Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Never Finished Altered Book Project

When I discovered altered art four or five years ago, altered books were the thing that captured my attention. I have always loved books. Reading them. Touching them. Smelling them. I could go on about why that is but maybe I'll save that for another post.
For now I will say that I set out to make my own altered book. Probably a little ambitious for someone new to it. Making art is harder than it looks you know - LOL! I collect quotes and figured an altered book would be a good place for my collection and I would certainly have no lack of material. Several years later it still is not finished but I do add to it on a pretty regular basis. I guess you could call it an art journal of sorts since I try all different kinds of techniques and there is no rhyme or reason to how it is arranged.
I thought it might be fun to show some pages here on my blog from time to time and share my quotes in the process.
This is the cover. I decorated that part first which I have since learned is the wrong way to go about it. Kind of like eating dessert first! I chose the book because I liked the purple cover, the title and the "feel" of the pages. And the fact that it was in the dollar book bin didn't hurt!
It is decorated with tissue paper, a metal "thing" of unknown purpose and various beads, charms and tassels and fringe.
I remove pages as I add to the paint and collage but, as you can see, it has become quite swollen with altering. It doesn't splay quite so much when it is laying down and there is still plenty of room to add more of my favorite words. In no particular order.

2 comments:

Diane said...

Okay, a very good way to journal your favorite quotes--it must be so much fun to look through this!

Annette said...

This is so cool and such a marvelous way to keep the collection of your favorite quotes. I'm curious as to why you shouldn't decorate the front first?!