Normally I photograph and share new work as soon as I’ve completed it, but lately I’ve been too short on time to do so. I’ve still been working away on the Fairy Tale series of altered books and just put the finishing touches on the fifth (and final) one today. The book I’m sharing with you today is part of the series but it was inspired by what is considered a nursery rhyme rather than a fairy tale.
I’ve always loved the line from “Sing a Song of Sixpence” about the “four and twenty black birds baked in a pie” and wanted to attempt to recreate this as an altered book. I thought, “how hard can it be to make a book look like a pie?” Apparently, it’s kind of hard.
This is the second book I folded to use because the first one didn’t work out the way I’d hoped. I did some cutting after the folding that ended up looking more like a mushroom than a pie, and it was then I gave up on that detail of the rhyme. Four and twenty crows flying out of a book is pretty awesome all on its own, thank you very much.
I sourced the bird outlines from google images to make three templates to trace onto black card stock. I then cut out twenty four black birds from the paper using an xacto knife. It was fun to have a small pile of crows on my desk before they were attached to the pages using glue. Yet again I could not resist incorporating paper cut work into an altered book, because I am a little bit obsessed with the process.
The only splash of colour to this is provided by the patterned paper I added as end pages, and I’m really glad to have it there.
Materials used: book, black card stock, scrapbook paper, glue, and gel medium.
In two weeks I’ll be teaching my second altered book workshop at Chalk Xchange in the Strathcona area of Vancouver. It’ll be the same class as the previous one from February but with a longer timeframe. The class is on Saturday May 7th, the day before Mother’s day, so I’m suggesting this as a present for mom, something to do with mom, or just come all by yourself if that works best.
These photos are of work made by students in the two previous altered book workshops I taught earlier this year. You really do come away with some lovely and interesting stuff.
This workshop is a one day class and is an introduction to examples and techniques for transforming old books into one-of-a-kind pieces of art. There is an unlimited potential for creating interesting work by altering books through cutting, folding, rolling, collage, etc. This course will demonstrate a selection of techniques and provide a starting point for creating work of your own. The goal will be to complete one finished “folded page” altered book by the end of the workshop. Please bring at least two old books you would like to work with.
There are more details about the class when you follow the link below to Eventbrite for registration.
Date: Saturday May 7th, 2011 Time: 11am to 5pm Cost: $80 + $2.99 processing fee Location:593 East Georgia Street, Vancouver BC V6A 1Z8
Rose Red & Snow White is the story of two little girls, a very angry dwarf, and an enchanted bear. [The full story] I decided to choose this as the inspiration for my second fairy tale altered book because I had photos of both Monique and Siobhan I thought would be perfect for it. The figures in this book were shot separately but worked very well together. They were both spinning while posing and I really liked the way their arms and skirts flared out. It made me think they could be dancing or skipping together in the forest.
I cut through the cover and then removed pages to about half-way through the book. I actually cut a smaller opening inside the larger one to create a “shelf” of pages for the inner level of paper cut leaves to rest upon. The book cutting was probably the simplest part of making the whole book and the least amount of cutting effort.
Creating the wolf for the Little Red Riding Hood book started a new obsession with the art of the paper cut, so with this book I chose to incorporate more of this type of work. I like this idea because instead of trying to find something to use, I’m making it myself.
The leaves took a REALLY long time to make because I first had to draw it all out and then go back and carefully cut everything piece by piece. I did the lower level of leaves as one piece and the upper level as four separate pieces to maximize the cardstock I had on hand. I don’t do much drawing but leaves are one of the few things I am aces at.
The delicate little red and white roses are also made with paper and were a very lucky find at Michael’s art store. I wouldn’t normally go there for supplies but I really wanted roses for this book. I’m very grateful they not only had the two colours I needed in one package but they’re also exactly what I was hoping to find.
The bear paper cut is made from a black patterned cardstock to suggest the enchantment he is under. I used a photo of a bear I found in google images as my template for the outline and I freehand cut all the details to create the facial features, and fur. I’m really happy with how well the bear turned out.
As with the Little Red Riding Hood book the two figures are cut from photo prints, and come from the same photo shoot I did with Monique and Siobhan to kick off this series. They and the paper bear are resting on top of carefully placed wooden sudoku tiles to raise them from the background and create depth.
I’ve already started and almost finished the third in this series, which actually consists of three books. I have yet to finalize the last two stories I’ll be interpreting so let me know if you have a favorite fairy tale you’d like to see as an altered book.
Materials used: book, recycled wrapping paper, mulberry paper roses, cardstock, sudoku tiles, photographs, glue, and gel medium.
