Books, books everywhere

or: proof I'm still on the ADHD focus-train

My obsession project continues apace.

All the pages for the hardcovers are cut, and I’m collating and checking there’s enough to reasonably¹ fill out the covers now. I’d planned about 80-ish pages per book, but the Reader’s Digest Condensed books I’m using for covers have really big spines. They’re chonky.

So I had to double my initial estimates. Doh.

The softcovers (which are Traveller’s Notebook-sized) are fine with their initial estimates (around 60-ish pages), so at least that’s going to plan.

See? Super chonky. I like leaving a lot of space for people to paste things inside, but this was 80 pages, and it was just too thin. So….more pages! :D

I also got a little distracted with another small book project.

Go figure. Distracted? Me? Never.

(cough, cough)

These are all made with a single page of 12”x12” printed paper. (Other than the accent bits for the bookmarks, and the inner pages on the journals, of course.)

They’re sets of laminated books². A large ribbon-closure journal, a small miniature one, a bookmark and bookmark sleeve, an ephemera pocket, and a triangle-shaped bookmark.

I had some extra printed paper, and I do love bookmarks, and here we are. I don’t know why I made like fifteen of them³. All I know is that I had two days of playing Fun With The Laminator, and now I’m back to the initial project(s).

An update on the wild clay foraging:

After drying out just a bit more, the clay I found by the road in Stella is freaking perfect. I wedged in some silica sand (to help keep it from exploding when fired), and have wrapped it up in plastic to save for when I’ve got a little more time.

I’m also planning on going back once J’s home from work (in a couple weeks), so he can help me carry a bucket or two of dirt⁴.

Also, a couple folks asked what I’m planning to do with it, and….

Y’all. I have no idea. I’m still half-stunned I got clay out of dirt to begin with.

I’m sort of planning to play around with hand-building. Stuff like pinch pots and coil-built things, and probably some bowls⁵.

I also have no idea how I’ll fire all of it, once I make can make things that don’t look like a sugar-addled five-year-old made them. There are a ton of tutorials on YouTube about firing without a kiln, so I’ll probably end up pit-firing them at some point, probably in the back yard. We’re still in a burn ban here, due to a fairly dry summer, and since I’d rather not light my state on actual fire, it won’t be for a while.

You can rest assured that I’ll be excitedly showing off all of that nonsense when it happens.

And now, predictably, I’m off to go play with paper some more.

If things go to plan⁶, I should be just about done with this latest episode of Fun With Hyperfocus by next week-ish. I’ve got a few other things I need to do this week, and Porkchop’s feeling a little neglected⁷, so I may try and ease off the frenetic paper-slinging here and there, too.

How’re y’all doing?

1. Well, “reasonably” as defined by me, and that may be a bit excessive for other people, but…I am what I am.

2. And yes, I may have bought a cheap laminator after finding this tutorial online. Since then, I’ve been laminating EVERYTHING. Menus and checklists and random things. Ollie’s lucky he doesn’t sit still for long, or I’d probably laminate him, too. Obsession, y’all. (sidenote on the footnote: laminators are freaking cheap. I remember them being something like a million dollars a decade or so ago, and now they’re <$20. So, of course, I got excited.)

3. Hyperfocus, that’s why, duh.

4. Dirt is surprisingly heavy, especially when it’s in a 5 gallon bucket. I had like half of a regular plastic shopping bag this last time and I swear I was getting swole just from carrying it in from the car.

5. I am also obsessed with bowls. Always have been. I buy pottery bowls pretty much everywhere I go, because I love them. The human heart is strange and wondrous.

6. spoiler alert: things never go to plan. The chaos fairies are persistent little boogers.

7. He’s convinced that I have not given him enough treats. I have, in fact, given him more than enough treats. But it is not enough treats, and he is disgruntled about it.