Rediscovering the Spark

I've been struggling for two months now to find my creativity.

Working on all the Christmas presents just felt like obligations. Stuff I had to do and not necessarily projects I was super excited about.

But I did them, distributed them, and then found myself left with the overwhelming sense of panic of needing to do something. My brain was slow to catch up on the fact that we currently didn't have any obligations shouting in our face. I was free to work on whatever I liked.

So, I cast on Orchid Thief, which I showed a little preview of last post, to try and calm my brain.

I've been burning right through it. I'm almost through the 3rd color of the body with 2 more to go.

But I decided to take a break from it for a couple days to get an idea out of my head.

I found this really cool film at Pat Catan's that looked like copper metal.

It was just begging to be made into a Steampunk style journal.

So, that's what I did.

I combined leather with the film and used a nice, thick kraft paper for the text block.

A burgundy velvet ribbon bookmark, some fanciful gears, and other copper decorations finished it off.

And you better believe this baby is staying with me.

After I finished this one, I figured "eh, got the stuff out already. Might as well make another!"

And that's where this one came from.

I've been wanting to do embroidery on a cover for quite a while, but figured it would be a ginormous pain in the ass.

I was right.

And that's why the back isn't embroidered as well.

But I still love the results.

And yes, I'm keeping this one, too. I bled for it.

I'm especially happy with the bookmark. I used the same twisting technique that I made the ties on Jamie's hat with.

I don't think I'll be making anymore embroidered ones anytime soon, but damnit, if my brain hasn't already come up with a million more designs that would look awesome.

I think it's time to pick Orchid Thief back up, though, and see if my Wooly Demon patron is back from vacation. I might just finish it before the weekend is over. Which means I'll only have a week's worth of time in it.

Ah, welcome back, old me. I've missed you.