Felt upset a couple days later, tried to draw a cupcake to make myself feel better. Turns out cupcakes are hard to draw. That frosting, man. So I looked up a picture of a muffin instead and drew that. Not sure if that made me feel better or not.
Got depressed about how un-creative I’ve been. So I drew a picture of an anteater. Then I felt a bit better.
So I visited Amsterdam. Had a good time, would recommend. Sadly the Natural History Museum was under renovation/closed, but the zoo was open as well as a really, really great Microbes exhibit. I really hope it tours, was quite fantastic. Enjoyment of visit was increased by the company of my sister who has a PhD in BioChem and proved to be quite familiar with lots of microbe details.
(not only did she know lots of facts, she also exclaimed “Cool! Ants! I love ants!” when we reached the leaf cutter exhibit)
I would like to mention that I am extremely fond of the series Maniac on Netflix. It stands somewhere between a TV series and a movie and it’s just so very perfect. The aesthetic, the world building, the narrative structure, the acting, the music, the story… just… everything. Would very much recommend, though if you don’t like the first episode there’s no hope in you enjoying the rest of it.
While I have never written the phrase “the pattern is the pattern” before, it sits very close to various stoned scribblings I’ve notebooks full of. Tried twice to capture it in embroidery but failed both times. The first (red text) was done while high and the second was done while sober, referencing a screen shot. Neither captures what I’d like it to, alas. Maybe I’ll keep trying.
Being sick is the worst… Picked up airplane crud on my flight back from Amsterdam. :(
In other news, I’ve no new crafts to post about. Turns out a switch flipped in my brain and for the last month I’ve taken to writing fiction. Very odd, that. I’ve done so before, back around college mostly, but haven’t written for ages… Not saying any of it’s good, but I’m a little surprised by the intensity it’s gripped me. Approx 60k words in a month… wonder how long it’ll last for. I still have a quilt I’m supposed to be working on…
We caught the last couple hours of the SF Moby Dick Marathon, sadly just missing our friend’s section. Have never read it or heard it before, but still thought it was super great. Looking forward to next year! Maybe will catch the beginning rather than the end of the story?
Adam has read aloud several of the of the narratives from Gödel, Escher, Bach these past couple weeks. Extremely enjoyable and much more sense-making than I remembered from my brush with it back in college. Last night was Prelude… from the start of Part II.
Am happy to have finally tried out the “embroider cover” idea. Given my failure with foil and my resistance to going to the bindery for projects, I’ve very little titling options at home. I think the process worked out as well as it could, technically, and I’m not wild about it. Fabric/font was meant to be jarring due to title/subject matter. Was reminded of @bzedan‘s cover art for The Audacity Gambit while I worked, it having a similar sort of vintage/retro art/crafted item as cover art look….
The reason as to why I’d bind that book is convoluted and delightfully amusing though not easily explained. I remain happy with my efforts to bind printed books while also very aware that I am still in need of practice. They’re cute but notably amateurish in construction.
Was thrilled to finally take the Orientation to Leather class at the SF Center for the Book. As part of the class we were given our own knives, which we then had to sharpen. My ability to correctly gage a 13° angle is apparently not as strong as I imagined it would be. Then learned to pair leather and familiarized ourselves with with a Scharf-Fix. Am pretty sure leather is not the medium for me, I’m still gnashing my teeth at how I tore my piece on the that final pass through the machine.
Today was the first day at my new job. I am thrilled to be working again. In other news, I spent one of my last days of freedom binding a copy of Madness and Civilization.
One and half more finished monsters. The white legs need more detailing and I dropped the golden limbed one at the towards the end, snapping its forearms. They don’t sit quite as well now, which breaks my heart.
So much time spent in our back room this month… the sunsets lately have been quite lovely and I’m winding down on the latest set of book body monsters. Sadly I accidentally killed my pot plant… lasted longer than I thought it would!
The Little Prince, bound as the head of a fox. Legible, quite cute, and delightfully weighted to give it sturdy balance.