"White" Book

These are pics of my new "White" book. I have been working on it for a little over 2 weeks, although I had done thumbnail sketches and drawings in my art journal, an on going idea for over 3 years...it is just one of those projects that starts with a little spark of an idea and keeps growing until it catches fire and you have to light it up. Somethings happened spontaneously: like the Embossed Wallpaper Boarder that was left over from my brother and sister-in-laws new house, the air dry clay pieces that were inspired by a project over on The Artist Circle workshop using Sherrill Kahn's new book "Creative Embellishments", Tyvek paper from Flax Paper Store in San Francisco.

This is a "Standing" Fan Fold Book...it is designed to stand instead of laying flat. There are 8 pages connected with ribbon and dowel sticks that have been sanded and painted. Each stick has a wooden Tulip at the top. The pages are 140 lb. watercolor paper, torn into 6"x10" sheets. The next layer is cheese cloth applied using ModPodge. Then scraps of watercolor paper that were torn and "crinkled" using a Friskar's crimper, were glued on using ModPodge. The embellishments are Crayola Air Dry clay, I used a mold for the faces and free form technique for the other shapes. I made holes in some of the shapes so I could attach fibers to hang down. I used another technique from "Ceative Embellishments" using pipe cleaners wrapped with the same white eyelash yarn. I used Sea Glass (I bought the bag of glass at Hobby Lobby...on sale of course...lol...always "on sale" that is my motto) the adhesive I used for the glass and the clay pieces is Golden Thick Gel Medium. The other adhesives I use on this book are: E6000, PVC White Glue, Elmers White Glue, glue stick and the Gel Medium. (The embellishment determined the adhesive I used) After everything was glued together, I painted the embossed wallpaper border with white acrylic paint, but I didn't like the dull look, so after it dried I painted it with Golden Glaze Pearl. That gave it the sheen that I wanted plus the look of pearls that looked good with the pearls I used for embellishment on the front of the pages.

These are 4 of my "sorta" finished pages. I say sorta, because I went back and added some more embellishments to them. I will be posting the completed book shortly, just waiting for everything to dry so I can photograph it.....

My Spreads for "Once Upon A Time"

These are the spreads I did for an Altered Book (owned by Heidi Bazilian) in a Round Robin over on Our RR Altered Book Yahoo Group. I use Alice in Wonderland for my images...most of them came from the Internet. Some were B&W and I colored them with Gel Pens...I love my Gel Pens and I love to color...so this was great fun. I am kind of particular about how I cut out images...I see some people just cut out the images and leave a lot of the back ground around the edges, but I like to detail cut out the images...usually when I am sitting around watching TV (Oh I guess I should say HDTV now...lol) at night. Always have to have these hands busy you know....so there is a lot of detail cutting in these spreads, the flowers, the teapots and the maze. I used a really really tiny vial to put a note in, it says Drink Me... and it has some tiny little glitter stars in the bottom, I hope nobody really tries to drink it...lol...

You have to turn the Maze Spread side ways to see the full effect. The picture below is turned so you can see the whole spread vertically. It kinda formed an optical illusion for some reason...but I think it looks pretty cool...It is really made up of 3 different pictures...1 with Alice,( I cut around the maze so the text in the book could show through) 1 with the "Card Guards"marching thru the maze, and the "Queen of Hearts" was an individual image that I glued on top. Of course all of these particular images are from Disney's Alice in Wonderland.

This is the first and last spreads that I did. The 1st one above, has a mirror glued down on to pages that were glazed with Golden Glazes using a technique from "Altered Books Workshop" by Bev Brazelton...it seems like I use a lot of stuff from this awesome book. I also added a strip of cloth (a remnant from another project using techniques by Sherrill Kahn) at the bottom of the page and glue some little lilac vintage trim on top of the cloth. I did some stamping with gold ink and added the ribbon around the mirror and along the edge of the 2nd page. There is a silk flower glued on the corner of the mirror and a teeny tiny vial wired through a gold eyelet. Remember when Alice found the little bottle that said "Drink Me"?

The last page is also a Disney Image of the Card Guards holding up a banner that says The End. The maze part on the left of the page is folded over from the page before. I like to fold over images and glue them down to the next page...it seems to make the work just flo from one page to the next.

Haiku by Silla Board Book

This is the board book I made in the workshop by Leslie over on Artist Circle Yahoo Group. I call it Haiku by Silla...because my friend Priscilla Hoekstra writes Haiku poetry and she allowed me to illustrate a book using her poetry...is she awesome or what? This was great fun and because the workshop lasts until the end of April I am busy making 2 more smaller shaped board books. I will post them soon.

