It's been a couple of months since our last Honolulu Altered Book Round Robin ended. I knew the books for our new round had to be completed by August 11. Yet, I waited until the week before to start preparing my book. Of course, when I was finally ready to begin, I realized that I had selected a book with a glued binding! Aaaack!
In a mad rush, I went down to my favorite second-hand store (on a Friday night, no less) and frantically scoured the shelves for a book with a sewn binding and that would suit my chosen theme, "Alchemy." In time, I discovered a book on Rocks and Minerals which had a nice size and shape. There were plenty of pages for 18 artists to work in (yes, this RR will take at least another year and half to complete!)
After thinning out my pages, I started by decorating the front cover with metallic stamp pads: lead into gold. I surprised myself when I found an extra large alphabet stamp set buried in my stash of supplies. I literally do not remember when or where I purchased it, but it certainly came in handy for this spread. The letters were so bold and the size fit my book just right! I also decided to use my Perfect Pearls for the lettering, in keeping with my metals theme. The back cover is decorated the same way, only I added alchemy symbols to mark the sign-in spaces.
In the second photo, I wanted to tell the artists a little more about my theme. I printed out a list of synonyms for "alchemy," which included change, transformation, metamorphosis, etc. I am hoping that one or more of these words signifying change will inspire the artists to create their spreads in my book. It was sheer serendipity that the page I planned to use for my prompts contained this beautiful quote by Marcus Aurelius:
"Observe always that everything is the result of change,
and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well
as to change existing forms and to make new ones like them."
To incorporate this quote into my spread, I masked the words with removable scotch tape before I painted my background. When the paint had dried, I removed the tape and voila, the quote was spared!
For the spread seen here in the third photo, I decided to use techniques and materials that I love--after all, this is my book! You see metallics, string art, hardware, bling, etc. I also selected one definition of alchemy that resonated with me:
Any magical power or process of transmuting a common substance, usually of little value, into a substance of great value.
Now that my book is finished, I am excited for this AB RR to begin. We have many new artists that have joined this round and I look forward to sharing art with all of them!
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