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Apr
10
Journal on making an Altered Book
April 10, 2007 |
[-process, journaling, found poetry-]
by Nancy Shepard Metzger Waldman
In the course of researching Altered Books for the January 2006 issue of The PCQ, I couldn’t resist tackling my first altered book. Here is the journal and some photos I made of the process and progress so far.
Take heart other beginners, from the lumpy pages and [way]less than professional results.
It’s a beginning!
ALTERED BOOK PROJECT
First Question—How can I mess with a book?
Tomes are SACRED, aren’t they?
So, I found a book in a give-away bag…Country Walks in Connecticut.
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Since I live in Nova Scotia now, I’m unlikely to use it ever again. Plus, it’s well-used already. Dog-earred and warped, it also has a very ugly stain on the cover and through the first 7 pages or so.
It’ll do. It has some lovely maps and black and white photos.
MAKING IT MANAGEABLE
1st step - glue pages together … eeek… it’s not easy for me to get over the feeling that I shouldn’t be doing this. I have to think of it as recycling, renewing, making art out of what has become a book no one wants.
It takes me a couple of hours to glue the pages. I used white craft glue diluted with water. It’s lumpy … but it worked!
NOW WHAT?
Since the book is about trails through the woods, I decide to make the art about a trail through the book….
I jot down words from the page that I like or that seem to relate to each other. The last word on the page is “connects.” This makes me smile!
JASPER JOHNS: “Do something…. do something to that…”
I color the words I want to HIGHLIGHT in CRAYON (goldenrod)… I try covering up the words I don’t want. First I use some brown ink that I’ve had forever. I like that I’m using what’s here … it looks nice on the page but the print shows through. ENTER: “Acrylic Colored Gesso, Unbleached Titanium” That should cover up anything…
I took digital photos of the book so far… then began modifying the photo of the photo on the righthand page. Put in loads of color - played with Hue & Saturation, Brightness & Contrast, Tone Adjustments, and Negative.
Tried to print out on TRANSPARENCIES but my printer objected. Had to make do with card stock.
NEXT I …
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PASTED PAINTED DREW SCRIBBLED DABBED TORE PLAYED |
until …. VOILA! here are the first two pages:
The found poem on the right hand page is:
CATHEDRAL PINES
- kingly beauty -
offer the forest
the rest is possible
by continuing into the
Cathedral Pines
a gift
long ago guardians
the past
- uprooted as through a tangle -
connects
It was fun but I haven’t gotten back to it since. I love looking at other artist’s altered books but it may just not be ‘my thing.’ How about you?
Have fun!
Here’s lots more articles on artistic Alterations.
Originally published in the January 2006 issue of The Practically Creative Quarterly, theme: alterations
also posted in: Poetry - process, types, tutorials , Photo essays , Creative challenge , Alterations , Art - process, craft, tutorials , How-to ... , Craft , Commentary , Journaling , The Original PCQ, 05-06 , Process
tags: alter, alteration, altered book, art, attempt, beginner, book, creative, found, fun, journal, nancy waldman, photos, process, re-use, way, work
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