Taking notes for ideas

[john lucas]

Do any of you carry around a notebook. I do. Worse case Scenario I draw on napkins or anything else I can find laying around.
I get ideas constantly that are triggered by simple things. I was watching How the West Was Won last night and Jimmy Stewart had carved a heart in a tree. I started sketching some ideas using a heart came up with the piece on the middle left.
I just went through my stack of notes and threw out probably 20 to 50 because I couldn't make sense out of my drawings. I'm trying to improve my sketches so I can figure them out later. I have a folder with probably a hundred or more ideas.
do any of you all do this? I wish I had time to experiment with some of these drawings. I do on occasion. I need a gift or a contest is coming up and Ineed a good idea so I go through the idea folder. My heart lamp came about this way. I had made a sketch of an EKG pattern on a hollow vessel. I never built that but it got modified and ended up on the lamp and was selected to travel with the AAW show.

 

[Doug Stevens]

Not alone

Do any of you carry around a notebook. I do. Worse case Scenario I draw on napkins or anything else I can find laying around.
I get ideas constantly that are triggered by simple things. I was watching How the West Was Won last night and Jimmy Stewart had carved a heart in a tree. I started sketching some ideas using a heart came up with the piece on the middle left.
I just went through my stack of notes and threw out probably 20 to 50 because I couldn't make sense out of my drawings. I'm trying to improve my sketches so I can figure them out later. I have a folder with probably a hundred or more ideas.
do any of you all do this? I wish I had time to experiment with some of these drawings. I do on occasion. I need a gift or a contest is coming up and Ineed a good idea so I go through the idea folder. My heart lamp came about this way. I had made a sketch of an EKG pattern on a hollow vessel. I never built that but it got modified and ended up on the lamp and was selected to travel with the AAW show.

I always carry a small note pad and my cell phone with camera. I've found that if I take the time to add a few written notes to the drawings or photos it helps me to remember what I was thinking when I made the drawings or took the picture. I also keep a legal pad on the nightstand next to my bed and when I wake up with an idea (good or bad) I make a note of it before going back to sleep, otherwise the idea is gone with only a vague memory of the thoughts. This has worked well for me for the last 30 years. Some mornings I get some real surprises when I read my notes from the night before. Two of the ideas resulted in patents that have helped pay for my woodturning addiction.

 

[Dave Roller]

In a corner behind the door to my shop I have a file cabinet. The bottom drawer is empty (back problems!) the third drawer is full of sheet sandpaper, the second drawer is full of manuals to shop tools, tractor, mowers, tillers, etc. And the top drawer is the repository for all my drawings, notes, sketches, etc. Sad to say, I don't do much with them once I put them there. What I find, however, is that the very act of recording them helps me remember them.

I also keep a note pad beside me as I read books. When I finish reading, I throw the notes away.

 

[Wayne Spence]

Taking notes

What a timely subject for me. Yesterday I got a cut from the bandsaw on my middle finger across the knuckle. Really lucky that the bone was not hit and no damage to the nerve or tendon. Now I have 2 weeks to review my notes, sketches, photos and cut outs. I carry a notepad frequently and find that I must transfer my ideas to larger paper asap. I tend to make a mess trying to sketch on those small pages of paper and after writing it is hard to decipher. My ability with drawing pencil is limited inspite of drawing courses years ago. One thing that really helps is as much writing as possible to clarify the idea and explain relation of parts etc. that the sketch does not when looking at it months or years later. You know the story,"What is that all about."The digital camera is sometimes helpful. Last week at the botanic gardens exhibit of sculptor Henry Moore I found myself taking so many photos I neglected to get a good look at the sculpture. Now I will go back sans camera. Many times the camera is invaluable. Last week I took some closeups of the joinery in one of the Japanese tea houses. If I want to use that joinery it will be easy to follow, not easy to do. The worst time is when in bed and you think of something, then you either have to remember it in the morning or get up,get out of bed, find a pencil and jot it down.

 

[John Torchick]

Notebook

John, an exellent idea. Look at all the notes that Michaleangel left us. I'll put a note book in the shop right now.
Wayne, another excellent idea for a digital camera. Ours is used for pictures of the grandchildren but I'm sure I can find some extra memory for some wood stuff.

 

[john lucas]

Damn I should have written all my notes backwards so they could be read in a mirror. DaVinci would be proud.

 

[Wayne Spence]

Notebook

John- Had you done that you might be turning looking into a mirror or making bowls inside out.

 

[John Beaver]

I've kept a sketch book since I started turning. I wish I could turn as fast as I can draw.

 

[Marvin Hasenak]

I have 2 spiral note books, 1 in the shop, and the other I try to keep handy where ever I am. Both are used for notes, I also carry a few 3x5 index cards in my checkbook for quick notes. If I make a note on the index cards I try to get that info transferred into one of my notebooks with as much info as I think is necessary so I can decipher what the idea was.

 

[hughie]

Uhuh, paper towels, back of napkins various scraps of paper etc etc.
Lately I have been re drawing allot of the sketches etc on the drawing board

To date I have two lathes designed and built with two more on the drawing board. A fist full of different turning tools, tips ,cutters, handles and so.

