Spring ~ Page 6 :: Altered Book :: As the Earth Turns

Text:

Spring

Ingredients:

gesso, Lumiere acrylic Pearl Emerald Green, tissue paper, gold thread, Aztec Gold PearlEx powder, gold art papers

Lessons Learned:

1) Make a test page when you're trying something new
2) Don't glue pages of sections together until you're absolutely certain you don't want to add anything else. (Okay, so I've said that one before, but I guess I didn't really "learn" it.)
3) After sewing threads across the opening the way I did over the title, tape down the threads along the edges on the underside of the page

Process:

First I cut out the window that would go over the section title "Spring." Next I painted the pages with white gesso. I originally wanted to have a smooth surface to paint on, but as you can see, that idea fell by the wayside. Instead, I put more gesso on the pages, took some white tissue paper, crinkled it up really good, and stuck it over the pages then painted more gesso on top. I rolled a brayer over the tissue paper to press out air pockets and prevent more wrinkling.

I stuck wax paper between the pages after they had dried, closed the book and flattened it. It took a few days before I could work again.

Next I painted over the pages with the Lumiere Pearl Emerald Green paint. I tried to be very careful not to let any paint slip under the left page, since my winter tree scene is directly behind it. Even though I had placed waxed paper underneath the pages I was working on, some of the gesso had worked it's way underneath along the edges. It wasn't too bad since the gesso was white, but the green would have been disasterous.

I let the paint dry for a little while but I wanted to work some gold Pearl Ex into the paint. I had made some gorgeous gesso paper with the green paint and gold powder during the summer, and I was hoping to re-create that look. Unfortunately, I didn't take notes about the EXACT shade of gold PearlEx I used. When I started spreading the Aztec Gold across the green paint I realized that this was the wrong shade. It was too light and brassy. So after I put it over the spread, I took some remnants of emerald pearl paint from my fancy palette (rice pudding lid), and painted it on top of the gold. This gave the gold a tone I could live with.

I stitched gold thread across the window/title opening and it looked very cool. I used gel medium to glue the underside of the page to the page behind it. I then glued the art papers around the window at at the lower edge of the pages. I made a wax paper sandwich and flattened the book for the night. Everything was looking fine. When I opened it up the next morning, I discovered that the threads had slackened and were no longer tight across the window. My guess is that when the papers got damp from the gel medium, they shrank a bit, which loosed the stitching. It doesn't look too bad, but I don't like it as much as before, and I can't really thing of a way to remedy the situation.

Reflections:

It has taken me such a long time to get back to this book. I completed two other books since I finished "Winter." The Art in a Child's Hand board book that I made for Art Continuum, and another book that I dislike so much, I can't even bring myself to write about how much I dislike it. I started getting more into doing collage work, but my Earth book just kept beckoning me. It feels so good to work in it again.

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