WORKING HANDS: Vanesa Zendejas

As a stationery brand, we are always curious how and what people use our stationery goods for. With this blog series, focusing on the hands at "work" and beyond, we ask five questions about the usage and meaning of the stationery tools to our friends in Los Angeles.

For our sixth and the very first post of the year, we visited a LA based artist, Vanesa Zendejas' studio in Eagle Rock neighborhood with her 3-year-old son, Aadi.

Vanesa Zendejas leans over a work table beside a child drawing, with colored pencils and notebooks spread out.

Q1. What do you do with Ito Bindery’s Drawing Pad, Margin gridded notebook & Mitsubishi colored pencils? What do you like about these stationeries?

The sketch pad and colored pencils are such a great pair because the color contrasts so nicely on the Kraft paper. It reminds me of art school where you rely heavily on Kraft paper because it’s often free at school, but it also teaches you not to treat a blank surface as necessarily empty. I love drawing with my son on this paper. And I only take notes, plot plans, and budget on gridded paper. I need parameters always, it allows me to think within a real space.

Two hands drawing together with colored pencils on a Kraft sketch pad, making looping purple and yellow marks.
Aadi and Vanesa drawing together, using the Mitsubishi colored pencils on the Kraft sketch pad.

Studio desk with stacked notebooks, a bundle of paper, a black caddy, and a leather key holder with keys. Studio desk corner with stacked boxes, a yellow tape measure, and a concrete stool against a white wall.
Vanesa's studio desk scene

Q2. In our technology driven world, what does it mean to make things by your hand to you?

It exercises an important part of my brain, I only get this satisfaction from making, drawing, building, hiking, biking, and cleaning. When I don’t do these physical things, I feel lost, it’s just a deep need I have. Maybe it’s how I’ve developed my relationship to the world around me. It definitely keeps me looking up, constantly observing, as opposed to down at my phone.

Vanesa Zendejas leans over a workbench in her studio beside a child drawing with an orange pencil.

Q3. Pencils or Mechanical Pencils?

Mechanical. So consistent.

Wooden stamp with a lattice pattern, a yellow Papermate mechanical pencil and a metal ruler on canvas.
A graphic patterned stamp, Papermate mechanical pencil and skinny mini ruler

Q4. What’s in your pen case? How do you store your stationeries?

Many felt tipped pens, brush pens, plastic fountain pen, all different colors. Paper is often stored in flat plastic bins, keeps them clean. In the desert you have to protect everything from dust.

Pink enamel mug with brown livestock brand symbols holding pencils, scissors and a brush beside a metal tin.
An enamel mug with livestock branding from a thrift store in the desert. A tin storage to store markers and pens.

Clear acrylic pen stand filled with pens and pencils beside a frosted drawer unit holding beads and minerals.
A pen stand & Vanesa's minerals and beads collection in a drawer.

Vanesa Zendejas practicing lettering in an open notebook at a desk covered with pens, markers and stamps.

Q5. What is your most favorite stationery?

Any traditional handmade Japanese paper. Or anything hot press.

Loose blue and purple pencil scribbles on kraft paper, with a blue pen resting beside the sketchbook.

Adult and child hands writing in an open MD Notebook beside a scatter of colorful pens and markers.

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Vanesa Zendejas is a LA based artist. She recently moved from the high desert back to Los Angeles where she now works, sometimes alongside 3-year-old son Aadi.

@vzseez

WORKING HANDS: Vanesa Zendejas

RELATED PRODUCTS

Drawing Pad/ A4 / ITO BINDERY

Dermatograph Soft Colored Pencil / Mitsubishi

Margin Notebook/ A5 (LIFE)

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