After an afternoon off yesterday…

I managed a bit of college-related work this afternoon.

You may remember that I wrote that I’d changed my mind about making books.

Never believe anything I write. In my pattern sorting out I came across some illegible instructions for making triangle books, which I’ve always wanted to do. Despite being unable to read the very small print, even with a magnifying glass, which led to cutting the paper for the concertina too small, I managed this. The photo [same one twice] is of crumpled foil/litter, presumably dumped from someone's sandwiches. To give you an idea of scale, that tinsel-like stuff is a pipe cleaner – pressed into service when I realised the book was not going to stay shut. I covered the cover with what my friendly DIY man tells me is ‘self-adhesive aluminium flashing’.

Then, flushed with success, I did something else I’ve been meaning to do for a while. I’d made and coloured the paper rolls, collected the sticks and made the plastic bag cord – I just hadn’t got round to assembling them.

This – as yet nameless, if only because I'm beginning to have problems remembering the names - was inspired by a Japanese technique for storing chillies in the excellent book Basketry Projects from Baskets to Grass Slippers. Not that the author, Hisako Sekijima, uses anything as trashy as newspaper and plastic.

I’ve come to the conclusion that what I like making most are these woven/baskety/3D things, combining natural objects and rubbish. And I like photographing all my ULOs in their natural environment – too much exposure to land art, perhaps?

Land art for the littering society?