Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Altered Book Experiment


So much seems new in my world - art techniques and greatly expanded ways of looking at paper, glue, scissors and paint!  Lenna http://creativelenna.blogspot.com has kindly and generously shared a few of her altered books with me, and in the spirit of adventure have decided to try this out.  As good fortune would have it, I found two wonderful books to alter at my local library book sale.  Have created scrapbook pages for several years,  (mostly photos of grandkids, so lots of bright, primary colors, and handy, pre-printed 12x12 theme papers) and you know I am a quilter, but mixed-media collage feels totally different.  The best discovery I've made is the use of gel medium to smooth, to adhere, to add translucency..... Here are a few photos of this first work-in-progress.

Original cover


Inside pages

Altered cover in progress

Finished cover

Frontispiece

Verso title page

Day 1 text

Day 1 art

Day 2 text

Day 2 art

7 comments:

  1. I think you have made a grand start to your altered book - I like that it is spiral bound; makes it easier to work on your pages.

    Just do what you think looks best - there are no rules and it is YOUR book and YOUR art!! I've seen some butt-ugly altered book pages and I've also seen some absolutely stunning ones too.

    Have fun!

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  2. Thanks Joy. You're right, spiral bound is good. Every day is a journey and we can only travel our own road.....

    Happy Thanksgiving!!

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  3. I think you have made a fantastic start, Susan. I am so excited you are doing this! Think of your book as a place to play, to have fun, to experiment. You may not like everything you do, but you will learn what you like and what you don't. I love the window on the cover and the fact that you are journaling and creating collages. Your blog is looking awesome too!
    : ) happy thanks giving, lenna

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  4. Thanks for all your encouragement!

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  5. Hey wow! You've got off to a flying start! You must just go with what feels good to you - so what if no one else likes it, it's yours and you love it! It's quite brave to put it on your blog for all to see but the beauty of blogland is that while 'we' might not particularly 'like' every single thing that's been made, we all understand the need to do it and the love that goes into it. That will always be encouraged and cherished.

    I love the honesty of your pages and the colour choices. Is that really a photo of you as a baby? Cute cute cute!

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  6. Wow! All these supportive comments from friends and strangers (who won't be for long, I can tell!)

    Joanna says I'm brave - little does she know..... Before I retired, I was a catalog librarian. The first time I created an original OCLC catalog record to send out into the entire world (Google WorldCat) for really experienced librarians to see and perhaps scoff at, I felt as if a part of me had just been born. Likewise, posting on this new blog, is a form of birth. A different me, much bolder than in any previous incarnation.

    And yes, that is me as a baby - just before my 1st b-day, with my mother in Boston, Mass.

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