A Bit of Bling!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

My Altered Book Project - A New Year!




Happy New Year!  The silly season is over and I am back to my altered book.

This page was done using the word 'flock' from the page for inspiration. You will notice you cannot see it from the original text.. Why?  I painted over it inadvertently and funnily enough did not notice until near the end of painting.  I thought the silly season was over, obviously I am wrong.  The sheep are in various shades of the red family in keeping with the scarlet theme.

I have collected a few quotes for this page but I am still deciding whether to use them or not.

I used Gesso, acrylic paint and my trusty Tombow markers for this page. I love the Tombow markers, they are easy to use and they have such a lovely big range of colours to choose from.

I also found this interesting article by Victor Epand while I was browsing ezinearticles.com.  So for those of you not familiar with altered books it is worth reading.


Altered used books are a completely new way to change a used book from its original state to create a new work of art that many individuals and artists alike have recently found to be an enjoyable form of expression. Normally, the artist or individual will take old, used books that no longer have any value left due to the fact that their pages have been worn in the purpose of creating a new form of value in it once again.
For individuals and artist to be able to create this altered book then these individuals or artists may want to cut or tear the pages, then they might use glue or paints to add collages, gold effects, or pop ups to their new creations. These altered books have been known to have pockets created within their pages to hold tags, rock, or other memorabilia while some other altered books have had their shape completely changed. Artists of this new form of art work seem to be very found of various types of Victorian art work, which adds a type of antique look to these newly devised used books. Altered books have become so popular that they are being offered at many famous art galleries and all over the Internet, which is due to their uniqueness.
Altering books takes creativity and patience along with any used books that could stand to be recycled. Bound used books are used to create this new form of art through what ever means the artist may decide, which can be used as a conversation piece or as even as a journal. Some individuals alter used books to help them to work through personal or emotional issues or for many other reasons that are unknown to the viewer. Some of these altered used books may create certain themes, while others strictly express the personality of the artist.
Altering books actually began back during the medieval era. During this period it was very common for individuals to reuse their parchment for economic reasons, which was done by either scraping, rubbing, or simply covering the original text. This early form of altering books was known as palimpsest. Now during modern times, artists may paint, type, draw, and create different types of collages on every single page as a way to create clusters within the original text to express new forms of poetry.
The different types of materials and equipment that individuals and artists will use to create these altered books include a variety of decorative scissors, paper punches, a variety of rubber stamps and inks, paints, fibers, brads, embellishments, eyelets, and buttons. Other material may include chalks of regular and pastel colors, pens, markers, ribbons, tissue paper, beads, charms, cording, feathers, lace, different types of fabric, napkins, rhinestones, and any other material that the individual feels comfortable with using. The terrific thing surrounding this new form of art is that ultimately any type of object can be used in a variety of ways to create some unique form of art.
Victor Epand is an expert consultant about used books, autographed books, and Vedic books. When shopping for books, we recommend only the best bookstores foraltered used booksautographed books.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Victor_Epand



Saturday, December 12, 2009

My Altered Book Project



Another page!

I have used the words from the page - FOUND Poetry!

eyes
gaze
eyes
peeping
eyes
what art thou?







Paints used were Gesso, Lavender acrylic, and  red and blue gouache. I have made an effort to use colours from the shades of red in keeping with the title 'Scarlet Letter'.  The gold is acrylic paint and was applied using bubble wrap. My penmanship was done with gold ink and the pages were first sealed with Matt Spray and then a layer of Modge Podge.

Each of the pages in the book has a different texture which makes one want to rub their hands on the page.  Am not sure this is a good thing or not but as I sit and turn the pages of the book I feel satisfied it is all turning out okay.

I have used an optical illusion - in three pieces and have written eye quotes and facts on the pages.  The photo doesn't look as interesting as the page close up in real life - there is a lot to see and  read and of course I have yet to add the little extra dangly bits to my pages.

The book is nothing like  I imagined it to be - all the bits and pieces I have gathered with intentions of using are sitting unused bar one piece of handmade paper.  I have just gone with the flow of creativity 'at the 'moment'.  This is a very enjoyable activity!








http://astore.amazon.com/theho0a-20

Sunday, December 6, 2009

My Altered Book Project


Another page completed!