There is an earlier post about the processes I used in prepping the book and some of the techniques that Leslie gave us. Of course (as usual) mine seems to be really different than everyone Else's...go figure.

I tried to down load the pages in order...but you know how this blog thingy is "A mind of it's own"
This is the second page in the book.
This is the back cover.
This is the front cover.

BIG DISCOVERY

OK...I have just made a Big (Huge) Discovery...when you have 2 Blogs you have to be careful when posting because you could post on one blog and think you are posting on the other blog...do I sound confused?...Well I didn't think I was until I hit the publish button and looked to see how everything came out and LOW AND BEHOLD...I had "published" my new book on http://jewelsoftheeast.blogspot.com instead of here...so I guess if you are really interested and you don't mind the 30 seconds or so to click over there, you can see my latest AB which is on its way to Patricia in Kentucky...OK so I guess if this is Monday and I am already mixed up...then the rest of the week won't be so bad....LOL...Forgiveness is another perk of being a Senior Citizen...people seem to think because you are "old" that they can forgive you for stupid mistakes...Thank Goodness...LOL...Eastism...."I have heard that when you admit your mistakes you are on the road to recovery...I just didn't know the road was so crooked and long....:)"

A Fan Fold Book

This is a fan fold book made from Watercolor Paper. The buildings and the trees are molds that I made using matt board. I laid the buildings and trees on a piece of Masonite that I use for "printing plate" for a small press. The watercolor paper is submersed in water for several minutes, just long enough for it to become pliable, then the watercolor paper is placed on top of the molds and passed through the press. This embosses the shapes (in this case the buildings and the trees) into the watercolor paper. I then took the paper off the printing plate and placed it on a large piece of wool blanket that I use for couching when making paper. I let the paper dry for about 24 hours. Then I watercolor on it just like any other piece of watercolor paper...the clouds and grass are free hand, but the buildings and trees are painted within the embossing. Sometimes I like it just to be the white of the paper and I don't paint it. But, in this book I wrote a little story using my grand children's names. I made 3 of these, 1 for Bryan, 1 for Chelsea (my grandchildren) and this one I kept for my self. They loved their books by the way, I made these when Bryan was 12 and Chelsea was 7, but now that they are in their 20's they enjoy them more than ever.
The books cover is cardboard covered with handmade paper and embellished with rose buds. The books are 4"x9" when closed and 9"x30" when completely expanded.

Large Handmade Book

This is a book I made using 12"x18" paper, folded diagonally. The cover is made of cardboard covered with hand made blue and natural colored paper with wood chips. The signatures are all sewn by hand using linen thread. The trim on the cover is tea dyed to match the natural color of the center section of handmade paper. The inside of the front and back cover are handmade red papers with gold flecks. The cord is black silk. A lot of people ask "What are you going to put in the book?" When I tell them "Nothing" they are surprised....I then try to explain that the making of the book is the art form. I have made a lot of books just for the sake of making the book. Because of the way I folded the paper it made for a very interesting shaped book.

Board Book Experiments

These are a few of my "pages in progress" for a work shop over on Artist Circle Group. We are using Children's board books. The book I chose (Got it at Dollar Tree) was a round book that opened to 36" long (I guess I should have taken a pic before I cut it apart). When I realized that I wouldn't be able to embellish it the way it was I cut it apart with wire cutters. Then I removed the printed part by peeling it off, then I applied gesso to all of the pages.
I applied some raw silk samples I had stached away for a while (like since 1978 when I was an interior decorator...lol..) Altered Artist, well maybe artist in general, never throw anything away...well I won't go there today...lol...but I do have some good stuff......

After I put on the raw silk, tissue paper and a couple of pages with old book text for background, I Mod Podged on some lace on a few of them, and a couple of other pieces of fabric. When that was dry I painted them with Golden Glazes, using the layering technique from "18 Creative techniques for self-expression/Altered Books Workshop" by Bev Brazelton (love this book), Then I sprayed on some "Moon Glow Shadow Mists" The workshop lasts the month of April and we are in the 2nd week so I will post the progress next week....It really is fun to do these workshops on Artist Circle...you learn so many cool techniques from the participants and the teacher.

Heart Book Pages for Our AB RR

These are pages in "The Heart Book". They were done in Karen Doucet's AB for "Our Altered Book Round Robin" Group...This book is awesome...Karen's husband cut the book in the shape of a heart. I really had fun working in Karen's book. Can't wait to get the next book...we have been working on this RR for 3 months and the art work in the books is just wonderful....it is nice to see the pics of the books but to see them in person is just great.