Altered Book Ideas :: As the Earth Turns

As the Earth Turns was my second major altered book project. The book was divided into five sections - winter, spring, summer, fall, and winter again. My plans were ambitious; I was going to do four double-page spreads for each season. Two of them would focus entirely on art, and two would involve found poetry as well as art work.

I started off pretty strong. I used a lot of different altered book ideas. But during "summer," which by coincidence, I was working on during the summer, I started to get bogged down. My ideas felt stale and uncreative. I started doubting myself and wondered what the heck I was doing spending so much time making this book.

I decided I needed a change of pace, and set this book aside to do some shorter, faster, although not always easier, altered board books. Working in the board books allowed me to try altered book ideas that I couldn't do in the larger novels. So I got side-tracked from this piece, and after doing the sunflower page, never came back to it.

Since I gave The Motor Girls on Crystal Bay to my sister, this is the only large scale collage-style altered book I have. Whenever I have it out during shows, people always are amazed by it. Many have never seen anything like it before, so it's always fun to see peoples' reactions. Someday, one day, I hope to come back to it and finish those last two seasons.

I hope as you flip through the pages of this book, you'll take the time to read the poetry, and I hope you'll find some altered book ideas to use in your own altered books.

Altered Book Ideas :: As the Earth Turns

Written by Gladys Hasty Carroll :: Altered by Karen Hatzigeorgiou