Field Notes Colors: Shelterwood

I’m continuing on my journey to write about every quarterly edition of Field Notes that I have, with a few exceptions. Last time, I wrote about Cold Horizon, and I’m choosing Shelterwood next, which was the next seasonal edition right after Cold Horizon. As usual, I’ll talk about the major “first” features in Shelterwood, with my own opinions mixed in, and end with a list of specifications and links.

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Shelterwood came out in spring of 2014, and was the 22nd release of the Field Notes quarterly edition series. It was a very popular edition, and if I remember correctly, it sold out within just a few months. At the time, Field Notes said it was one of the fastest selling editions ever, along with Raven’s Wing and Night Sky. They must have been pretty confident that Shelterwood would do well, because they also made Cherry Graph, a very close cousin of Shelterwood, at the same time and introduced it later as a standard, open-ended edition.

I received Shelterwood as part of my COLORS subscription. I agree with many Field Notes fans: Shelterwood is a solid edition. It’s visually simple but has enough special features – like thick, off-white interior paper, ruling in soft green lines, gold staples, and real wood cover – that make it a very beautiful, tactile edition. The wood cover makes me want to keep touching it, and, along with Cherry Graph, Shelterwood has become one of the “easier” options whenever I want to choose the next Field Notes to use.

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Each book features a unique pattern.

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The cover in Shelterwood tends to curl open more than other editions. It can be a bit annoying at times but Field Notes has never laid flat for me anyway (open or closed).

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The “Ghost Flower” white ink on the uncoated cover can look barely there at certain angles..

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.. and more visible at others. I really like how this ink looks like it’s just sitting on the surface.

Firsts (and seconds)

Shelterwood was the first Field Notes COLORS edition, and the only one so far, to have a real wood cover. American Cherry wood from Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin, to be more specific. Their Shelterwood page and film (a must watch) describe this much better than I can but basically, the wood is very thinly sliced into sheets and then bonded to brown kraft paper (you can see the kraft paper on the inside cover). I remember seeing stationery companies using thin sheets of wood for some time before Shelterwood came out, in the form of postcards and greeting cards, for example, so I wasn’t terribly surprised or impressed when Shelterwood was first announced. But I was amazed Field Notes was able to make the cover so pliable and durable. Field Notes said they were the first notebook company to manufacture such a product at a large scale. Whether that’s true or not, the result is still noteworthy. At first I was afraid the wood grain would splinter or chip off at the edges over time, but I haven’t had any issues (I’m pretty gentle with my notebooks in general though). Some books came with some tiny bits of wood missing on the spine but it hasn’t gotten any worse with use. Bryan Bedell (of Field Notes) mentioned that he carried Shelterwood in his back pocket for a few months in order to test the durability of the cover (listen to the excellent Erasable Podcast episode #28, at about 57 minutes in).

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The 70#T body paper in Shelterwood feels great, too. Although it’s not a requirement for me, I appreciate the thicker weight for versatility (for both gel pens and fountain pens), and I really enjoy writing on it, especially with the off-white color and muted green ruled lines. By the way, Shelterwood is the 3rd Colors edition to get the 70#T paper, after Traveling Salesman from Fall 2012 (Mohawk Via Smooth), and America the Beautiful one year before Shelterwood. Shelterwood actually uses the same paper stock used in America the Beautiful: Finch Paper Fine in “Soft White”. That makes Shelterwood the second in the Colors series to get off-white innards. Black Ice, from winter 2016, also uses Finch Paper Fine 70# but in “Bright White” color.

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A quick off-white innards comparison, from top: Ambition, Shelterwood, America the Beautiful, Workshop Companion, and Original Graph.

