintly musty smell and some of the wrappings are faded, but the paper itself is okay-- 8.5x11" sheets with slightly rounded corners, pre-punched for a standard three-ring binder.
Initial proto-binding experiments were built around/inside folding a 3x5" index card in half as the cover for a 3x2.5" mini-booklet, cutting plain printer paper to the same size for the pages, and simply securing them with a pair of hair elastics knotted together-- one slips over the spine; the other one stretches across to hold the booklet closed when not in use. The basic size is certainly small enough to fit into my pocket, though it's on the edge of being too small to keep track of-- I may have to tart up the outer color scheme to make it more visible.
I'm also still flailing around the concept of paper grain; I've sliced up a few 8x8 grid sheets in various directions to see how much difference it really makes on this scale. (The booklets aren't intended for really long-term use, just as a compact daily log for a week or three or however long the pages will last.)
The 3x5" index card doesn't do very much other than provide a protective cover, and I'd like to find some way to secure a small pen/pencil to it. This has led to an additional phase of test-folding larger (5x8") index cards down to that size in various configurations. The three most useful-looking ones so far are a horizontal trifold with a partial bottom pocket (the third section could either fold over the outer edge or inside the front/back cover; the inside fold would make the outer pocket on that side more secure for holding things), a double-layered bifold with partial bottom pocket (the double layers create full-sized pockets inside both the front and back covers, which might or might not retain things inside when the second hair elastic is stretched across to hold the booklet closed), and a bifold with partial top/bottom pockets and partial inner flaps.
I like the last one best so far-- it locks into place when the inner flaps are fitted over a 3x5" card, and it should be possible to slide objects between the top/bottom cover pockets when the booklet is open and secure them in place by simply folding the booklet in half again (and latching it with the second elastic). Further progress will depend on waiting for the teeny pencil/eraser set I just ordered from JetPens; the pencil is just 4" long, which should theoretically fit into the diagonal angle across the cover-- if not, I can try refolding the 5x8" card into a slightly larger final size.
OTOH, I think the double-layered bifold is the only one that's correctly oriented along the cardstock grain, though theoretically I could upgrade from blank index cards to scrapbooking cardstock. The pockets are completely open along the edge opposite from the spine, so some extra length like an envelope flap could be useful for keeping things inside.
I'm also thinking about cutting slightly smaller-sized pages to make more efficient use of the available uninterrupted rectilinear area of the 8x8 grid paper, which is about 7.5x11"... which cycles back to the question of paper grain direction, though.
Ack my brain is melting :b
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no subject
on 2010-04-19 10:25 pm (UTC)http://www.riteintherain.com/images/standard/notebooks/pocket_mini/135lr.gif
no subject
on 2010-04-20 01:28 am (UTC)I'm not sure whether I want to dive into serious bookbinding a la http://michaelshannon.us/makeabook/ either, but hey.
no subject
on 2010-04-22 12:00 am (UTC)no subject
on 2010-04-23 01:54 am (UTC)The most obvious weak point is the elastic, both wrt inherent durability and possible abrasion against the spine notches. The LifeTracker's notches are rounded off; some DIYers have identified its elastic as essentially a very long, floppy, narrow silicone O-ring (like Madonna's early-80s rubber gasket bracelets, only longer). The basic concept seems sound enough-- I've got a 7-volume set of craft magazines from the 60s/70s that I bought from a library sale a while back, very securely bound into hardback volumes with thin metal bars inside the middle of each magazine issue. (For that matter, I suppose this permanent effect could be replicated by using a reasonable gauge of wire to wrap around the spine-- the main reason for the LifeTracker's elastic is to allow modules to be swapped in and out as they're filled/expended.)