Re-organized my Art Studio

Well, I couldn't stand it and so reorganized my art studio in the basement. I had about 6 white cabinets down there for storage. I was able to put things that were in them in other cabinets and/or put them in the pile for Goodwill. So I was able to give away one white cabinet and that allowed for another 5 ft. x 5 ft. space. Looks so much more spacious. I have an old upper kitchen cabinet (may have talked about this in the last blog) that I put wheels on and can roll it around to where I need it. Very handy! Of course, I'm never satisfied with the way I have it organized, so there will probably be more re-positioning of workbenches. Having the benches on rollers is such a great thing.





Just bought two more old readers at the Treasure Mart in Kokomo on Saturday. Both are great. One is from the year my mother was born, 1929 and the other is earlier..1904. The 1904 reader is an Indiana one and of course both are public domain at this point. So, I'm planning to possibly make .jpegs of the illustrations in both and adverstize them on Etsy. May use some of them for my work, as well. I love art nouveau things anyway and the one from 1929 has some very nice illustrations of times gone by...the other one from 1904 is even more interesting with the illustrations presented in the book. Maybe you can guess that I also love history and genealogy as well. So, I think about the books, who might have used them, the time period, what was going on then, how might they have dealt with things during that time.





Well I just published another altered journal on Etsy that is a custom one for a lady in Youngstown, Ohio that will be for a friend of her's birthday. She wanted one with a collage on the front and back covers and also a peek-through on the cover. Here is the link if you'd like to view it. http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=39224470



Well, till the next blog....Happy Blogging...ha.
Gregg

Created a NEW Altered Book just Recently

Hello,

Well, I've been busy. My sister-in-law was interested in having me make a special journal in an altered book for her best friend's birthday. So after emailing her and asking many questions to help me formulate a custom book for her friend...I got busy. The book is about 7 x 9 inches. I glued a set of the last pages in the book together (about 1/4" thick) so that I might carve out a rectangular area to house a box shape I had previously created that could be used to save memories. It has flaps that help keep the contents in and the whole thing is glued to the back of the book. I learned from the previous altered book to finish the back cover before gluing the "box pages" to it. It makes for a cleaner look.

So after carving out a rectangular space, I did cover the back of the book. I chose a blue paper with light blue glittered areas that also had butterflies and a floral designed pattern. I also put the same pattern on the front. For the spine, I chose a deep red crinkle paper that I wrapped around the spine and over-lapped the blue paper about and inch and a fourth. On the spine edge, I stamped "Cerise's Journal" in gold ink.

Then, I tried a different binding this time for the blank pages I wanted to insert in the front for journaling. I chose to use "drumleaf binding" meaning, I clamped the edge of the pages together and then applied several layers of glue to keep them together. I had help with that idea from a new book I purchased called, Art and Books by Dorothy Simpson Krause. After the binding was dry, I glued them into the space left in the altered book where I had cutout the original pages.

Once that was completed, I finished the endpapers on the inside of the front cover with music paper, knowing that the receipient loves music. I also found out that she likes coffee and so I glued a navy ribbon in the top of the spine and at the other end used an eyelet to attach an old coffee key to it. Because I was working with things gold, I also gilted the key with a special marker before attaching it.

Finally, I decided on what to do with the front cover. It was nice as is, but I wanted it to be more personable. So I used a decorative C and then smaller regular letters to spell out Cerise's name in red ink. I also made a cutout area in the upper right corner of the cover to house a butterfly replica. The backing was a shiney gold and the cover was clear plastic. To finish off the area around the butterfly that was with red wings to match the red spine, I used the same red from the spine to create a small border about 1/8 inch wide. Above are a couple of pictures of my final altered journal. Two other inspirational books I recently purchased were: Teach Yourself Visually by Roni Johnson, which is a great book for knowing what's out there to use in your art and also many ways to do it, the other book, Vintage Collage-Works-Artful Ideas with Antique Ephemera by MaryJo & Sunny Koch is just great for inspiration and very beautifully done. Would love to have comments about my own works.

Happy Crafting!

Just Finished an Altered Journal for Family Member

Hi! I just finished a great blank journal for my brother-in-law! He loves the out-of-doors, camping, and taught biology. So adding elements of plants, etc. is what the book includes. I started with an

old receipe book that I covered with papers representing stones in water, burlap, and also torn pieces of wallpaper samples with plants. Before covering the book, I created a peek-through so that I could add a saying in the window on the front endpaper on the right. After covering the book, I used a square of black plastic screen to make the view more interesting through the square I cutout. I also added pockets inside to hold memorabilia. On those pages I used a brown ink to give it a weathered look and added rubber stamping of plants and flowers. I also did hole-punching at the top and bottom of the pockets which were then laced with a white cording. I noticed that the book had sections of Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter receipes and so I used the title pages as dividers for the book for journaling, separating the sections with a tag that extents beyond the book page as a tab for each section. I cut out pages in each section about an inch from the binding and then added blank linen paper pages for journaling by glueing each linen page between two cut pages.

In the back of the book, I added another set of pockets in a vertical formation across two pages with eyelets to secure them in place. This adds another area for keeping memorabilia. Because of the option to keep memorabilia in certain pages I decided to use a length of jute threaded through an eyelet on the edge of the front and back covers that allows the user to tie the jute in a bow to secure those pieces in the book that might be placed in the pockets. Above on the right is an open section of the book showing the pockets and the tabs. What do you think?