This past weekend I was in Seattle teaching a two day altered book workshop for the Seattle Center for Book Arts. I had a really terrific group of people taking the class and everyone came away with beautiful work by the end of it. I really enjoy seeing what people do with the techniques I’ve shared, because while they’re busy getting inspired, so am I.
The two day timeframe and small class size allowed me to share a lot of information about making altered books. I did a different demo at the beginning of each day – cutting a niche and rolling pages on day one, and making folded page books on day two.
The photos included in this blog post are of the in-progress and finished work made by my students.
I really enjoy teaching and was given excellent feedback on the class itself and my style of teaching. I was happy people felt inspired by what I shared, and I’m so glad I can clearly articulate what I do.
I have one more altered book workshop coming up before I take a break from teaching until the fall. I’ll be back at Chalk Xchange on Saturday May 7th teaching a one day altered book class. Please visit the Chalk Xchange web site for further details and to sign up online.
I need to come up with a proper title for this work because while it certainly is about the story of Red Riding Hood, it’s not a great title. But that aside, I am REALLY excited to share this altered book with the world. It’s the first in a series of Fairy Tale inspired work I am creating for an upcoming show.
As mentioned previously, I was hoping to combine photography and altered books in this work so the first step was photographing models as fairy tale characters. This led to a hilarious shoot with friends Monique and Siobhan playing pretend and wearing costumes. I made some of these images into paper prints to figure out sizing, which amused me because I realized I’d made friends into paper dolls. With the size figured out, and poses selected, I had a set of photo prints made and this is what you’re seeing as the Red Riding Hood figure in this book.
I should mention those are real tree branches standing in for a full sized forest of trees. I gathered these along the ground from a nearby park, cleansed them of dirt and applied a coat of gel medium to each.
I used a large encyclopedia volume as the canvas for this altered book, and decided to cut the niche about half way through the thickness of the pages. I used two crumpled up pages from the book to create the ground for Red Riding Hood to stroll upon.
The flowers were added for colour, and I made them using a paper punch. The leaves were actually the last detail I came up with. I felt the forest looked too bare and decided to make leaves using another paper punch and recycled wrapping paper. It’s the right bit of whimsy and warmth even if there is a big scary wolf out to get the little miss.
When I started this I wasn’t going to include the wolf, but then as things came together I realized he had to be in there. I decided to create him as a paper cut figure and went searching through google images for reference I could use to create an outline because my drawing skills aren’t very good. I printed out this wolf to use as my template. I traced it onto a piece of black paper then modified and added details by cutting freehand.
I was pleasantly surprised by how well this worked out because it’s not a technique I’ve worked with much before. It’s inspired me to try and incorporate paper cutting into the rest of the Fairy Tales books.
I’m really excited by this series because it’s allowing me to try new things and push boundaries with my artwork. I’ve already selected the next few Fairy Tales and will be starting another altered book this week.
Materials used: book, Japanese paper, recycled wrapping paper, photograph, paper punch, tree branches, straight pins, book pages, glue, and gel medium.
This particular book started out as a sample for the altered book class I taught a few weeks ago. It’s a very different book than what I’ve used previously because it’s a children’s storybook with colour illustrations and very large print.
Each page was folded, tucked back into the centre of the book and glued into place. It then became a very clunky form I’m not entirely happy with, and the shape felt difficult to work with as well. So I decided this needed flowers and more colour.
I started making flowers using a cherry blossom punch with red paper and attached each one with a straight pin. The different coloured balls in the centre of each flower are the pearlized heads of the pins, and they seem to increase the whimsy of the piece. With so much red between the flowers and end pages I decided it was a bit overkill and toned it down the addition of white flowers.
I did a similar process last year at this time – punching tiny flowers from paper in an effort to call forth the real thing and kick off spring. Between the flowers, end pages, and the illustrations in the book this is the most eye-blasting altered book I’ve created yet. Happy Spring!
Materials used: book, paper, rubber stamp & ink, straight pins, and gel medium.
I’m just starting to work on a new series of altered books in preparation of a group show later this year. The theme of said show is Fairy Tales, which thankfully will prove to be a rich source of inspiration for all those involved.
My initial thoughts around the work I plan to create is to combine altered books with my figurative photography. On Tuesday I sat down in the studio to explore some of the ideas I have about bringing these two mediums together.
I want to combine photo-based figures with found objects within a book. I plan to shoot new material (read: models) to use in these fairy tale themed books, and first steps involved figuring out how best to photograph the models for what I need. The book pictured here was an exploration of materials because I wasn’t sure what format the final output of the photo-based figure should take. I played around with an inkjet print on plain paper and then pulled out a photographic print to work with.