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Gold staples and white ink on wood cover

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Ruled lines (1/4") and gold staples

Other features in Shelterwood that are not “firsts” in the quarterly editions but still noteworthy: gold staples and 1/4” ruled lines. Drink Local (Fall 2013) was the first edition with gold staples, and America the Beautiful (again!) was the first to get ruled lines, making Shelterwood 2nd. I think the gold staples were a great (perhaps an obvious) choice for Shelterwood, since they complement the warmth of the wood cover so well. As for the ruling, I don’t mind it at all. I use graph grid a lot but there are times when I miss writing in ruled notebooks, and Shelterwood has been a good option at such times.

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 Some Field Notes with ruled lines (clockwise from top right): Black Ice, Shelterwood, America the Beautiful, Arts & Sciences (the Arts book), and Original Ruled.

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The green on the belly band matches the green ruling on the innards. It goes really well with the wood color in my opinion.

Considering the interior paper, it might be easy to group Shelterwood together with America the Beautiful. But to me they have vastly different personalities, and that is in no doubt due to Shelterwood’s real wood cover. I really enjoy its texture, how the grain shows through the white ink, and how each cover has a unique pattern. But it’s not just the fact that it’s made out of wood that impresses me. Field Notes decided to keep the overall design simple and classy, with just a few accents, and it has great innards to boot. Shelterwood is one of those editions that I can’t help but like (and appreciate) more and more over the years. It’s not one of my top 10 favorites, not because there are things I dislike about it but because there are so many editions that I’m more drawn to. Just like America the Beautiful, I suspect Shelterwood will fluctuate constantly in that difficult range between #11 and #20 in my Field Notes ranking.
 

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Some Field Notes with gold staples (from top): Drink Local, Shelterwood, Cherry Graph, Ambition, and Capsule (SS 2016).

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Inside front cover

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Love how the mossy green “Twilight Sage” ink looks almost soft gray on the kraft paper.

Some fun (for me) details

• Shelterwood is the 2014 spring edition of COLORS, the 22nd in the series.
• Item number: FNC-22
• Price: $9.95/pack of 3 books
• Edition size: 25,000 packs, or 75,000 books, March 2014. Cold Horizon, the previous edition, was 20,000 packs.
• Printed by: Burke Printing in Lake Forest, Il.
• Cover: Graphic Wood Technologies PureVeneer cherry wood veneer, bound to brown kraft paper, printed with “Ghost Flower” white
• Inside cover: brown kraft paper printed with text in “Twilight Sage” green soy-based Toyo ink
• Body paper:  Finch Paper Fine 70#T in “Soft White”, same as America the Beautiful
• Ruled lines inside (1/4"): “Maidenhair” light green soy-based Toyo ink
• Edition-specific extras: none
• Belly band: off-white paper with background printed in matching light green ink
• Staples color: gold
• Teaser image in “A Note to Colors Subscribers” email: a photo of a Northern Wisconsin sunset.
• Film: Field Notes Brand: The Shelterwood Edition on Vimeo ⬅︎⬅︎⬅︎ must watch
• Film: FN - Recap 2014 on Vimeo ⬅︎⬅︎⬅︎ this too

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Field Notes with wood: Starbucks Roastery Edition (with birch) on the left, Cherry Graph and Shelterwood on the right, both with cherry wood. The Shenandoah belly band on the top also features birch veneer.

My Favorite “Practical Applications”

• #10. Flannels Inventoried
• #11. Carbons Dated
• #25. Maple Syrup Tasted
• #30. Legendary Splinters

A few more suggested applications in the Shelterwood announcement email from Field Notes:

• Pegboard Tool Organization Schema
• eBay Listing Inventory for All That Crap in the Garage
• Things Everyone Loves That Are Totally Overrated

Related Links

• Review: Field Notes Shelterwood Edition – Owl Ink
• Shelterwood — The Gentleman Stationer
• Field Notes Shelterwood: A Review — The Finer Point
• Andy Hullinger shares how he tanned his Shelterwood without staining (via Field Notes)
• Shelterwood gets featured in a music video

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What are your thoughts on Shelterwood? I may have squirreled away a few packs for backup but I take comfort in knowing that Cherry Graph is available and in stock.

