buckling down.

here's the first picture of the unpeeled button board and my efforts to sort out the security envelope collections. soon enough i will have my office cleared enough to take over some wall space. hopefully. it still isn't remotely set up since our return. craft fairs, making things and holidays have totally destroyed (i mean, enriched) my life in the past month and taken my attentions from domestic concerns. speaking of wayward attentions, i spent a good part of today going through envelopes...



...from odette in quebec...



...from rachel in pennsylvania...



...and, finally, from nicole in indiana.

although, on the whole, these do not represent the wildest contributions i have received, everything up there is new. many of those patterns are variations on patterns i already have (the scrutinizing of which has become way easier with the button board). the teal ones are another example of corporate colour branding, but exciting nonetheless. also, now that i am sorting and resorting the master collection on the button board, i am truly coming to appreciate the impact of presenting subtle variations en masse. i need another board. all that said, the pattern with the cascading cubes/optical illusion from nicole's contribution is totally new and different to me.

after all these new additions, my collection has now reached 232 patterns. last night i had a dream that i reached 400 patterns (yes, i am dreaming about this now). i wonder if there are, indeed, another 168 patterns and variants out there. i know i have some good stuff waiting in queue. dare to dream.

you will also notice that one of the envelopes in nicole's contribution has a number on it. i have been saving all these identifying markings in case i manage to do a bit of deeper research into the creation/origins of these designs. there is a real dissection feel to the processes involved in documenting, cleaning and preparing the envelopes for use. i should probably do a little pictorial on that. it's a real every-part-of-the-buffalo routine.

i should also mention that one of the pictures i took yesterday ended up being the photo of the day on cbc radio 3. the blog post it is featured in also outlines a few other interesting image-based projects that cbc radio 3 has initiated through flickr. i recommend taking a look. it's pretty cool stuff. i originally found out about their flickr pool through serena whose amazing photo was featured by them on canada day. my little screw around pales deeply in comparison.