altered books 2

I managed to get two more spreads finished in my altered book this week. I learnt that it is not all that easy to stamp into an altered book, you will see my incomplete stamped images. In this first spread 'building up layers of stamped paint. I like the effect you get with this technique. The fluid colours used mixed with gesso is paynes grey, jenkins green and transparent red iron oxide mmmm I like this colour.

We also punched holes down the right side and inserted eyelets and wired in beads and charms.The second spread with folded pockets and stitched edges. Painted cobalt turqoise fluid mixed with gesso, thought the colour was too bright. a wash of transparent yellow iron oxide mixed into the turq and gesso gave a nicer aged look. When you are folding pages in this manner the age of the book will come into account, if it is too old it will just crack or split, not a nice look.

We got five new colours in Golden Heavy Body paints in the 60ml tubes to add to our range in the shop this week. Transparent pyrrole orange a lovely reddish orange and great for layering, C.P. Cadmium red dark very dense in colour will be great over a black gesso. Transparent Yellow iron oxide I really love these transparent colours they look so good layered over other colours to give richness of colour they also blend into each other well. Indian yellow hue a beautiful sepia type rich yellow which is also transparent. the fifth colour which I just adore is graphite grey, think dark lead pencil colour I have used it with black and white blending all three colours in some areas, then dry brushed interference gold in places these colours really excite me. I can't show you the small canvas I did with these colours as it was a gift and I forgot to take a photo. However it came up so well that i will be doing more and I will share it with you then. We also got some colours in the 119ml pots for those not finding the tubes are going far enough. Alizarin Crimson hue, almost what I would call a blood red and transparent, I havent tried it yet but can't wait to try this one. Manganese Blue hue hmm how would I describe this colour I think it leans towards the turquise bit hard to describe I really like it and blue is not a favourite colour for me. Now Van Dyke brown hue, think of old masters oil paintings, my favourite brown. Gold mica flake (small) the small denotes the size of the flakes, very rich gold can see a lot of potential in dimensional art for this product. We have also got some new, to us, Golden gel products. GAC 900 fabric painting medium which gives launderability to painting clothes it is also adding to paints for airbrushing and screenprinting. GAC 400 stiffens textiles and dries to a hard stiff film. Useful for stiffening unprimed canvas or sculpting and shaping fabric can't wait to try this in mixed media. Acrylic Glazing liquid in satin and gloss, extends the open time of acrylic colours. Airbrush medium designed to modify acrylic fluid for airbrush use. Works well on clothing without the need for heatsetting. All these mediums come in 236ml bottles. Silkscreen medium in a 236ml jar water based/non textile use. Designed to blend with acrylic paints for silkscreen application. Increases working time and retards paint from drying on the screen. Safe to use with minimal odour, so there you go for those of you looking for a silkscreen product.

I have included this image I like from a diva's deste disc that I purchased. I love old photo's that show the clothing worn in that period just look at those boots and what about the long socks, or are they stockings. the standing little girl certainly looks happy with how she looks , the wool coats and hats, I bet they where prickly. This photo just gives you a sense of time, its not a professional posed photo so you get the old box she is sitting on with the building in the background.

I will be unable to post for a week as I am going down south to the country, to stay with our daughter and her family and some much needed R & R. I will catch up with you when I get back much refreshed and ready to go.

At the present I am feeling that there are not enough hours in the day and I could do with several more pairs of hands and a bucketful more energy. I have so many projects I want to get into that I am jumping from one thing to another. I want to play with the Golden products, I have just been reading in the book'The New Acylics" by Rheni Tauchid about the metallics, irridescent and interferance colours, I just want to try them out, but then I need to get onto my vintage fabric journal using silks, ribbons, lace, embellishments etc that I promised the girls we would do when we finish the altered book. Oh and then there is my fathers journal on his war years. and travel!!!! Well I must prioratise hmmm Driving to the shop the other day I saw this amazing tree all lemony yellow trusses of flowers dripping down. Now if you didnt realise we have had a lot of exremely hot weather for a prolonged period, one day of rain since before Christmas, so to see such a vision is extra special. So this morning I drove back to that street and took some photo's hoping no cars would come along while I am stopped on the brow of the hill (yeh its illegal) taking photo's, so I can share them with you.

