Sketchbook Exchange

What’s a Sketchbook Exchange?

It’s exactly what it sounds like: you and a friend take turns filling pages in a shared sketchbook and mailing it back and forth. What goes in it is entirely up to you — drawings, paintings, collage, journal entries, photographs, recipes, lists, questions, bad ideas, good ones. There are no rules. All you need is a notebook and someone you want to make things with.

How to get started

  1. Get yourself a notebook. Think about what you want to do in it — paint, draw, write, collage — and pick a size that’s easy to carry around and won’t cost a fortune to mail.
  2. Find a friend, family member, or colleague who’s up for something a little different.
  3. Fill some pages. Notes, drawings, lists, whatever’s on your mind. Don’t overthink it.
  4. Tuck it in an envelope and send it off.
  5. When it comes back to you, take your time with it. Leave comments right on the pages, add post-its, paste in notes — or just sit with it for a while before you respond.
  6. Fill your pages. Let their work inspire you, or go in a completely different direction.
  7. Send it back. Keep going.

Gallery

About Me

I’m Victoria Griffith and I am enthusiastic about a LOT of things. Pine trees and mushrooms and the desert. Mountains and motorcycles, travel and photography. Friendship and writing and books and surviving the love of your life’s terminal diagnosis.


I read constantly, think about reading obsessively, and have strong opinions about what makes a great memoir. I write about books here, and I’m working on one of my own.

I was born in Paterson, NJ, call Seattle home, and spend winters in the desert of Southern California, where the light is different and the ocotillos are doing something extraordinary. I try to get out and see as much of the world as time and money will allow.

If you’d like to say hi, you can reach me at vgriff@vgriff.com.

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