Altered Books: The Owl House & Home

September 8, 20114 Comments

I’m about to let you in on a little secret…I don’t love all the altered books I make. True story. There are some I feel pretty meh about, while others I absolutely adore and will probably have a hard time parting with. This owl book falls into this second group of favoured pieces that I’m not sure I can give up. (But I will).

I’m continuing to use the birds cut from the same encyclopedia as the ones I’ve used in the recycled collages I shared previously. There is a section on owls I’ve been saving and now at least some of these are going to show up in altered books.

As always I’m experimenting with how I work with the books. With this one I’ve folded the pages inward towards the spine but done the middle section at a different level. I wanted to play with varying how I fold the pages rather than keeping things the same throughout the book.

This is the first of two altered books I’ve completed this week. I’ll share the other tomorrow.

Materials used: book, card stock, paper owl, hand-cut leaves, wine cork (which you can’t see), and white glue.

Scenes From Summer on Pender Island

September 6, 20112 Comments

And it looks like summer is just going to keep on going…

Private View at Bird on a Wire Creations

August 30, 2011

For the month of September I am one of the featured artists at Bird on a Wire Creations. On Thursday September 1st there will be an evening opening at the shop to kick things off – with music, food, and the artists in attendance. I invite you to attend and visit this lovely little Main Street shop full of wonderful handmade things.

This is the launch of a Private View series of events scheduled to run on the first Thursday of every month at Bird on a Wire. These informal evenings will feature live music and showcase works by select visual artists. You are welcome to drop by, or stay for the whole evening. Everyone is welcome, and wine and snacks will be provided. This is a great opportunity to view and purchase affordable art, and meet local artists.

Also featured in September is the work of printer and illustrator, Lori Dean-Dyment. Musical entertainment on opening evening will be provided by singer / song writer, Jody Doidge.

Date: Thursday September 1, 2011
Time: 7 pm to 9:30 pm
Location: 2535 Main Street, between Broadway and 10th
Phone: 604 874 7415

There is a facebook event page available if you would like to RSVP» (but also not necessary).

I look forward to seeing you there.

Pleated Paper Folding

August 24, 2011

On the weekend I met up with origami artist, Joseph Wu, to hang out and learn how to fold paper into pleats. Joseph had offered to share his vast knowledge of paper folding techniques when he saw my latest altered book experiments on Instagram.

It took me forever to fold the first sheet of paper, and I’ve gotten faster over the last few I’ve done. Folding pleats is both simple and harder than it looks, and you can’t be afraid to push the paper the way you want it to go.

I’m not yet sure what I’m going to do with this new technique, but there are interesting installation ideas developing.

Altered Books: Experiments with Page Folding

August 23, 2011

Experiments with new directions in book altering continues, this time with all the pages still attached to the covers. These explorations are part of the planning stages of a commissioned piece for a client, and I wanted to try something different.

Normally I follow the same pattern of folding the pages through out a book but with these two the folds are irregular and create a ripple effect through the book. It’s an interesting technique, but it doesn’t entirely work for me. I need to experiment further to figure out how to do this better.

I may end up removing the covers from these books to use in a collage, and then turn these into a wall piece. I like the idea of the shaped pages rippling from one book to the other.

Check out the work of Issac Salazar for advanced book page folding.

Altered Books: Experimenting with Book Bursts

August 18, 2011

I recently picked up a copy of The Repurposed Library by Lisa Occhipinti at Oscar’s Art Books, and last week I began exploring some of the projects from its pages.

I was drawn to the elegant simplicity of these book bursts, which are made from cutting a book into sections and then folding the pages. I chose a fairly thick book so it took quite a long time to do all that folding.

Each one is done in a slightly different way, and it’s interesting to see the patterns and texture that emerge in each. I’m going to experiment a bit more with something different again with the remaining section of the book.

It feels really good to be exploring books in a different way than usual and I’m curious to see where this will lead.

Upcycled Collage: Hummingbirds

August 16, 2011

I’m still a week behind on sharing new work, but my excuse this time is vacation. Boris and I were on Pender Island with friends for five nights and it was a glorious getaway for all those involved. I debating doing a big of blogging while I was there, but I preferred having a laptop-free break.

The base for this collage is the cover of a wooden cake box originally from a Hotel in Germany. I picked it up at Value Village and am saving the rest of the box for a future mixed media piece.

With the hummingbirds I decided to make yet further explorations into creating what I wanted by cutting the shapes from paper. This time the usual clouds, but also leaves, branches, and a nest for Mrs. Hummingbird. The wood was first layered with strips of sewing pattern paper to tone down, but not hide the existing text.

I left the original metal hardware on the box lid, as you can see at the corners and part of the latch on the bottom edge. I like trying to incorporate as much of the original details of these found materials as I can. I hope I can source more wooden boxes from Value Village before I run out of what I have.

Materials used: wooden box lid, security envelopes, book page scraps, sewing pattern paper, and paper birds.

Upcycled Collage: Crane & Book Cover

August 8, 2011

This is the second upcycled collage I completed last week. It was very satisfying to sit down for the day and come away with two completed collages. You should’ve seen the HUGE mess in the studio when I was finished.

Normally with the books I use in my altered book work the cover of the books ends up hidden away. This one was much too nice to not feature in a composition and so it’s ended up as the background for this collage.

I chose the crane for this because it was the first thing I came across when I opened the bird encyclopedia to select a bird. It seemed like the perfect one to go with the colours and flower motif. I decided to continue with the paper waves because the crane is also a wading bird.

I sorted through the pile of saved envelopes looking for something that would go well with the patterns on the cover but wasn’t the usual blues of security envelopes. I found one with this grey pattern that feels very Japanese, and it ended up being the perfect thing.

Materials used: book cover, thread, paper bird, book page scraps, security envelopes, and gel medium.

Foodists, Butchers of Gastown III

August 7, 2011

This is from a few weeks back when I dropped in on the most recent Butchers of Gastown event. They were preparing a bazillion different types of seafood and they were in need of eaters.

I’m a really good eater, and I brought a few friends. It was a really enjoyable evening of fun and food.

Read more about the Butchers of Gastown on Foodists.ca

Upcycled Collage: The Wading Birds

August 4, 20111 Comment

The bird collages made from upcycled materials continue this week with three new pieces almost completed. This is the first of the three, and also my favorite of them all.

The canvas for this collage is the cover of a wooden box, the rest of which I used earlier this year in another mixed media assemblage piece. The Japanese characters are part of the original cover design and I tried to incorporate them into the composition because they’re lovely.

It was fun to try different things with the same materials. So far I’ve mostly been making clouds with the scrap book pages and security envelopes, but this time it made more sense to reference water because these are shore birds.

The finished artwork feels very Japanese, and I love how beautifully all the elements come together.

Materials used: sewing pattern paper, security envelopes, book pages, paper birds, wooden box lid, and gel medium.

Canvas to the Imagination

Rachael Ashe – Art | Craft | Life