Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Altered Art Book- hmph.


Well, I thought this would be a good idea for summer, but now I'm thinking not so much.


I started with a discarded board book, because I read that the pages wouldn't ripple when gluing or painting on them, but then found out that you have to sand the pages first and then treat them with gesso. ($10.00 for a bottle of gesso!!!!)

Then cutting out a niche was a nasty enterprise involving X-acto knife action and a power drill- not exactly teen friendly! Also, it looks messy and I hate messy niches, oh yes I do. And it made me feel uncrafty and inept, which, ok, I'm not Martha, and I'm not Not Martha, but I can usually feel that whatever other skills I lack, I can be crafty and ept. With this, yeeeeah. No.

It took about 4 hours of work and about 20 hours of drying, fanned out and open, to reach this glorious point.

Yup.

If I ever touch it again, I'll be sure to post it!



Well, I made it blue. That took a few more hours, and then overnight drying.




Then I spent, oh, a few lifetimes cutting out scenes from some of my favorite children's books. My plan, should it ever get finished (looking unlikely) is to try to make each page reflect (this is so uber-geek I just might choke) what I read through the years, from Seuss and Eastman to Hodgson-Burnett and Streatfield to Plath and Salinger and Fitzgerald and so on, right through college and maybe up to now, except, bizarrely, I am right back full circle to reading picture books. Huh. Circle of life, baby. Circle of life.

1 comment:

Elenturi said...

I really like this book you created.