Back in the studio, bursting with inspiration

... and I know it's not just because of my new bouncy ball chair.

Last night I started a couple of weird projects.

The first represents another one a these bookbinding skills-for-home furnishings efforts.

It started with the bookboard cubes that I made to use as drawers in the too-tall cubbyholes in our closet. My, but they look cool, especially with fronts of Japanese paper.

And if they fall on your head, they won't knock you out like wood ones would.

The hardest part was figuring out the pulls. Because one is pulling the drawers out while standing on tippy-toes, the pull had to be at the bottom of the box. The first pulls I made out of keyring rings, and one promptly gouged its way through the attached ribbon and snapped.

More successful were the handles given at stores to handle (ha) large paper shopping bags. These handles are of thick metal wire and span the distance between the twiney in-built handles of the bag, adding strength and width.

So far they're holding up fine for bookboard drawers.

This latest project, for lack of a better term, involves making panes for the clear glass in the garage doors of the bindery, again with samples from my fine paper collection, and backing support courtesy of cut card.

I'll have to add some bookcloth for reinforcement and to protect the paper from tearing, but so far it seems like it's going to work. I do think I'll actually have to use velcro buttons or tape to make the panels stay in the windows.

It was kinda fun using magnets and a cloth curtain to give overnight guests privacy in the tango bindery, but they always hung so inelegantly and looked shabby.

These panels can be moved around or individually removed or installed, so I dig the flexibility. Also, some can be opaque, and others more see-through.

The other project involves a quandary.

In Chicago a silversmith friend and I collaborated on a book, me printing the text -- which consisted just of images -- and she did the cover out of silver. It was a jewel of a book, but she has the only silver-clad one, and I just came across a sheaf of the pages.

So I'm experimenting with a more traditional binding, thinking the book could be released as re-interpreted.

Lately, I've been loving the potentials and limits of the single-section book. It's so compactly beautiful, and presents the challenge of making something a good short read while also keeping the experience lush.

Lately, I have so many ideas for books.

I wonder if it's best to keep a list and chip away at it, or let the ones that come more forcefully get done first. Or should I focus on the ones that have been hanging around in my head the longest, presumably taking up creativity space for incoming ideas?