I found the word 'fashion' so I decided to revolve my theme around this. Not that I am a fashion plate myself, far from it.  But the quote I used is me to a tee. I painted the page in gesso first and then painted the pages red using acrylic paint. It had to be red - I love RED!

Modge Podge was used  to seal the cut-outs I will be using.





I used a quote by Bill Bliss - When in doubt, wear red.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Altered Book Project



Laugh all you like!  I admit I am no artist. These are the first pages of my book.  The title reads "Good Earth Below!  What is the naughty woman doing to my book? The "naughty" was actually a world from the page - I left it to show. The wrinkles in the page are not so evident now which is pleasing.



These pages are centred around the word riddle.






What am I? MUSIC

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

My Altered Book Project

What a week it has been!  I glued a few pages together and wasn't happy when I left it to dry and goodness gracious I was not a Happy Jan when I took it out from under the weight and saw this!





What a disaster!  So I do confess, I have been sulking!  I have sulked for a week and am now over it and am moving ahead with a smile on my face because truth be known I probably have more wrinkles on my face than the book and they don't bother me.


So while I was recovering from this little trauma in my life I went on a group ride to a picnic. As luck would have it a nice man called James Mandy took his video camera and filmed the event!  Sixty scooters mostly Vespa, Piaggio  or Gilera combined to make the sound of one Harley and we scooted together through Perth to a picnic spot to celebrate riding scooters.  James has uploaded it to youtube and here is the link.  I am in it twice - once riding past the camera and once walking past some scooters.  I am in jeans and a red shirt in the walking bit and a black and pink scooter jacket in the ride past. Have a peek if you wish to see if there are more wrinkles on me than on this page above! LOL
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlEVW7MA9rw


Back to the book....
So I decided to stitch a few pages together - I had tried this with a few scrap pages but it looked a little too neat and tidy for what I wanted so I went for a more rustic look in the book.  I have used linen thread and a darning needle.  It is going to blend in perfectly with what I have planned for these pages.  So I am quite a lot happier now.






I made a trip to the hardware store today and purchased some Gesso both in black and white. and have applied some black to the first pages leaving exposed one word - naughty!  It reflects how I felt tearing the pages out of the book!  This photo shows how badly wrinkled the page is but this is a warts and all sort of blog so I suppose it fits in nicely. This project is a big learning curve for me!















The pages actually look better now the Gesso has dried so now I am quite excited about moving on to the next bit!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

My Altered Book Project

My fingers have been in the glue!  I love gluing things together but this time I am a little worried - I haven't got the result I was expecting. But having said that I don't really know what to expect, I have never seen an altered book other than in photos on the net! I now have my book sitting between some heavy boxes and my fingers are firmly crossed all will be okay when the glue dries.  Good or bad result?  I will have photos tomorrow!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

My Altered Book Project








These are the pieces for the first pages - yet to be sealed and of course I haven't written the caption yet. The earth and Mr H are not going to be this close together on the pages - I just put them close together to photograph them. I am also in the process of making a Scarlet letter to represent Hester which will also sit on these first pages.  From the letter I will have a small cord dangling with a pearl bead attached to represent Hester's daughter Pearl. I am in two minds as to whether to paint or tint  the background or leave the print visible.  I think I will sleep on this!  Now I am also hunting down some quotes suitable to the theme of the page - I know what I want as I spotted it when tearing the pages the other day- just need to find it amongst the text.

Now for the observant who have noticed - I have a thread to place between the eyeglass and the ear! Silly me didn't photograph it!

I have been looking for some flat head brads and so far I have been unsuccessful. It would be great if I had time to scoot all over the place looking for them but the scrap booking shops here in Perth are scattered all over the suburbs so I will have to wait until Saturday to resume my hunt.  The good thing about this I will be able to take some photos of my hunting trip to share with you.

Today I bought some linen thread and I am going to stitch some spare pages together tonight to see if they look alright. Nothing on the first pages is going to be too bulky or heavy so the thread should be sufficient. A friend of mine suggested I should try using some jewelery wire - she thought it would look great so am keeping this in mind as well.

Altering books is a bit like playing chess - you have to think about every move!