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The Studio

Letters from a working artist's bench.

Technique notes, paper tests, and artist features written by GJ from his studio on Whidbey Island — and by the working artists who fill our books for a living. One email a week. No filler.

~1 / wk Written by GJ & the Leda team
Technique · 12 min read

Cream vs. white: why we landed on 120 gsm warm tone.

Six papers, four pens, three brushes. A controlled bleed-through, ghost, and tooth test against Moleskine and Stillman & Birn. We made the test public for the same reason we make our books — too much is hidden in this category.

Read the full test
By GJ Gillespie · Published April 2026
Technique · 8 min read
How to break in a Leda — the first ten pages.

The cover softens. The spine relaxes. Here's how the books we send become the ones you can't leave home without.

GJ Gillespie
Mar 22, 2026
Artist Feature · 14 min read
The plein-air kit of Pablo Martín Borda.

A Spanish illustrator on traveling light, the case for fountain pens, and what nine years of Leda books have taught him about edges.

Teresa Gillespie
Mar 14, 2026
Plein Air · 9 min read
Teresa's Whidbey Island watercolor kit.

Co-founder Teresa walks through what she carries to the beach — and what she's stopped carrying after twenty years.

Teresa Gillespie
Feb 28, 2026
Best for · 7 min read
Best sketchbook for fountain pens.

A working test of Odyssey against Moleskine Art and Stillman & Birn Beta on six common fountain-pen inks.

GJ Gillespie
Feb 12, 2026
From GJ · 6 min read
Three things I tell every art student about sketchbooks.

Thirty years in the studio. The advice I give when someone asks what to buy first.

GJ Gillespie
Jan 30, 2026
Paper Test · 10 min read
Watercolor on cream paper: how much wash is too much?

A field test of light-to-medium washes on the 120 gsm Odyssey. Where it works, where it stops, where to switch to the pad.

GJ Gillespie
Jan 18, 2026
Best for · 5 min read
Best Leda for travel: pocket vs. A5 vs. landscape.

Four trips. Three formats. The honest tradeoffs each one makes against a backpack and a window seat.

Teresa Gillespie
Jan 04, 2026
Artist Feature · 11 min read
From the studios of our brand ambassadors.

A short photo essay across six countries: how working artists actually use a Leda book day to day.

Leda Editorial
Dec 15, 2025
From GJ · 13 min read
On Arshile Gorky, transformation, and why we work in cream tone.

An essay on the painters who shaped how I think about paper, color, and what an artist's surface owes the work.

GJ Gillespie
Nov 28, 2025
Letters from the studio

One email a week from GJ. No filler.

New articles, technique guides, sketchbook drops, and 10% off your first book.