Traveler's notebook

“we're doing another sitdown video today because  you guys seem to like the last one that I did on   the gift guide from small makers So I thought I'd  bring back the same vibes today I wanted to talk   about some of my recent favorites or things that  have been inspiring me lately things that I've   been into things that I've been liking I don't  know if I'm going to be doing this on a monthly   basis on a quarterly basis seasonal basis I'm not  exactly sure I think right now I'm just going to   go with the flow and let it come organically And  yeah we'll see If you guys do like these kinds of   videos let me know because that can incentivize  me to make more Um so yeah before we get into   the recent favorites how are you guys how are you  doing how is spring treating you i hope that you   guys are having a nice chill day If not I hope  this brings some chill some good vibes to your   day And yeah that you guys have a good time Make  sure to stay hydrated I've got my little matcha   here This is a mug that I mentioned in my last sit  down video Ceramic mug by Kim Le French ceramicist   based in Paris This is my favorite mug or it's  my favorite matcha mug I just love this mug   I'll link this and everything that I mention in  the description bar below as much as I can to   make life easier for you guys Let's let's get into  favorites The first category that I wanted to talk   about is stationery and my favorite journal or  my favorite journal system I would say that I'm   pretty picky when it comes to stationary There's  a lot of things that I'm pretty specific about   And the reason why I got this notebook in the  beginning was because I was looking for something   more sustainable something that I could just keep  reusing and not have to to trash things I guess a   lot of people keep their notebooks but one thing  that I really despise in stationary is throwing   things away I just I can't get myself to throw  pens away to throw notebooks away to throw paper   away And I wanted something that would age with  me and that would just you know get better with   age And this is exactly that I've had this for  about six or seven years now Some of you might   be familiar with this It's the Traveler's notebook  cover This is essentially three notebooks in one   So you essentially have small notebooks that  are attached by an elastic And once I'm done   with a notebook I can basically take it out The  way I have this organized is I have one of these   plastic flap covers And this is a drawing that  my brother did of me It says oh this is covering   it It says pottery girl And pottery is written  in French and girls written in English And this   is supposed to be a portrait of me I think he did  a really good job So I have that And then I have   one notebook that is my bullet journal So I do  like all of my life organizing um stuff in here   The next one is a clay journal So when I'm taking  ceramic related classes or doing research or just   writing down some thoughts related to my work  this is essentially my clay documenting notebook   And then I have more of a like mindfulness journal  emotional dump like when I just need to like clear   things out This is the journal where I'm just like  it's more of like a diary I guess And then at the   end I have a portrait that I did of my brother  that same day This is him And a photo of one of my   best friends in Toronto And then just some extra  Thai baht because when I'm traveling I like to   have this with me Lastly I have this pen clipper  thing that's attached at the back and one of my   favorite fountain pens at the moment So that's  essentially the basics of my journaling system   This is my favorite notebook because essentially  I gravitate towards it I use it I've had it for   many years and I still enjoy it I didn't think  I would like this format because it is quite   tall and not as wide but actually I find that it  makes note taking a lot more enjoyable It also   makes it a lot more portable For some reason now  that I've switched to this I find that the usual   like Moleskine size notebook I find it almost too  wide like I have to write for a really long time   before I get to the next line And it's still wide  enough for me to be able to write split things   into columns I like to write lists or I like  to sometimes just like split my journaling into   two columns I like as well that the refillable  notebooks that I use um there's no lines I find   lines very claustrophobic I find that they're  usually too tall basically And I think that I   write pretty small So I always struggle a bit  to fill up the whole height between the lines   This is kind of what I was talking about that  I like to split things into columns Sometimes   it doesn't have to be lists Sometimes I just  like to write that way The other reason why I   like to have no lines in my journal is because  I get to draw as well and sketch things And I   think essentially what I like about it is it's  simple It's just one notebook but I have three   split notebooks inside And once I'm done with  one I just take it out So I have multiple of   these that I've refilled I find that it is quite  customizable I can store things in it I like the   look of it I like that it's portable I just like  the simplicity I don't feel too precious about it   but I love that it's something that's followed me  throughout my life you know And then this pen is   a fountain pen So like I said I'm very specific  