As mentioned in my previous blog post, I started this altered book wanting to change the look of the folded pages by punching flower shapes into the paper. I was going to do this throughout the entire book but the more pages I did the less effective it seemed as a technique because the punched out shapes did not show up very well. So I changed my idea and decided to work with the flowers I had created with the punch and used these as the centre piece. I wanted the flowers to flow loosely and could not imagine gluing each one individually into the book, so I came up with the idea of stringing them together with thread. Only some of the flowers are directly attached to the pages with glue.

I was curious to see how well gluing a ceramic tea cup into the book would hold up and it seems to have a strong bond with the paper around it. I’m excited about this because I have another idea with tea cups that I have yet to explore. The little green bird was added as a finishing touch because I felt the composition needed a little more life and colour to it before I could call it finished.

I wasn’t sure what to title this but the flower shapes remind me of cherry blossoms and my thoughts these days are turned to spring, starting new things, and awakenings.

Materials used: book, paper punch, thread, Japanese paper, card stock, and a metal bird.