Mychal Mitchell Loves Blank Books

 DEBORAH CROMBIE: We have a really special guest today on JRW, my good friend Mychal Mitchell, book binder extraordinaire and owner of Iona Handcrafted Books!

   We've been talking a bit here on the blog about journaling as a way of dealing with the daily challenges of the coronavirus (we had Rhys's lovely son and daughter-in-law last week with some journaling advice) and it occurred to me that who better to talk to us about journaling than a person who makes them? I wondered how Mychal, a life-long journal keeper, was approaching her own journaling practice during these stressful times.

One of Mychal's journal entries

 Here's Mychal to tell us.

Mychal in her Austin studio

MYCHAL MITCHELL: 
 
My Love Affair…with Blank Books


    3rd grade…it was a little square, pink, Holly Hobbie diary with a lock and key.  9 years old in a small Arkansas town, and how I loved locking up that diary after each new crush’s name was recorded within.  I fancied myself a profound writer on those little lined pages, and yet I mostly documented grade school gossip, cafeteria lunches, and the latest hits from Casey Kasem’s American Top 40.  Though that first diary is nowhere to be found, flash forward 40 years and I have quite a collection of journals of all shapes, sizes, and styles filling the mantle above my fireplace in Austin.
   Something about a new journal is so magical…and yet, sometimes intimidating.  That first page is so BLANK!  It can be inspirational.  Or can just paralyze me!  Did I mention I am a bookbinder now?  That is my full time job. (And a whole other story unto itself!)  I have been stitching and selling leather journals for about 26 years now.  I can have my pick of any journal on my shop shelves, and yet even I am still a bit afraid to mess up that first page.

    So when I am stuck staring at that clean white page, I’ve kicked myself into gear by writing the words to a song I learned in summer camp as a kid. The words still resonate with me to this day, and honestly may have affected the way I operate in the world.  Here’s how it goes:
    "On the loose to climb a mountain, On the loose where I am free. On the loose to live my life the way I think my life should be. For I only have a moment, and a whole world left to see. I’ll be looking for tomorrow on the loose……."

    It goes on for a couple more verses about traveling the world, and sleeping outdoors, and making new friends.  I just now looked up the lyrics online, and saw the words (that my sister and I still sing in the car at the top of our lungs) were not exactly the “right" ones.  But at least I covered that first daunting blank page with something.   This isn’t how all of my journals begin.  But if I’m stuck, it sets an intention for my journal, my life, and my general attitude toward the world.

Mychal's lyrics to On the Loose

    Sometimes I know exactly what that journal will hold…a special adventure, a new relationship, a creative project, or a pandemic. I am in LA where my boyfriend lives, hunkering down with the man I love in a city I barely know.  This journal has been an especially tricky one to start.  Do I create a collage all about being in lockdown mode? 

Mychal's LA journal

     Do I write a poem about how interesting it is to get to know someone during a world health crisis?  The words to my camp song don’t seem appropriate when I can’t travel the world, hike in a national park, or meet new people.  I am still pondering that first page 4 weeks into this new reality.  But I’ve done a little bit of writing, and it seems a bit lackluster. No adventures, except long walks through the neighborhood.  No new people, except his neighbors whom I am trying to get to know from a safe distance.
 
    In my "normal life", I get to talk to people all day at art shows about keeping a journal.  And all day long people lament that their lives aren’t interesting enough to record.  I often respond by saying that if my grandmother had kept a journal of her life in the 1920’s, just about anything she wrote would be fascinating to me.  Even if it were just her shopping list!

   So I am trying to tell myself that now. There are so many stressors that slow me down during this time…Will I have to close my store?  Did I remember to sign that loan application I just sent in?  When will I be back home in Austin?   Will my relationship survive this sheltering-in-place?  Will my family be ok?  (And stupid first world things like should I have bought more chocolate when I was last at the grocery store?)  So even though that first page hasn’t quite come together, I am starting in the middle of the journal…which is a trick I learned from a client years ago.  "Don’t let that first page slow you down", they’d say. "Make your first mark somewhere 20 pages or so in…screw up a few times, scratch through something if need be…then go back and do that first page when inspiration strikes.  But write something."  It’ll all be interesting to you a year from now.  Heck, the way the world is currently, things you write today will seem quaint even a week from now!  Just write something!

DEBS: I am so glad to know that even Mychal suffers from BLANK PAGE syndrome! I've used the "starting a few pages in" trick myself several times. I am trying to write something in my own Iona journal every day, even if it's only a paragraph or two. If you want to keep a journal and don't know what to say, here is a great article from Jen A. Miller in this week's New York Times.  I've used some of these suggestions already.

I am so going to miss seeing Mychal next month at our Dallas area spring art show. Her spring and fall visits are two of the big treats of my year. And, of course, my opportunity to stock up on journals!

Here's my (very messily tied) in-progress journal.

And here's our JRW friend Gigi Norwood's latest, still in its shipping box. This size, which is my personal favorite, is 7.5 by 7.5 inches and is called "the writer."  They come in everything from plain brown leather to "one of a kind" fancy. But in this case, size really doesn't matter. Just WRITE!

Mychal may be stuck in LA, but Iona Handcrafted Books are still available from her website, thanks to her trusty studio manager in Austin. So check out the gorgeous books, and chat with Mychal here in the comments!

Mychal visited the blog back in January 2013 (wow, how is it even possible that it's been that long!!! Where does the time go??) so if you'd like to learn more about the journals, and about how Mychal came to be a book binder, click here for that story.

And readers, tell us if you had a locked diary as a kid! What did you write about?