about stationary and I'm very specific about pens   This is the Pilot Prera fountain pen in clear And  I like that I can see the ink and how much ink   I have left So the reason why I like fountain  pens is also because I think it's more a more   sustainable option I can infinitely refill this So  I never have to throw a pen away That's one of the   things that I just hate the most is throwing  pens away So I like that you can continuously   refill it And the great thing about refilling  pens is you get to choose the ink that you like   And there's such a huge array of inks that you  can go for So I went to French school I grew   up my whole education was in the French system up  until university where I switched And at the time   I don't know if it's still the case but in French  schools they teach you to write cursive they teach   you to use a fountain pen And I think the reason  why French schools are into fountain pens so much   is because there is an ink that all French schools  provide that is erasable Then you need the special   like French eraser yada yada I grew up in China  So I went to a French school in China So it was   kind of hard to import that ink and that eraser  into China because at the time you couldn't find   it anywhere And schools were pretty strict about  you really need the specific ink I think that when   I was a kid someone one day told me that fountain  pens they move with you Meaning that everyone has   a different handwriting Everyone has different  pressure different angles of how they hold the pen   And a fountain pen has this like the nib kind  of splits into two to let the ink out And it   kind of like will adapt to how you write And I  do remember that I had some friends whose nibs   were like super like open flared like that Some  were like a little like one was crossed over the   other So like your fountain pen kind of adapts to  your handwriting And that's also why I was told as   a kid that you're not supposed to be sharing your  fountain pens because you know it might make the   nib too sensitive to bend and and adapt to many  people's handwriting So I like to think that my   pen is adapted to me And I'm a huge fan of Pilot  I'm a huge fan of Japanese stationery And I've   tried many different brands I've tried Lamy I've  tried um I don't know I've tried a lot of fountain   pen brands And okay this is where we go into  specifics I have kind of small hands and small   fingers and so I like my pen to not be too heavy  I don't want it to be too heavy at the end and I   need it to be kind of like lightweight in my hand  But the width here needs to be wide Like I can't   be too thin too small like a really like small  pencil I feel like you really have to squeeze   your fingers and my wrist gets tired cuz I think I  I tend to write a lot So yeah this is my favorite   pen It's lightweight It's kind of short but what  I do is I just put the the casing at the bottom   so it makes the pen longer It's just the perfect  weight for my hand So highly recommend the Pilot   Prera It's also not very expensive Um because  fountain pens can get pretty expensive The only   con I have about this pen is I bought the M size  and I realized like I said earlier that I think I   write pretty small compared to the average person  and the medium nib might be a little too thick for   my handwriting So I'm kind of considering buying  another one and switching to a fine nib one And   maybe I could gift this one to my brother if he  wants it cuz I think he has more he just writes a   little bit bigger and he said he wanted a fountain  pen So Pierre if you want this pen I can gift it   to you When it comes to ink the ink that I'm  currently using is I don't know if I'm going to   pronounce this right Yamaguri Irushizuku Yamaguri  Irushizuku I don't know Please correct me I would   love to learn how to pronounce this correctly but  I really like Irushizuku's inks I've had other ink   colors from them and I just like how they flow I  like that they're not too opaque They're not too   transparent and they're just beautiful They're  silky smooth I've had this bottle for a really   long time and refilled it quite a few many times  and I feel like I still haven't made a dent into   it and it's just such a pretty bottle So I really  like to have this displayed on my shelf I forgot   to mention what color this is This is kind of  like a dark brown kind of chocolatey Also leans   a little bit green I find it really beautiful I'm  not a huge fan of black ink I kind of find it like   too harsh So brown is what I gravitate towards  And again love Japanese stationery Love how they   perform I also have this blue from a French brand  called Herbin This one I know I'm pronouncing   correctly And the color is Bleu des Profondeurs  It's just a very traditional navy blue French ink   Also quite a cute bottle Much smaller but again  I've refilled it many times and I still feel like   it's still kind of like 90% full So my partner  and I have been renting a small little veggie   plot It's small I mean it's a medium size It's 25  square meters so you can plant a good variety of   veggies on on the plot And so we've been doing  a lot more research on gardening watching a lot   more gardening videos here on YouTube And so I've  been going down a rabbit hole of gardening books   and just researching permaculture and stuff like  that And I found this book This is my ebook but   I found this book by a Japanese author called The  