Process: Index Cards

I was very happy to land upon index cards - ie, a sketchbook without a spine, as a way of working. This came out of a conversation with friend and amazing designer Merve Özdemir, with whom I started co-working during the first State of Emergency in Tokyo (co-working just meant quietly puttering away with our own projects over Zoom, and pausing for an occasional chat over a coffee).

These are some of the index cards I have been using for the planning of the KUMANO project of drawings and ceramics inspired by the Kumano Kodō.

The index cards were inspired by Autumn de Wilde’s ‘pitch box’ for Emma, Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, and probably Austin Kleon because he and his owl-friend, come up in many conversations about studio life!

This Atlantic article by Daniela Blei tells the interesting story of Carl Linnaeus, the taxonomist who invented index cards in the 1700s.