Monday, December 28, 2009

Keeping the hands busy

The canvas book cover came out cute, however I will not use this bookbinding method again. The idea was to make a number of accordion fold pages, then glue them into a cover.

As I painted and collaged the pages however, they loosened and fell out of the binding. Twice I reglued them. The second time I cut off the binding edge and reglued the pages to a new piece of canvas. But some of the pages stuck together and made a big mess. A number are ruined.

Enlarge to see the expression on the woman's face on the right. This is an old, non-family photo. I stuck with a singular theme in the book: house/home. I'm not really patient with doing a one theme book and got bored toward the end. These pages may get more embellishments with time.

I also worked on the book above. The paper is several layers of tissue paper glued together. The theme is: Words and Silence. I used a simple binding of just two holes through which I drew a ribbon and tied it on the outside. I unpacked my rubber stamp box so I could stamp "Words."

Photo is a photocopy.

The pages are translucent. And have a fragile quality to them, though they are pretty sturdy. I often use this tissue paper sandwich to draw on with oil pastels.

13 comments:

Blue Sky Dreaming said...

I like them all but the tissue paper pages are quite wonderful...could see them aged with a sepia toned paint? The writing is so beautiful...you have quite a nice assortment of collage material.

sukipoet said...

that's a great idea Blue Sky. Sepia toned paint. I would just have to mix some up as I dont actually have that tone. I have drawers full of collage material. :)

Mary Richmond said...

these are great!

studio lolo said...

Really beautiful Suki. I'm inspired! I'd like to make little books for birthdays this coming year. That may be a bit too ambitious though!

Cris, Artist in Oregon said...

Looks like you were having fun.
Sorry you ruined some pages. Hope they arent to bad. Looks hard what you are doing. I really like the cover in the first photo. I also like your new header. Your word stamper looks fun. How does it work?

Katiejane said...

These are really cool books! Too bad about the first one. I like that one a lot. I am making a sort of house book too, for no particular reason other than I just like houses. I'm doing pages as dream rooms in the house.

Love your tissue paper pages. So light and fragile looking.

soulbrush said...

love the header,love it. this book is wonderful, i still have so much to learn. and doing a book about 'homes' is quite cathartic too i would say.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Don't you hate it when something goes wrong with a book you've worked so hard on.!?.

I love the look of the tissue paper pages. They look so soft. I want to touch them.

Teri said...

Despite all those aggravating problems, it looks beautiful!

Lilacrobin said...

Beautiful work Suki! (Especially those tissue paper pages!)

May 2010 bring you health, happiness and that special home of your own!

Robin (from San Francisco)

~Babs said...

All these pages look like they were fun to do. The book binding didn't sound so fun.Sorry it didn't work out.
I too love the first one.

When I enlarged the photo, I noticed your rings.I like them, and have two that appear to be very similar. I now wear my Mom's gold wedding band in between them.

Lynn Cohen said...

How frustrating to have your glue mess up that way...the pages are interesting. Was it a windy day I wonder with the woman holding her hair down? I like the pages with foriegn language, but often wonder if I did that and I not know what the words said would they be wierd if read by someone who was able to understand them?
I like your house/family theme...even when not your family...I wonder what stairs those dressed up women just climbed and where they are going?
I wonder if you did the embroidery on the grapes on the first cover?

sukipoet said...

Lynn, that's not a foreign language, but english. The page is taken from an old record book I bought at a yard sale. It was written in ink pen back in the late 1800's which may be why it is hard to read the words. The penmanship.

I did not do the emboidery. I cant sew really although I once did some crewel work.