Reading about Brian's ongoing research into making an improved sketchbook (designsojourn.com) got me thinking - why is a moleskine so expensive?? Notemaker.com.au sells its 130 x 210mm moleskine sketchbook for @$19.95 AUD! WTF?? Excluding the cover and elastic strap, each page is almost 20c! Probably all the marketing and hype (used by Hemmingway/Picasso etc etc) added to the cost.

So I went about making my own. Of course it didn't have the equivalent of Brian's research into it as I'm flying out to Singapore tomorrow and NEED a sketchbook immediately. 7 hours on the plane can mean heaps of ideas. All up, this sketchbook was made for about a dollar.

Here is the final book I'll be taking on my flights. There are a few advantages of making your own sketchbook. First you can choose whatever paper you want. Marker freak? Use bleedproof. Pencil maestro? Why not cartridge. Miser? Use copy paper. Environmentalist? Look in your company's recycle bin for paper printed on one side (MAKE SURE NOTHING IS CONFIDENTIAL!)

Cost breakdown:-

Spine:- 30c

Black covers:- 10c

Paper:- about 50c

Elastic band:- $3, but that's 6m worth!!

First page of the book. It wasn't too hard to make. I tore up about 50 A4 plain papers, and made sure the torn edge was on the outside. I tore them up with a steel rule which ensured more or less constant A5 sizes. Binding was easy - I did it using an old plastic binding spine from an obselete manual. The black covers are polypropylene sheets which I found lying around in the office. Bound them all up and hey, that was my little notebook.

There's some sort of fad with an elastic strap. Personally i find it functional but it seems to have found its way into almost every diary now. A visit to Woolworths saw me run out with 6m of elastic - the same stuff you would find on a girl's hairband. I'm going to be able to make shitloads of these diaries with that much elastic. Just punch 2 holes with a regular hole punch and tie the elastic together. And that's it!!