One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoaka I might   be butchering that And I'm really enjoying  this book It's kind of one of the very first   books promoting permaculture I believe this book  was written somewhere around the 1930s somewhere   around there at the beginning of the century It's  kind of promoting this idea of lazy gardening or   letting nature do what it does best instead of  investing heavily into industrial agriculture   into monoculture into having a lot of human  intervention Instead it kind of encourages less   human disturbance And it's kind of a beautiful  book on the human dynamic with nature and   gardening and listening to nature and a bit of a  critique of the industrial world and how our world   is so heavily industrialized and lost its meaning  This man was a microbiologist and after spending   many decades in laboratories researching plants  he realized that really what he was interested   in is working firsthand with plants and observing  them And he was going through kind of a burnout   moment in his life just having no meaning And  going back to working with plants and observing   plants kind of brought back so much meaning to  his life And he kind of had this revelation of   like we are meaningless We don't have that much  importance and we don't have to work this much We   don't have to be so egocentric And a happy life  is actually spent resting and enjoying life for   all the small pleasures in life and not having to  like work work work all the time And I feel like   that's really relevant to my career in the past  few years I used to work in a much more corporate   commercial world It was still a creative industry  I was an animator in the motion design industry   and I used to work with tech companies in the  Silicon Valley But I kind of had like a a click   in my mind at some point in my life thinking this  isn't fulfilling me I just wasn't connecting so   much with the industry and the corporateness and  the commercializedness and I wanted to go back to   working with my hands and being closer to nature  which brought me eventually to work in ceramics   and now I'm a ceramicist But so yeah I'm only a  third through this book and I'm really enjoying   it So I really recommend it for anybody interested  in these topics Another book that I have in here   that I'm also reading So I I usually read this  permaculture related book in the evenings and   in the mornings I like to read Creative Act by  Rick Rubin's You guys have probably maybe heard   of this book So I listened to the audio book of  this a couple years ago while I was working and   I really enjoyed it but I kind of been wanting  to read it like myself like not in audio version   And I feel like because it's tiny little chapters  it's kind of like morning meditations And in days   especially when I feel like a little too anxious  about my work feeling like I'm comparing myself   too much to everybody's work and just feeling  too much pressure I find that this book kind   of like calms me down brings me back to the why  and the art of what I'm doing It's really like   morning meditations And I've been trying to  encourage myself to not go to Instagram or go   on social media at all in the mornings before  work And I found that in the mornings when I   read pages of this book I have a great start  to the day I'm in a really light happy mood   And I'm also really creatively inspired and  tuned to myself So I'm really enjoying this   book So much so that I've actually bought it in  Spanish So some of you know that I live in Spain etc Challenge Another book that I've been really enjoying but  that I've been reading very slowly is this book   on Lucie Rie So it's a biography on the ceramic  artist Lucie Rie She is Austrian During World War   II she had to flee Austria and move to London  And today she is one of the most influential   ceramic artists out there And I actually really  enjoying this biography of her life I find it   really relatable For example in her like when  she was starting working as a ceramicist she   was struggling to find a studio and to find a kiln  It was too expensive at the time to rent a studio   in Vienna and it was even harder to get a kiln  So she had to transport all her pieces through   public transportation to her kiln and back and  forth many many times which if you do ceramics   you know that your pieces are usually very fragile  in that state and it's very complicated to move   your pieces back and forth so much like that And  I really relate to that because when I was in   Toronto not too long ago I was had a studio from  home and I had to transport my pieces to the kiln   back and forth multiple times and it was always  a hassle and the road conditions were pretty bad   So the roads were really bumpy and it was always  a really stressful time and I just thought that   it was so interesting that back in the 1930s  and 1940s artists were still having these same   problems that we have today I'm intentionally  reading this book very slowly because I'm really   enjoying it and I don't want it to end So I'm  about a little bit more than halfway through If   you guys are interested in reading a book about  a ceramic artist's life and how she got to where   she was I really recommend this book There are  a couple photos too of the time of her and her   family and her work her studio etc Like I said  Lucie Rie is extremely influential Once you start   looking into her work you realize that a lot of  