Saturday, April 03, 2010

Remains of the Games

So it's begun: I've pulled out all the ephemera I collected during the games and have begun working on my ROD journal. It's covering the entire desk at the moment and I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed by the piles.

In the right hand corner, you can peek at the fabric I found for the cover. The outside of the cover will be the stripey green blue and gold fabric and the inside cover will be the blue that's peeking out at the bottom of the fabric pile. The dotted ribbon on top of the pile will become the closure.

I have so much stuff I had to pull out the keyboard tray on the computer desk beside my workspace and plunk some of it there. Of course now that I've pulled everything out, I have to work on this till I'm finished. I don't want to keep putting it away and taking it out. There's just too much stuff!

A sea of ephemera! There's barely enough room for my sewing machine!


Somehow I have to make sense of all this. There's a beautiful Remains of the Day journal full of my memories in there somewhere!

I was collecting things every day during the Games and my teammates thought I was nuts. I picked up a discarded Opening Ceremonies ticket on opening night. It was lying on the ground outside the stadium and I saw it on my walk to Yaletown to catch the Skytrain home. It was soaking wet, but I picked it up anyway, stuck in in my backpack and forgot about it for a few days. It dried out just fine and now it will find a place in my journal.

I was able to also get alot of printed matter that has maps and venue information and all kinds of info pertaining to the Games and the city. I've cut out the bits and pieces I want to use.


I have a basket on the floor full of stuff. Like I said, my desk is overflowing. On the top of the pile here are giant stickers, among other things.

I also have a box next to that that has even more stuff! The shiny stuff in this box is the foil ticker tape that would fall from the ceiling of the stadium after each Victory Ceremony each night. On top are some of the pages I've started to sew.
I haven't printed my photos from the Games yet. I was afraid that might add to the overwhelm and I want to add them after the pages are put together. My plan is to have them printed and then take them and colour copy them so I can size them down to fit. I prefer to use colour copies anyway-it gives you more leeway with what you do to the actual photo.
So..that's what I will be up to in the studio this Easter weekend. I've got a few other things planned, but I'll post about them later, when I have photos to share. Off to put the pedal to the metal!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow - I can see why you feel overwhelmed! This is going to be an awesome journal, My best advice? Just pick up a piece and make it work. Don't overthink it - you already have a "theme", so to speak, so everything will go with everything else - just have fun!

Herm said...

Since you have a lot of ephemera, make 2 or 3 journals, or make them larger in size, I'm sure it will take you a while, take your time!!!
Herm (ROD)

Elizabeth said...

I love your pile of Olympic stuff. I like to shuffle things around periodically and just grab one element(sometimes two) that really speaks to you. Start with that and the creative gene kicks in and you won't know how to stop. At least it does for me.
Good luck...I can't wait to see your finished product.

Laure said...

To borrow an advertising tag line, just do it. Over-thinking is the problem (from my personal experience) so trust your instincts and start. It will be wonderful and I can't wait to see the finished creation!

Jo Reimer said...

What I'm thinking is that you need a large book, maybe 8x10 or so, and don't do it in the ROD format. Make it just like Mary Ann taught us but without the slipcover idea. Make a front and a back and a soft spine which could be fabric only or fabric stiffened with something like several thicknesses of interfacing fused together. Make the pages like she advised with all the sewing and ephemera but on pages that will be 20" wide x 10" high and make the book about 2" thick. That should handle all you need. but then there's volume 1 and volume 2. You have a natural division, Volume 1: Olympics 2010 and Volume 2: ParaOlympics 2010.
Don't overthink the project. Just dive in and do it. You already have your color scheme and your theme. Make 3 pages TODAY.