Simply Curious

I've been trying to keep myself amused while waiting for the postman to bring me stuff. (Hurry up! Creative urges don't last long!)

Amusement 1 was borrowing the Da Vinci Code from the library. Probably a bad idea. The historian in me says, oh, wow, what? And then I run off to look up Da Vinci and Mona Lisa and the Knights Templar and Paris and cryptography and special encoded keys and it'll be a while before I finish this book.

As for Amusement 2, I went to Miniatures in the Attic today - possibly for the last time. In the back of my mind are all my projects and the specific items I want/need for them. Because of the book, I'm thinking about history and archeology, and because of the miniature shop, I'm thinking of my Archeologist's Study.


I'm planning to create a web page for the room, but I keep thinking, "I want to add THIS first before I take a picture." There's a lot of THIS going on. More furniture to display things on, more things to display on the furniture. It's hard to find 'just the right thing.' I started thinking about how it needed more books, and started looking around at books, and then started looking at the really NICE miniature books and then, while looking at those, up popped "I can do that."

Well, what else have you got to do? Dig under the bed for an old leather purse. Find a little detachable mirror inside with a perfect small leathery grain inside. Get the X-Acto knife. Take mirror apart. Find parchment paper that doesn't seem to end. Measure and cut. Remember old envelopes with really shiny pretty insides. By some small miracle, go right to them and pull them out. Cut apart, measure, cut. Get glue everywhere. Mess with metal bits until you decide not to bother. Find some bunka and tie. Say "whoa, I did that."

Run tell the world.



Plan the next book, and how to make it better.

*UPDATE, a few hours later*

and here's the next book. This time I used a block of balsa to represent the pages. Turned out better, at least they cooperated by staying in place! I scored the page edges with a knife and painted it gold.

I really lucked out with the leather for this one. I had an old wallet that was apparently really good quality. It had the flower embossed on the outside, and on the inside had ridged leather for where the wallet bent as it opened and closed. I used the ridged for the side of the book, although it's a bit hard to see in this picture. (had a hard time with reflections, may try again later.)

I still need to figure what to do about the edge of the leather so the white doesn't show. Perhaps a little paint?

I'm pleased with the results. And since I've run out of purses and wallets for the moment, I think I'll stop for the evening.