I might be feeling better....[art projects!]

Between finding ways to mitigate some stress, work going well, and it being spring, I seem to have found a stash of creative lately.
First, asciikitty has been teaching me to use a drop spindle.

Here are the results:

I've been practicing, particularly while listening to audiobooks/podcasts. The current plan is to ply and felt it. So. lumpy. Oh. And quiet_elegance just saw the spindle I've been using and brought me one of his own. Exciting!

Then yesterday I was walking home and I saw a box of books abandoned in my neighborhood. Among them was a single volume of a mid 1970s encyclopedia. I don't know why I struck on hollow books, but I did and so rescued it from an ignoble end in the rain... to be butchered on art's sacrificial alter. It will be transformed!

Here's how far I got today:
to  
I have plans to put some marbled paper in the hollow.

What's interesting is that both endeavors are collaborative with quiet_elegance. He is making drop spindles and is learning how to spin that way, too. I guess that's more of a tandem hobby. The books will be very much a collaboration. He is helping me out with a lot of the implementation and problem-solving. His world, my medium. Since my employer may well have a constant stream of nearly-to-free books for me to take home, I can see this second one going places. And even if they somehow get through all the weeding that needs to happen, there are very few places for old encyclopedias can live out their retirement. And so on.

I may not be able to use my preferred medium of polymer clay these days, but at least I'm finding new ways to stay creative.