The photo I used in this was a self portrait I shot down at Kits beach two years ago. I purposely did not worry too much about composition or selection of materials with this mixing of media because I just wanted to explore the idea. My biggest concern was finding a print material for the photo-figure that would not be difficult to cut out, and it looks like photo paper works just fine.
I’m excited by this new work and can’t wait to see where this series will go.
Materials used: book, tissue paper, small stones, small shells, photograph, wood tiles, and gel medium.
I was ridiculously nervous and anxious in the week leading up to teaching my first altered book workshop, but things could not have gone better with the class. There were six people in attendance, which was the perfect amount to allow everyone to spread out in the space.
I started the class with a quick slide show of my altered books and also introduced spectacular work by other artists, like Brian Dettmer and Su Blackwell for inspiration. Because the workshop was only three and a half hours long I chose to focus on folded page techniques because there are many different ways people could take things, and it doesn’t involve waiting for glue to dry.
Everyone got right down to business after my demo and I wandered around the room answering questions and giving guidance as needed. I loved seeing all the different books people brought to work with and the ideas they came up with to experiment. I ended up also showing people how to make the paper flowers I used in my Container Art installation and these were incorporated into some of the book projects.
By the end of class everyone had at least one completed book they could take home and work on further, some of which are pictured below.
Altered books are something I am very excited about and it felt easy to share that passion with other people and make the work accessible. I did some learning of my own in the class, which is what I was hoping for. Some lessons I can apply to my own artwork and others will go towards tweaking how I teach the class. Overall it was an enjoyable experience stepping into the role of teacher and for the next workshop I will be less nervous about the whole thing.
I haven’t yet announced this on my blog as I have elsewhere, but in two weeks I’ll be teaching a workshop at ChalkXChange about making altered books. This is only a three and half hour workshop, and it’s on a weekend too. I’ll be sharing some of the techniques I use to create my book work, and hopefully send everyone off with a finished piece by the end of the session.
If you’re interested in taking the class registration is available online through Eventbrite. There’s a more detailed description on the sign up page and also in the workshop section of my web site.
Altered Book Workshop at Chalk Xchange
Saturday, February 19th, 2011
1pm to 4:30pm
593 East Georgia Street (at Princess Street)
Vancouver, BC V6A 1Z8
Late last year I was thrilled to get my first request to create a commissioned altered book for a client. The couple had recently found a deer skull on their Gulf Island property and felt it was the perfect thing for me to work with in making them a custom piece of art. It’s not the first time I’ve used bones in an altered book, but it definitely was the largest.
The skull was quite fragile and missing a large part of the nose, so my first step was to assess every break through the skull. I had to determine where to glue without causing further damage and then reinforce certain parts so the whole thing wouldn’t fall apart. In the photo below you can see the paper “bandages” I created inside the eye sockets. I felt without these the glue wouldn’t hold and the bottom part of the skull would come right off. (It almost did while I was feeling about).
The book I chose to use is an encyclopedia volume with a lovely red cover with a raised border embossed on the front and gold letters and designs on the side. I carved through the cover and cut a niche three quarters of the way into the pages, making it large enough to accommodate the skull.
I took a short timelapse video with my iPhone 4 as I did this, which makes it look like a faster process than it actually was.
Once the book was ready I began pulling out materials to create the rest of the composition. I took inspiration from the background notes given to me by the client and used these to guide in the selection of objects. I won’t go into detail here but I was looking for things with symbolic significance specific to them.
The photo below was taken when I was satisfied with the placement of things and is a “sketchbook” version of the final composition. It helped me remember what should eventually go where after I dismantled and put everything out of the way. I still had much work to do in preparing the book and mounting the skull.
Above are some process shots I took while I worked on different things. I used a thick heavy thread at the base of the skull as this was the only point from which I could attach it to the book. These loops of thread were sewn into a heavy paper that was glued into the book and then covered over with the sewing pattern paper. The image above with the clamps was taken after the skull was mounted in the book and some of the pages still needed gluing together.
This is the finished altered book, many steps away from the previous photo. I used eight watch parts in the composition and it gives it an unintentional steam punk look. The fancy embossed border on the cover works nicely (as I’d hoped) with the rest of the composition. I love all the details in this altered book, from the shiny metal parts to the zig zagging fissures through the top of the skull.
This was an interesting project to work on because there were many problem solving challenges along the way. But that’s what I love most about making altered books. It always gets me thinking in new ways.
The outcome of this project is a positive one, with the client happy with the work I’ve produced and the first successful commissioned altered book under my belt. Here’s hoping many more will come my way.
Materials used: book, sewing pattern paper, tree bark, wasp nest, red thread, small glass bottle, seeds, watch parts, moss, and deer skull.
