I need to invent a waterproof sketchbook. Recently while soaking in a Japanese hot tub, I contemplated the surrounding fence. It was a collage of at least ten japanese fence constructions. I felt the need to sketch and draw in the water. I noticed the proportions and how joints fit together in this fence. It is tempting to recreate designs. We see them here and want to put them there. My mind wandered. I have been warned about that but I can’t help it. If the mind wanders, let it do what it wants. What if the techniques inspired other forms of design? I went home and pulled out a sketchbook that I took with me to Japan years earlier. I remembered a quick color sketch that I did as I walked through Kyoto. The photos from this trip are archived on my computer somewhere and the sketch is bound with the book, sitting on my shelf. Sketches and field notes are artifacts that float in the creative well, and easily accessed. Perhaps one day, this fence idea will become scalable and will inspire something unrelated to a fence.