What I learned from a journal round robin

This is the journal that went around the world. 

I'd like to share some of the things I have learned from this adventure. 

1. No matter how well you plan, something will always go awry. 

I'm a planner. I like to be organised. This means that for this round robin/circle journal I had a schedule. Normally these things would be simple: each person would just send the journal they had finished working on to the next person on the list. However, as this was an international endeavour, I didn't feel that it was fair to land one person with the large costs of always sending to me, in Australia, while someone else might always be sending in-country. (This group included 2 participants from Canada, 1 east coast USA, 1 west coast USA, 1 from Holland, 1 from Germany, and me in Australia.) However, things quickly went wrong when one of the journals took 12 weeks to arrive at the first person. Also, as the schedule went over Christmas, there were delays. What should have finished in March has taken until July to complete. 

2. Keep in touch.
Make sure that you keep in touch with everyone involved and that everyone has shared their email address. When you post a journal on to the next person, let them know. When you receive a new journal, let the person who sent it know that it has arrived safely. If things seem to be off-schedule, contact everyone to see how they are doing.

3. Pack well and be aware of how much postage might cost. 

The journals need to be properly packaged so that they aren't damaged. Placing the journal in a plastic bag, using bubblewrap, and placing waxed paper between the pages to stop them sticking together are all good. Whether you use an envelope or a box can mean the difference between a $20 parcel and a $40 one, especially when posting to another country, so weigh the parcel before you go to the post office. 

4. Make sure that everyone knows how many pages/spreads they can do.
If you allow for each person to have two goes at a theme, it can be a bit disappointing if your journal comes back only half-filled because people only did one page.

5. The first moment of working in someone else's journal doesn't get any easier!

It is always a moment of trepidation when you first put colour in someone else's journal. There is always that feeling that you don't want to 'mess up' because it isn't your journal. And it feels the same when you reach the last journal as it felt in the first. You just have to jump in and go for it :)

I was amazed at the range of journals that came through my hands - a leather-bound, hardback book with removable signatures; spiral bound books; a book in a slipcase; a concertina journal; journals with black pages; journals with pristine white pages; journals with pages that already had some colour and pattern on them; journals with flaps.

I would definitely do this again, if anyone is up for it.

Back home

My journal has been around the world and has now returned home! It is full of loveliness, so prepare yourself for a photo-heavy post. I'll share the pages here and some thoughts on hosting a round robin/circle journal in my next post. 

Thank you so much Jessica, Monique, Susan Jane, Beate, Gayle, and Lee for joining me on this arty adventure!

There are a few spreads still blank. If you would like to contribute with your own thoughts of home, I'd be happy to do a swap. Just email me at tracywoodsford@gmail.com

And the sign-in tags:

Circle journal round up - my pages

Now that I've completed all my pages for the circle journal/round robin, I thought it would be fun to gather them all together in one post. My own hasn't arrived home yet, but as soon as it does I'll post all the loveliness from it :)

There was a wide range of journal styles and themes and it was great fun to work in all of them.

Here are the pages and both sides of the sign-in tag for Beate's journal - Fools and Divinities:

Gayle's theme was doors and windows:

These are the pages for Jessica's journal with its theme - exploring the inner and outer.

Lee wanted to know What do you see when you look in the mirror?

Monique inspired us with an Emerson quote:  “What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within us out into the world, miracles happen.”

Susan Jane wanted her pages to be a surprise, so I haven't blogged them in their entirety before. Her theme was trees:

Circle Journal completed!

I've now completed all my pages in the circle journal and am about to put the last one in the post back to Lee in Canada. Her theme was, "What do you see when you look in the mirror?"

My first page was the obvious - I see me :)

But what about the second spread?

I looked at quite a few quotes about mirrors, but some of them had already been used by other participants. That's one of the drawbacks of being the last to work in a journal, I guess. But I found one eventually:

Your self-esteem won't come from body parts. You need to step away from the mirror every once in a while and look for another reflection, like the one in the eyes of the people who love you and admire you.  Stacy London

How uplifting! And it's good to be reminded of it, too.

So now the parcel will go in the post, and eventually my own journal will make its way back to me.

Monique's journal pages completed

Almost at the end of the round robin with just one more journal to go. Monique's journal was really fun to work in. She bound it in leather to look like the River Song book from Doctor Who and made removable signatures for us all to work in.

This Ralph Waldo Emerson quote was the theme for the journal:

Each signature had a Da Vinci lady on one of the panels. I've added colour to her eyes and lips, a piece of washi tape running vertically, and a gold sticker.

This is my sign-in tag, gelli-printed with circles and then sketchily outlined in white with a uniball signo pen. On the other side are a few things about me also written in white. 

This is the outside of the signature, opened out. The two end pieces are flaps that fold back inside. The right hand end is a ghost gelli-print from the tag. The left hand end has gelli-printed greaseproof paper with white writing.

Monique had popped an envelope of goodies in a pocket in each signature. I refilled the envelope with a few bits and pieces of printed, stamped, embossed, and inked papers and tags.

This is the inside. I split the quote into three parts to journal it: what is behind - the past. What is before - the future. What is within - ourselves in the present. 

I've used the open flap up to the half pocket to do about the past. The background is made of a map, some spray inks through a stencil, and an embossed dandelion seed head. In my case, the past is literally another country, having lived in the UK for forty years and then moved to Australia five years ago.

Then the middle page and the pocket were used for the future, which is unknown. And here are a couple of close-ups of these spreads:

This is the signature with the central page turned and the small flap opened to make a spread for the 'within' part of the quote. The gold letters are stickers by Luckies of London. My husband bought me a set with several alphabets and decorations.
Thinking about what is within us made me think of the literal organs and most obviously, the heart. This heart is drawn on greaseproof paper and glued on with gel medium:

The quote made me think about how we cannot change the past and we cannot know the future, but if we each bring everything we are and everything we have to the present moment, we can be a powerful force for good. Being fully present, listening with full attention to the person who's talking to you, can have a huge effect on someone - more than you might know in the moment.

And now the journal is ready to make its way to Canada, to Gayle, it's last stop before it makes its way back to Monique in the Netherlands.

Monique wanted to have the postage somehow included in the journal to show the journey it had been on around the world. I used the strap on the back of the signature to slip in the stamps and sticker from the parcel.