Yep I am inveterate scribbler/designer totally lost to the cause.

 

[Wayne Spence]

John Beaver

Consider yourself blessed if you can draw like that. I will never approach that level of drawing nor sing 3 notes in a row.

 

[Gretch Flo]

another down time task

Just had arthrocopic hip surg yesterdayu and was told 2-3 weeks on crutches before the surg. (crutches mostly for easing pain.) During surg he found some articular cartilage damage in the socket and abraded it to stimulate some fibrocartilage -means 6 weeks of crutches, and have to take it easier due to healing not just pain control. Thinking of sliding down circular staircase on my butt to get to the lathe. Not sure how long I can turn one legged (and partial weightbearing on the operated side.)

Will also work on my new photed pics- downloaded and then try to figure out how to go from raw to jpeg, etc. Some pics are neat-i think)_ vulture trying to get away with the wood chuck I shot the day before, hummingbirds, 'Mutant" sparrows, beach scenes ,sunsets etc. Now tirkey babies parade near in the pasture. Then get my photo booth set up for wood items , etc. Have no real work (the kind that makes money for wood turning tools and supplies) for 4 weeks. Garden a jungle
Now I have another idea to keep me "controlled" and that is to take my 3x5 cards for projects and get them in a better folder. Thanks, guys,but really I'd rather be turning, but this idea should be productive!!!!. Gretch

 

[Robert Manning]

Drawings ?

Do any of you carry around a notebook. I do. Worse case Scenario I draw on napkins or anything else I can find laying around . . . .

Yes, John, I have drawings going back over thirty years in many forms including vellums, blueprints, ink drawings, gouache, acrylic, oil, hardbound journals, etc. It's often a daily process.

 

[Joe Greiner]

Typically a file folder for each significant project. Contains sketches of alternate ideas, arithmetic if necessary; also CAD prints where descriptive geometry helps layout. The file folders are held in an expandable collating contraption to avoid (almost) separate piles, but the piles accumulate anyway.

 

[Dave Roller]

Just had arthrocopic hip surg yesterdayu and was told 2-3 weeks on crutches before the surg. (crutches mostly for easing pain.) During surg he found some articular cartilage damage in the socket and abraded it to stimulate some fibrocartilage -means 6 weeks of crutches, and have to take it easier due to healing not just pain control. Thinking of sliding down circular staircase on my butt to get to the lathe. Not sure how long I can turn one legged (and partial weightbearing on the operated side.)

Will also work on my new photed pics- downloaded and then try to figure out how to go from raw to jpeg, etc. Some pics are neat-i think)_ vulture trying to get away with the wood chuck I shot the day before, hummingbirds, 'Mutant" sparrows, beach scenes ,sunsets etc. Now tirkey babies parade near in the pasture. Then get my photo booth set up for wood items , etc. Have no real work (the kind that makes money for wood turning tools and supplies) for 4 weeks. Garden a jungle
Now I have another idea to keep me "controlled" and that is to take my 3x5 cards for projects and get them in a better folder. Thanks, guys,but really I'd rather be turning, but this idea should be productive!!!!. Gretch

Sorry to hear about the down time. I've certainly had my share of it over the last two years with serious back surgery. Things will get better for you, so hang in there!

 

[Mr. Don]

notes

:cool2:You guys are STRANGE!!! I am strange to the other extreme...look at a chunk of wood, put it in the lathe, and what comes out is it!! Either finished work or firewood, and nary a scribble!! Did the same when I built my shop and my gallery....just eyeballed the stack of lumber and figured I had enough. (so far, so good). I guess that is all the less my son has to toss when he cleans out after I pass......anyhoo, to each their own. Happy turnin'.....

 

[john lucas]

Don I do that also for some of my work. It's kind of fun to just put a piece of wood on the lathe and start making shavings. My best pieces are usually planned but that doesn't mean I don't turn a good one from scratch every now and then.

 

[Jake Debski]

Don I do that also for some of my work. It's kind of fun to just put a piece of wood on the lathe and start making shavings. My best pieces are usually planned but that doesn't mean I don't turn a good one from scratch every now and then.

John, I have many pages of ideas waiting for my turning ability to progress enough to tackle them. In the meantime, like plenty of others I know personally, serendipity is the plan.

 

[Richard Baker]

John, back when I used to have ideas I usually forgot to write/draw them on paper. And when I remembered to write them down I usually lost the notes or forgot where I put them. Finally gave up on having ideas and just turned wood.

I do make drawings for segmented pieces, but not the same as "having ideas".

 

[MichaelMouse]

My phone is also a PDA. Crude drawings and hare-brained ideas of every sort mix with shopping lists named by store and date.

 

[Steve Worcester]

I carry a small notebook in my backpack as I seem to get alot of ideas on airplanes, my cell phones camera works well (took a picture in the bathroom at the Denver airport because I liked the glass tiles ). I have a notebook in the shop, and all the shop cabinets doors have dry erase metal inserts in the doors. Sometimes it looks like a scene from "A Beautiful Mind".

I take a bit of note for woodturning, glass work, I take a lot of notes, but never enough.