Aaargh this dodgy mouse we have here is driving me bats, so I am quitting now and going to play, hopefully I will get the chance to blog again next week. Have a happy creative week.

Altered Books

Several weeks ago, the Wednesday class's started making altered books. The techniques we have followed are from the book 'Altered Books Workshop' by Bev Brazelton. Two other books on this subject I recommend are 'Altered Book Collage' by Barbara Matthiessen and the first book I bought on altered art 'Altered Book, Collaborative Journals and Other Adventures in Bookmaking by Holly Harrison. One of the students asked what I thought was the best glue to use in the book got me thinking so I started another altered book, I have included photo's of this book, it is a technique so have not gone for a theme but concentrated only on techniques and these I will share with you. The book needs to have sewn signatures (a group of pages sewn together not glued, if you open the middle of a signature you will see the thread sewing it together). Do not use a book that is to old (I would recommend less than 80 years old) as when a book is to old the pages have become very brittle and fragile, when you fold or bend them even after painting or maybe more so, they break and crack. I sampled three methods of glueing, PVA I found was too wet and caused the pages to wrinkle badly. gel medium soaked into the paper and was also too wet causeing wrinkles and the edges of the pages didnt glue down well. The medium I preferred was Golden Clear Tar Gel it spread easily and was nice and tacky.Golden does recommend this medium for use as a glue. Great also for gluing down paper collage.

You will see my pencil marks where I have left notes for myself on which method I have used to glue pages together or colours I have used. Throughout this book I am only tinting my Golden white gesso with the smallest drops of Golden fluid colours. The reason I have done this is because I personally love the colour of old aged paper and I wanted to emulate that colour. I found this method gave me those lovely soft aged colours and a matte finish. I really like this technique of designing with words. Before painting pages, with a pencil, draw blocks around certain words to make a message (ie on right side 'the lady's - face was oval - her - gown - provocative - beauty ) on the left (monsier, - the most adorable creature - lingering, - with - hope - met his eyes at last ) then paint all the page except the blocked words. When paint is dry use a black pen to block around the words then link them up with straight lines as in this instance, can be shaped lines, dotted lines etc. This class was a lot of fun as one of the students had quite a suggestive novel. Will be interesting to see what she came up with out of that text. I love how the words just pop out of the page. The fluid colour add is Golden Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide, almost perfect reproduction of old paper colour.

Image transfers, the one on right page is Golden Soft gel matte and image on transparency. On the left Golden Regular gel matte and image on paper printed on inkjet printer. For gel medium transfers I have a sheet on our website http://www.artisticjourney.com.au/ that you can download.

Adding tags technique the stamping on the background is some stamps I cut out of a kneeling garden mat I bought from a hardware shop, its about 1 inch thick which is good to hold when stamping. It has a imprinted pattern on it which I think makes a nice pattern. The fluid I used in the gesso for these two pages was Golden Burnt Umber which gave a pink brown colour.

Cutting windows, the images are my own photo's.

I did say that this book was a sample did'nt I? Of course you cant see the eifel tower from a window in Venice, what can I say.
Cutting Doorways, the colours used adding to gesso are Golden Raw Sienna and then adding Golden Cobalt Turquoise and sponged on with a sea sponge.Through the open doors. Don't you think this image of a sculpture is awesome, cannot remember where I was it, possibly Germany, I saw some amazing art there.Finally the pop out technique. Images of gargoyles at Notre Dame and my attempt at drawing the church in the background using a black and white Portfolio crayons which I sealed with Krylon spray sealer so that the crayons didnt smudge or transfer. Next week we will be doing a page background and possibly hanging embellishments if time allows. I will post these when we get a few more pages done.