Travel Journaling

Recently, M and I went on a short trip to Seattle, and, as we’ve done on previous trips, we brought a Field Notes memo book to use as our travel journal. It’s become a tradition for us to keep a shared diary during our trips, and I think the journal “kit” we took to Seattle worked well for us. So in this post, I’ll share the contents of the kit, and how we used these tools for travel journaling.

Set-Up

We like to keep a travel journal simply because it helps us remember what we did during the trip. There are digital tools for that, but we are fans of analog tools in general, and minimizing our time in front of screens is what we strive for while vacationing anyway. At the end of the trip, we end up with a nice, tangible reminder of our time together that we can look back on.

Over the years we’ve filled up several Field Notes as travel journals, and each time our set-up has been slightly different. I think this trip was the first time I prepared ahead of time and put together all the tools in one place for journaling, which really helped. Here’s what I packed in our kit:  

1. Field Notes Brand Cherry Graph
2. Pilot Juice 0.38mm in Coffee Brown
3. Decorative washi masking tapes, in sheets
4. Pentel EnerGel Euro Needle 0.35mm in Black, Pilot Hi-Tec-C Maica 0.4 mm in kurikawa brown, Uni Style Fit Multi-Pen, and Midori Brass Pencil (hidden)
5. Midori To Do List
6. Mini pair of scissors
7. Muji oil-based marker with dual tips
8. Roll of plain washi tape

1. Field Notes Cherry Graph

The star of our kit! Out of all the Field Notes at my disposal, I chose this one for its wooden finish and the graph grid. It’s basic but still special enough. I like to title the cover at the end of the trip, and I learned that rubber stamping on the wood cover yields a nice, warm, weathered look. I might keep using Cherry Graph for future trips.

Since this was a relatively short trip (4 days), we didn’t do any special preparation on the Field Notes, like pre-dating the pages, or dividing the pages into different sections, as we’ve done for much longer trips in the past. We just kept in mind that we had about 12 pages per day (standard Field Notes have 48 pages total), and that turned out to be just right. We both like to write on only one side of each spread, but we have very small handwriting. The left side, we save for scrapbooking travel memorabilia, like ticket stubs, restaurant business cards, etc. I brought mt washi tapes to do just that, which I’ll discuss below in the post. Here are some of the things we write in the journal itself:

• Date, day of the week, and weather/temperature next to them. This is the extent of our formatting the journal entry for each day. Keeping it simple!
• What we did each day, in chronological order as best we can remember, with special attention to what we ate/drank and what public transportation routes we took. Also various impressions of people and places on our walks.
• Goals of our trip, preferably in a list format on page 1. Goals like “relax, eat good food, buy stationery,” etc. This helps us review our trip when we return. We forgot to do that in the beginning this time, so we stuck a sticky note (see #5 below) to the journal.
• Notes for next time/what we learned, in a list format, on any blank pages left at the end. If no space left, we add a sticky note on the back inside cover. Again, that’s what we did for this Seattle trip because we used up all the pages. These notes will help us prepare for any future trips to the same place.

2. Pilot Juice 0.38mm in Coffee Brown

A notebook is nothing without a writing instrument! I like retractable pens on the go. No caps to lose! But really, I chose this pen for its brown ink because it goes well with Cherry Graph. Like I mentioned, our handwritings are pretty small, so the 0.38mm tip filled on every line of graph grid worked out well for us.

3. Sheets of washi tapes

I like to scrap memorabilia in our travel journals, and washi tapes are an easy and decorative way to do that. I didn’t want to bring more than I needed, so I pre-cut some tapes and stuck them on a few glossy sheets to add to our kit. For versatility, I tried to keep them in a limited color palette, of black, white and gold. In previous trips, I rarely had the time to get crafty and taped things after the trip, but this time, I was more prepared and managed to do it during the trip. M was more than happy to delegate that task to me, by the way. :)

4. Extra Pens (and a pencil)

Pentel EnerGel Euro Needle 0.35mm in black:
This is my favorite gel pen in black, so it goes with me everywhere.

