Plain Lab · journal
Apprentice's Journal
A page for what you learn at the bench that nobody hands you in writing.
Specification
- Trim
- 148 × 210 mm · 5.827 × 8.268 in
- Pages
- 80
- Leaves
- 40
- Sheets
- 20
- Signatures
- 4 × 20pp
- Spine
- 4.58 mm
- Paper
- white
- Ruling
- lined
- Ruling pitch
- 9.17 mm · 26.00 pt
- Rows per page
- 18
You are not the first person to stand at a bench not knowing what you are doing, and you will not be the last. An apprentice picks up most of a trade by watching, by being corrected, and by getting it wrong in front of somebody who has already seen it wrong before. None of that survives the day unless it gets written down before the next job erases it.
Prompt pages ask plain questions: what you watched, what you got wrong, and what you would do differently if the same job came around again. They are kept short on purpose, because a long form goes unfilled and a short one gets used.
A trade is mostly learned by repetition, and repetition is exactly what memory is bad at holding in order. This book just keeps the order straight.
What is inside
- Notes
- 28pp
- Ruled space for a measurement, a correction, or a term worth looking up twice.
- Prompt
- 16pp
- Short, specific questions asked often enough that they actually get answered.
- Reflection
- 24pp
- Set apart from the daily notes, so a pattern in your own mistakes gets seen before it repeats.
- Reference
- 12pp
- An owner page and the standard reference tables at the back of the book.
The film
Page by page
A vertical film from our own bench — this page contacts nobody's server to play it, and downloads nothing until you press play.
Real pages
Made at the Hibrkraft bindery, Bogor · about the maker
Books that sit alongside it
- Five-Year Line a DayWorks alongsideshares personal-writing
- Gratitude LedgerWorks alongsideshares personal-writing
- Hajj and Umrah JournalWorks alongsideshares personal-writing
- Pregnancy JournalWorks alongsideshares personal-writing
- Reading JournalWorks alongsideshares personal-writing
- Session JournalWorks alongsideshares personal-writing
- Weekly Review JournalWorks alongsideshares personal-writing
Questions
Is it dated?
No. Start it whenever you start the apprenticeship, or partway through it.
What is on the prompt pages?
Short questions about what you watched, what you got wrong, and what you would do differently.
How is it ruled?
Lined, front to back, plain enough for numbers and notes both.
Who is it for?
Anyone learning a trade by doing it under someone else's eye.
Does it grade my work?
No. It has no rubric and no score. It only gives you somewhere to put what happened.
All work that brings honest gain is honourable, whether it be of hand or mind.
