Unboxing: Wanderings A5 Refillable Notebook
So, as I mentioned in my last post, I'm a big fan of the Traveler's Notebook system. Unfortunately, I'm not so much of a fan of the aesthetics. The "lived in" look these dark, heavily patinaed leather covers have with all their scuffs and scratches are wonderful, I'm sure. They're just really not for me. I need colour and I need it to be on the outside of the journal because I am far too lazy to ever bother customising the inside.
Until now, I've been using an A5 leather cover I purchased from Etsy. It's well made and was good value but the colour (navy) was much darker than I was hoping it would be and the cover itself is much wider and heavier than I'm comfortable with (six spine cords!) It also came with a pen loop, that I'd never use because a) I have a pencil case and b) my fountain pens wouldn't fit in it, and umm... let's just say my attempts at removing it in an aesthetically pleasing manner weren't the greatest.
I've been using Wanderings journal inserts for a while now as they're good value, come in a variety of sizes and rulings (blank, dotted, lined and a variety pack of all three) and are very fountain pen friendly. I've had zero ghosting so far. Anyway, I was ordering some inserts last night when I spotted that they also had leather journal covers for sale, in a few different colours, as well as the more traditional TN brown.
I was immediately drawn to the blue one and reading the only criticism of it in reviews being that the colour was "too bright" I knew I had to get one and today it arrived!
It came in this lovely, thick and sturdy box, which will be perfect for storing journal bits and bobs in.
The journal inside was wrapped in tissue paper, with a wax seal and a lovely postcard from the owners of Wanderings. The brown you can see is protective paper.
The cover itself is a wonderful, vibrant textured leather. It's firm without being stiff and soft without flopping about like a wet noodle. The Wanderings compass logo is embossed in the bottom corner, it's there but subtly so, without taking anything away from the clean and simple design.
There are three pockets (one is divided into two) on the front cover and one on the back. The cover has one elastic spine cord and comes with three blank notebooks, plus a jump cord.
All in all, I'm very impressed with it. I think I would have liked it to have a little extra width on the spine so I could add a couple more elastic cords to the spine but for £43.95, I'll happily make do with jump cords.
I am resigned to the fact that I'm either going to have to make my own cover one day or get one of the very lovely custom ones from somewhere like Elrohir Leather (and not be too scared of "ruining it" to use it) because I am very fussy but for now, this one is great and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a bit of colour without having to worry about watching a pleather cover disintegrate on them. Mmm... microplastics!