Pilot Hi-Tec-C Maica 0.4 mm with kurikawa brown refill from a regular Hi-Tec-C:
This was to test the Hi-Tec-C on a trip, and I really like the kurikawa brown color. But halfway through the trip, we both agreed that the skipping tendency of the Hi-Tec-C ink/tip was annoying, and we switched to the Pilot Juice (see #2 above).

Uni Style Fit Multi-Pen with 4 x 0.38mm gel color refills and one ballpoint refill:
‘Cause you never know when you’ll need to mark things with color. This multi-pen has come in very handy on our Tokyo trips, when we actually carried printed maps and were revising our itineraries on the go. During this recent trip, we saw no need for it but I plan on taking the same multi-pen on future trips.

Midori Brass Pencil:
Gotta take at least one pencil! This is a stylish and convenient choice, plus it has a generous eraser. We actually used this for playing crossword puzzles, which we got into doing recently.

5. Midori To Do List (sticky notes)

As mentioned above, we used sticky notes for adding extra notes to the journal, and this Midori pad has been a fun choice with its airplane theme. We also used it to outline each day's itinerary and for small to-dos, e.g. reservations to make, what to buy at a nearby drugstore, etc. On our last day, we used one to remind ourselves to take the chocolate truffles we’d purchased out of the refrigerator, before we checked out of our hotel room.

6. A mini pair of scissors

This was in the kit mostly for the washi tapes but I’ve used it in the past for unplanned situations, e.g. cutting tags off clothes I bought on the trip that I wanted to wear right away. Very useful to have around, just in case.

7. Muji oil-based marker with double tips

and

8. Mini roll of washi tape

This set, in a clear, resealable bag, is something I carry in my purse, traveling or not. It’s somewhat journal-related and proven to be handy, just like the mini scissors, so I consider it part of the kit. The oil-based marker (like Sharpies) is good for writing on unexpected surfaces, like various forms and luggage tags, and for writing on washi tapes. A roll of plain washi tape is good for anything that needs quick fixing or securing (and scrapbooking). On this trip, we bought a couple ceramic bowls, and while the store bagged them with some bubble wrap for us, they weren’t secured properly, so I used this roll of tape for extra reinforcement.

All the tools (except the clear pouch with the marker and the mini tape roll) were housed in a black zipper pouch that opens up like a wallet with several pockets and slots sized for business cards and credit cards. The inner pockets happen to be big enough for Field Notes and postcards; one of them is even zippered, so that’s where I kept the extra pens/pencil. I didn’t buy this pouch specifically for traveling, so it’s a happy accident that it became useful to us over the years. It came as a free gift with a Japanese fashion magazine years ago.

We have a lot of fun with travel journaling, that it becomes something to look forward to in addition to the vacation itself. I’m happy how this set of tools worked out for our latest trip. We kept it simple, but brought enough goodies like washi tapes to keep things interesting.

Do you journal while on vacation? How does it affect your memory of the trip? And what tools do you take with you?

As for me and M, we tend to visit same cities several times, so journaling helps us remember what we liked about each city, and what we should or shouldn’t do the next time go there again. Writing also helps us record moments that can’t necessarily be captured with cameras: how we felt, what we thought about the city, etc. It gives us reasons to slow down, by taking breaks at cafés to review and write our journal. That isn’t possible on every day of the trip but that’s the general idea, and it helps that it’s a joint project. M can pick up where I left off, and I can always add my two cents later where I need to, and vice versa. It’s also fun to read what each other wrote; sometimes his impressions can be quite different than mine!

Now if I can figure out the best way to organize travel photos and incorporate them into these journals... ;)