Monday, April 05, 2010

Olympic ROD Journal : Progress Report

So in my last post about my Olympic ROD journal, you saw my desk and surrounding area piled high with ephemera. It was very overwhelming! After posting to the ROD group about not knowing where to start, I got plenty of good advice.

One thing that was suggested was that I take the piles and sort them more specifically. I function best when things are organized (anyone whose seen my studio gets that right away!) so that seemed like a good idea.

I pulled out some baskets and small boxes and broke the piles down further and further. Of course I needed somewhere to put the baskets, so I hauled out a folding chair and plunked it down next to my desk. That worked really well!

Here's the sorting in one of the baskets. It's food ephemera (yes, really!), tissue ephemera, clothing tags and some larger papers.

This basket held Olympic postage, tickets and envelopes. Some of the tickets were ours and some I recycled from events where I am volunteering. I can't believe people just tossed them on the floor! Oh well-their loss was my gain!


These piles are maps, stickers, photos (just a very few-I haven't printed mine yet) and postcards.


Then there was the Paralympic pile with stuff from torch bearing and a Canadian pile on the keyboard pull out on my computer desk.


I sewed like a madwoman all weekend and this is what I have to show for it! Three completed signatures of about 10 pages each! On the advice from Mary Ann Moss, I edited the piles as I went along, only including those things which meant the most to me. It allowed me to weed out a fair bit, but I still had plenty to work with.


It's a very chunky monkey and I love it. It's so satisfying to hold this stack in my hand! Now I am going to work on the cover. Usually I would make the cover first, but I wanted to be sure I would have enough room to fit the signatures in, so I elected to do it after I'd sewn them.

I didn't have time to keep a paper journal when the Games were going on-I was working 14 hour days and was far too exhausted by the time I got home to do much more than catch a few minutes of Games highlights on the news, say hello to my guys, grab a snack and go to bed.

Luckily though, I did post here (which I suppose is its own form of journalling) so I can go back to my posts to remember what happened each day and write more in depth about my experiences. I am excited about the prospect of this, as there were days that seem like a blur now.

So onto designing the cover, which I am going to start this afternoon. I Have some ideas about what I want to do, so I need to sketch it out and figure out the measurements. I'll keep ya posted on my progress!

8 comments:

Nancy Lynn said...

Thanks so much for sharing your progress. I have been following your Olympic experience since Day 1 and loving it. Thanks for sharing this so we could also feel the excitement that you had from afar.

Michelle @ Give a Girl a Fig said...

These are SO COOL. What a great keepsake! I love those ROD journals...someday when I have some extra moulah I want to take the course!

Robin said...

Oooh! What a satisfying handful! Good work!

jan b. said...

I love the brochure(?) with the colorful hands. It looks like it is saying "pick me, pick me". This will indeed be a journal to treasure. Can't wait to see more of your pages and of course, the cover too!

michelle allen said...

i would be overwhelmed too. what great advice. i'll have to remember that in the future. loving the look of you book already, can't wait to see the cover!

Monkey Mind said...

Awesome progress! I've been following your plight on the Yahoo ROD group and I was worried about you....so glad it's all coming together for you. Keep us posted.

Karenann Young said...

Your ROD looks awesome!!! It must have been hard to weed out stuff but it looks like you did a great job!!!

Pilar said...

Oh, I hope you made a flip of your journal and pages when they are completed. It is hard to edit especially when you have so many pieces of ephemera from such a special event. I, too, can't believe people just ditched their tickets. I am sure they will look splendid in your book.
xoxoxoxox