Portals

I am beginning a new AB round robin today.  After completing Lisa Vollrath's "Year of Altered Books" class last year, she invited a few of the class members to join her in a round robin.  I am excited to work with a group of artists I have never played with before!

The theme I chose for my book is "Portals."  I created a sort of tunnel book for my introduction and wrote a series of prompts around the different sized openings.  For my initial spread, I wanted to try this pop-up design I had made once before in another AB.  I just love the look of it when you first open the book.  For some reason, it always reminds me of the Twilight Zone:  "You are traveling through another dimension..."  It will be fun to see how the other artists in this new RR will interpret my theme.

Boiled Books

I spent Martin Luther King Day making more boiled books with friends.  Look at the gorgeous patterns, textures and colors Mother Nature gifted me with!

I used to prefer working with the smaller sized books made from a 9 x 12 sheet of 140 lb watercolor paper (accordion fold).  This time, I took a 22 x 30 sheet of 140 lb watercolor paper and folded it down to 5 1/2 x 7 1/2.  This larger size page allowed me to use larger leaves that I would not have been able to experiment with in the smaller books.  I am really loving this larger size page!

I finished my covers with these beautiful handmade papers my sister-in-law brought back for me from her recent trip to Thailand.  The texture and colors of these papers complimented the organic feel of my boiled books just perfectly!

From the Mundane to the Sublime

 Have you heard the story of a man who started with a single red paperclip and through a series of trades, ended up with a house?  Well, it's a true story.  The lucky guy's name is Kyle MacDonald and his story is the inspiration behind the spread I created this month in Su's "From the Mundane to the Sublime" book.

Kyle wrote about each of his trades on his blog.  As I read the stories behind each transaction, I decided the best way to tell his story was using a meandering book.  Each trade could be revealed as the meandering book unfolded.

I selected the key images from Kyle's blog to tell a visual story.  Su's book is not that big, so the images had to be sized down.  I then had to select which style meandering book would best compliment this story and how it unfolded.  I chose a simple meandering (accordion style) book that had 16 panels.  

Logistically, it was a bit of a challenge to figure out where the story would start and end.  In order for the book to unfold in the least complicated way, this story begins in the upper right hand corner.  From there, the book unfolds one panel at a time to reveal the next trade.  I added text to the images to help tell the story, but the blog contains many more details that are worth reading.   You can read more here:  http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/  

The Magic of Christmas...

We have come to the final round in the second Altered ladies Round Robin.  I was working in a "Magic" themed book.  As you would expect, all of the other spreads explored and focused on the occult and magician's tricks.  With the holidays now upon us, I took a slightly different take on this theme and went with "The Magic of Christmas..."

I knew I wanted to do an iris fold Christmas tree.  I found a simple pattern which I enlarged to fit the size of the book.  I used the pages that had been removed from the book and colored them with different hues of green for my iris fold papers.  To make it more interesting, I couldn't resist incorporating the November lesson in Lisa's Vollrath's Year of Altered Book class.  We are studying pop-ups this month and how I love pop-ups!!  What if I did a pop-up iris fold Christmas tree?   And, for fun, I took it up another level and created a double layer pop-up.  When the viewers open the book, they will see the iris fold Christmas tree through a window.

I loved the meditative exercise of creating an iris fold design.  While I have made a few pop-ups over the years, I really enjoyed learning about the construction and executing my very first double layer pop-up! 

Circle of Color

Pam's book invites you to select a palette from paint chips.  The catch here is you must select a color whose name begins with one or both of your initials.  I poured through many paint chips hoping that I would stumble across a color that I'd never used before that began with an "L" or a "G."  I was immediately drawn to a deep purple called "Love Letters" and a beautiful green called "Luau Green."

I considered doing a very literal interpretation for this book--purple love letters--but the visuals that I was coming up with did not excite me.  I should add that Pam's book is cut into a circular shape.  I knew that I would want my spread to compliment and work with that shape.  These two colors naturally lent themselves to a plant or flower.  Yes, a simple, but exquisite flower.

This is when I got the idea to create a pop-up lotus flower.  I had seen different variations of these pop-up flowers.  After some research, I found the technique I wanted to do.  This particular pop-up does not require any special paper.  I decided to use vellum which creates crisp creases but also has a delicate feel to it.  I used Seedless Preserves Distress Stain to color my lotus petals.  Applying the Distress Stain caused the vellum petals to curl, so I had to weight them down with a book so they would dry flat.  The background paper serves as my Luau Green.

I used 10 sheets of vellum to create this flower.  Once assembled, I think a heavier weight vellum would have given it more body.  This vellum was quite thin and the petals are a bit floppy, but they still stand up.  I just love the simplicity of the spread!

Single Staple Collage Chunkies

So the idea for this month's chunky challenge was to create a page using materials that are secured with just a single staple.  This seemed to be a rather simple technique, right?  As I got started, however, the most important thing I learned was to wait  until AFTER all the pieces were into (com)position before trimming them to size.  If you trim too early, you may not be able to secure all the pieces with a single staple.  So therein lies the challenge!

I used the various ephemera that I collected on my recent trips to Italy for my pages.  In 2010, we visited Lake Como, Bellagio and Venice.  This past June, I was back in Venice, then Florence, Tuscany (Montalcino) and Rome.  I managed to collect SO MUCH ephemera, that I wanted to use as much of it as possible in my pages.  For this reason, I challenged myself to decorate both front and back of the page.  Now when I look at my finished pages, each piece of paper reminds me of a museum, a restaurant, an Italian paper shop, a great gelato place, a ferry ride...I LOVE that!  And, it's a wonderful way to share some of the highlights of my travels with the other chunky players!

Art is Important...

I thought this book would be difficult to work in at first.  The theme "Why Art Is Important..." seemed so profound and difficult to express in visual form.  The spreads that came before me were deeply personal.  How would I tackle this theme?  As I thought about what I would do for this AB, I began to brainstorm the many things that art is or can be.   Through this exercise, it became clear to me that while art can sometimes be viewed in a negative light (controversial, offensive, provocative), ultimately art, in all its forms--allows us to grow in a multitude of ways including understanding, tolerance and community.  To illustrate this idea, I cut each of these thoughts about art into strips of paper shaped like blades of grass and filled the pages.  I must say that I really enjoyed spending time to reflect on the many ways art influences us.

Forgot to add that I was watching Kevin Costner in "Field of Dreams" as I cut out my blades of grass.  Coincidence?  I think not...