Just quickly (and quirky) this morning is a piece of news about the humble Paper Plane. Apparently, it's a bit more serious than most of us think.

After perhaps not paying a proper homage to the paper plane in this post last week, Matt dropped us an email to have a look at this video of the 2009 Paper Plane World Championships!


Held in Austria, 253 paper plane 'pilots' from a staggering 83 countries came together to fold, fly and flaunt their best paper-aerodynamics.


There were all sorts of categories, which you can read about at sponsor Red Bull's recap, but of particular importance we think, is news that Australia's own Dylan Parker (from Canberra) came third in the longest distance category - a not-quite transatlantic (but still impressive!) 40.78 metres.


The most amazing part is that Dylan learned his craft whilst recovering in hospital from a brain tumour, making this story really quite inspirational.

And if you think you can out-do Dylan, try this how-to guide for folding the design of the winning plane - the Nakamura Lock!

Safe flying!

Many thanks and much respect to our fellow lovers of sticky tape! For more, check out the following:
Apartment Therapy for their love of the tape
NoteMaker's O-Check Sticky Tape
Our Children's Gorilla for facetape, chaintape, ropetape...oh my!
I Love Sticky Tape for just why Sticky Tape rocks!

Or shrunk. As you can see, the original models made sewing machines look portable and it wasn't until the late 19th century that an American refined the stapler to more accessible specifications. Even so, is still weighed over two and a half pounds (1 kg!) and was able to load only a single wire staple at a time.


Most staplers. We saw this new range called Punch & Staple at NoteMaker and we love it. They're chrome plated, have a never-fail warranty and make rows of staples fall into line!


So, if you care about ridding yourself of the everyday stress of staple failure, or just think it's about time you got to live like King Louis XV (did we mention they look fantastic!?) then check em out!

We've been making eyes at Moleskine Art for the past week at Field Notes and have basically just been in awe of some pretty amazing art and artists. And as special as the fruits of pen and paper are, paper on its own can be pretty amazing too!


Origami (from oru meaning "folding", and kami meaning "paper") is a Japanese art form in which the challenge is to create a representation of an object using geometric folds and crease patterns, preferably without the use of gluing or cutting and using only one piece of paper.


It can be incredibly intricate and technical at its highest form. But, it can also be super fun for beginners who just want to make something crafty.


And as with all art forms, somebody is out there to democratise it - to make it accessible for those of us who a) aren't that great at it and b) just wanna have some fun!


Suck UK make Origami Sticky Notes which are great for office relations. Instead of tossing that old note at a co worker or making an eye-gouging (and so passe) paper plane, turn your sticky note into a friendly pig or adorable squirrel. Look at how easy it is!

Further, a note written on a piece of origami is a really touching form of communication and makes a nice surprise, compared to a standard greeting card. If you really don't have the fingers of an origami sensei, check out these 3-d cards!


If you are up to the challenge, try Origami.com for an endless reference of origami diagrams.

So have some fun and make some art!

Simply beatuiful.

Moleskine junkies have been having a great fortnight here in Australia. First, the 2009 2010 18 Month Diaries were made available, then NoteMaker launched a design competition to make your own and now, there are all new colours available.


The Moleskine Cahiers - with cardboard cover, gorgeous stiching on the spine and 16 detachable sheets, for total versatility - are now available in Australia in Red & Blue. So finally, there's some much needed variety for all of us who can't stop going through them.

Speaking of needs, the Rhodia Essentials Box is up for grabs in an easy-peasey competition at the ThreeThousand! Designers love the Rhodia Pads, we love 'em and so does anybody who is interested in taking notes.


So sign up to the ThreeThousand, rack your brain for 5 seconds and win a seriously cool prize.

As we mentioned in our last post, there's nothing more appealing to us than a personalised notebook. We got excited about the MSK Design Wizard and enlivened by the NoteMaker Design Competition but when we heard about this Book Binding Workshop at the Sydney Writer's Festival, we were practically intoxicated!


Master bookbinder Rosemarie Jeffers-Palmer is running a traditional hands on workshop incorporating tools of the craft including a traditional book press, in order to master different styles of cutting, folding and stitching paper pages.



Those lucky enough to be in Sydney (not us, unfortunately) can design, create and bind their very own book with this enviously awesome event. So if you're nearby, go along and get in touch with an under-used, artisanal craft.

For the rest of us, we can only do our best to come close. NoteMaker has these Penguin Notebooks for sale, with classics like Orwell and Austen to compare ourselves with and the Emerging Writer's Festival is still running in Melbourne.


And there are book binding videos on youtube too...but oh, to be in Sydney...

Moleskine notebooks are one of our favourite places to hold the written word, and with the 2009 Emerging Writer's Festival just around the corner in Melbourne, we're feeling very wordy here at Field Notes!

So many icons of literature and art have used Moleskine to contain their machinations - from Hemingway to Picasso and Chatwin - and undoubtedly held each of their notebooks to be truly their own.

We love the idea of the personalised notebook - to take what once merely contained your creativity to being a true expression of it - and so can't get over and visit the Moleskine Design Wizard application.
It's an online tool to create customised pages which fit neatly and perfectly into your Moleskine! It's great for images, calendars and address book changes and is just fun to play around with.

With Mother's day approaching this weekend, we at Field Notes would like to dedicate a post to our Mums. They've spoiled us for so long and deserve a nice break and some big time love.