work of ceramicists today is actually influenced   by Lucie Rie So highly recommend And I guess I  could also add my Kobo my e-reader I bought it   to kind of encourage me to read more and to have  access to more books and also have books that are   portable So when I'm traveling I don't have to  travel so much with heavy books I can just pop   this It almost fits into a jacket coat pocket It  could fit into any bag And I really like this one   This is the Kobo Libra color I believe my dad also  has a Kobo but he doesn't have these buttons on   the side And I do find it really convenient  I also find it really convenient that I can   hold this with one hand I have small hands and  small wrists and things often get really heavy   And this just isn't heavy for me to hold with  one hand Lately I've been quite inspired by the   luxury fashion brand called Lemaire or Lemaire  It's a French luxury fashion brand and think I'm   pretty late to the party because they seem to  be quite popular and I had heard of them but I   didn't really care too much to look into what they  were doing because luxury fashion is you know I'm   not their target market But somehow I started  finding out more about them and I dug deeper   and deeper into rabbit hole and I find the their  world building of their brand really inspiring   and I think that's more what I'm really drawn to  So Lemaire is run by two co-founders Christophe   Lemaire who started the brand and Sarah Linh  Tran I believe they were partners at some point   I don't know if they're still partners Doesn't  really matter She kind of has like the best cool   girl effortless vibe to her I think what really  drew me to this brand was when I realized a lot   of their designs are really inspired by East meets  West So Western fashion me meets Eastern Japanese   Chinese Southeast Asian Vietnamese styles They  kind of do a really cool combination of both And   obviously me being half west half east I was kind  of like really curious about what they were doing   And I think that their work just really speaks  to me And I also feel like you don't see a lot   of eastern influence in fashion I feel like a lot  of the times it's very western influenced Having   grown up in Asia I feel very I guess represented  in their work I really like this one campaign that   they did in Vietnam I believe where they dressed  models or people riding on the typical mode of   transportation in countries like Vietnam which  is the little scooter or the little motorcycle   This is how I used to see women go to work when I  was living in Hong Kong in Shanghai in Thailand as   well And I always thought it was really badass  that women were dressed so well and they were   driving themselves independently to work And  I feel like this is the kind of campaign that   someone from an Asian country or Southeast Asian  country would like relate to would understand   And it kind of just brings this like nostalgia I  also find the camera gear bag inspired collection   that they've have been doing lately really cool  It's kind of reminiscent of old camera bags And   recently they did an exhibition of the work  of Carlos Peñafiel who is a Spanish leather   work designer who's been designing a lot of their  signature bags in the last few years The way that   he works the leather is again kind of reminiscent  of the vintage camera bags I don't know if you   guys have seen this before but you know when you  would have a camera attached to a case and it   would have kind of this like weird nose protector  that you could easily remove on and off when you   needed to take a picture I feel like his work is  kind of reminiscent of that but he's kind of got   taken a contemporary twist to artisanally working  with leather And I find it really admirable that   La Mer is so invested in promoting craftsmanship  and artisans I I guess Loewe is also a Spanish   brand that is kind of doing that under the  influence of Jonathan Anderson But yeah whenever   a brand kind of puts craftsmanship and artisans in  the spotlight in a really authentic way not in a   marketing way because I there are brands that kind  of like use it kind of almost like a greenwashing   way to kind of attract attention but they but they  don't really involve the craftsmanship and the   artisans in their work But when they are actually  the makers behind the goods that they make I just   find it really cool and I think that we should  bringing more artisans and more spotlight on   craftsmanship in general and preserving that on  the same topic of craftsmanship and artisans So   I had the opportunity to travel to Paris for a  project and while I was there for a short period   of time I got to walk around Lemaire and I got to  visit the Lemaire store and I was more so curious   to see their interior design because I had seen  photos of the stores and I just wanted to see   it in person to get inspired by the materials  that they were working with I really like the   Moroccan raw clay tiles that they use I think  they're called Bejmat or Bejmat And as some of   you might know I'm a sucker for tiles in interior  design I do mention tiles a lot in my past videos   that I've made when I talk about interior design  inspirations But when I was there I was surprised   by the furniture design that they included And  I took some photos share them on my Instagram   stories and someone mentioned Enzo Mari And I  was like "Oh I didn't know that the furniture   designer's name was Enzo Mari”