altered book slave

Well, I have had several inquiries of interest about my book altering class. So, I will summarize my progress so far.

First, you perform acrobatics on your book to make sure it can pass the abuse test. This mainly involves choosing a book that is old enough for its signatures to be sewn together instead of glued. Opening the book completely 360 degrees while doing an Olive Oil wail will do the trick. A pop may be heard, but it's normal. Your book should totally be able to do this without pages coming loose.


Next, you need to tear out about 30-50% of the pages in the book. You do this by taking out the same order of pages in the front as in the back. If you want to cut a niche (little box opening) in the back of the book, then rubber band the last 25-50 pages and section off -- don't tear out any of these niche pages.

After that, you need to choose a theme for your altered book. Some people find books that actually have related titles, but most people are not that lucky and must decorate their covers to fit their theme. I first chose "Eclectic Dump" so I wouldn't have to choose; then, I gave in to my true love, Mary Engelbreit. My book is tentatively titled "There's Something About Mary: An Altered Book Tribute to Mary Engelbreit". Since I have a binder full of her clip art and 2 years' worth of her Home Companion mags, I think I have enough material to use.

Next, if you need to disguise your cover, then you gesso it first. My book cover is cloth, so I didn't have to sand it first, but it did take 3 coats to completely cover the embossed lettering, and I had to lightly sand the gesso after each coat dried.

I figured I would paint my cover as a quick way to get a nice-looking surface for gluing on the new title. That took 3 coats of paint before the white gesso no longer peeked through. I will varnish it with Krylon at the very end, and I'll probably have to touch up the paint here and there then, too.

We have to help strengthen and secure the spine to the cover by layering on an extra liner inside the covers. This secures the sheet of paper in the front and back that is glued onto the cover and is also a part of the first signature. Since we are making a niche in the back, that entire niche block will be glued down onto the back cover, so all I had to do was line the front inside. I used an 8.5"x11" adhesive label, and Hubs held the book steady while I lined up the sheet and pressed and smooshed until it was properly aligned up and adhered. That right there was the scariest part for me because lining things up is always scary for me.

So, that's all so far. We have a huge amount of homework every week, in my opinion. Some of the ladies just pop out their work, no problema. I just cannot work that fast or that confidently, because of my physical limitations. Shaaaa, if I do a rush job, I'm liable to gesso my toaster or something. Let's not test that, either. winkwink So I may be dropped for not going fast enough. There goes the college credit, right? LOL Oh well, I know how to decorate pages and apply color, so I will just hope for the best.

Here's a little bit of Springtime to leave you with...an artist trading card, made from die cuts from an old calendar on a background I watercolored (the paper is a recycled business envelope). I made it recently for a swap:


Until next time,

Checking in...

I am beginning an online class on the 15th designed to teach newbies how to alter a book. It's graciously being taught through my Altered Books yahoo group by the very experienced altered book artist Elizabeth in Kansas, out of the goodness of her heart. I could really use a dress rehearsal drive by, and I was very lucky to be able to snag a seat.

So, after my doctor's appointment Tuesday, I felt energetic enough to shop for supplies...well, my supply: a book to alter. Now, I have a ton of books, but after reading Elizabeth's pre-class syllabus, I realized that I needed an older hardbound book that had a spine with a sewn signature (and not a glued one, like I fear most of my Southern Living books have...not sure of that yet, have ta really destroy one to know for sure, but when ya got 18 of them that's do-able. winkwink)

So, I had googled used book stores on my way beforehand, and I found the neatest place called The Dusty Cover. That is a cool name for a bookstore, no? I first tried telling the owner what I needed: basically any hardback books with at least 300 pages printed before 1970 (when most publishers changed to gluing their spines). I was greeted with a sincere shrug and directed to the hardback section.

I must have searched an hour, only to find nothing. Oh, their reading selection was first-rate and the prices quite affordable. Just nothing old enough. Thank goodness they had a nice, clean little girls room. I stayed so long inspecting books I had to tinkle twice.

Finally, I wandered to the back of the store and lo and behold, there was a Discard table with books for 50 cents each. And sitting there in one section was a stack of very old books! Score! I couldn't believe my luck.

I got a dozen books for six bucks and of course, I had to buy a few that don't meet the page number minimum but I loved the title or it sounded interesting to read. Still don't know which one I will use in my class, but I'm sure glad I went ahead and shopped now. I'll have to read the book first before I cover the pages with art.
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Have you shopped lately at Amazon? I live there, winkwink. Anyway, they have had some very good promotions recently involving magazine subscriptions. Not that I was looking for any, but when you offer to give me multiple subscriptions, I'll take 'em. They take forever to start up, though. I finally began receiving a couple of them: Midwest Living and Town & Country.

In the last couple of years, I've grown restless with most magazines, so we will see how it goes. But it is kinda fun to just thumb through them, and there are lots of great images to collage with.
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I fell off my daily sketch bandwagon and landed with a thud. I'm really not excited about it anymore that much, but this is the last thing I did...a sort of Hindu-inspired drawing:

And, colored in, with a little shading practice:

I like drawing in this whimsical style and may decide to do more of it. But nothing else really interests me right now. That's fine. My ADD attention span is like Texas weather: give it fifteen minutes and it'll change. winkwink

I'm working on a few different canvas sizes right now, and one of them is artist trading cards...again! Feels good to be back at working small...like playing Polly Pocket, lol. Here is an art card I recently finished, using some old DMC collage papers I'd squirreled away and forgot about:

I've also finished about 3/4 of April's calendar collage, but I need to park my butt in front of my glue book and my other journals for awhile, too. Wish me luck!

Until next time!