An Altered Book:: The Motor Girls on Crystal Bay

Title Page :: The Motor Girls on Crystal Bay

Text:

Four girls
in various stages
of a journey.

Ingredients:

acrylics, lace, stickers, stamps, scanned image, tissue napkin, glitter

Lessons Learned:
1) Reinforce the tissue paper? But how? It's tearing in the gutter.
2) Put cloth tape down the gutter to smooth it out and reinforce it. Then maybe the tissue might not have torn?
3) When I'm gluing only a few pages together, glue each page to the other instead of just 3 sides - not enough thickness to hold the glue/pages together.
4) Should I spray the pages with some type of acrylic sealer to protect them?

Reflections:
I've been thinking about what to do with the book ever since I bought it from a little old lady's junk shop for $4 the day after Christmas. I'm on a message group with people that do altered books, so I've been getting lots of ideas from them. I didn't even know what an altered book was a couple of months ago.

You can't believe how hard it was to cut into the text to make that window! I mean, I almost started crying after I did it - the book is so old. I felt the way I did one time when I went to Cut 'n' Curl when I was in high school. I had long hair past my bra strap, and I just wanted a trim. I wanted the bottom sort of rounded, but the hair dresser took off about four inches! I almost started crying right there when I saw the reflection of my back in the mirror.

Isn't it weird how I associated that memory with cutting up this book? I love books. I felt like I was injuring it in some way. Isn't that strange? Maybe next time I won't use a book that's so old. But after all, how long do you think it would have sat on that bookshelf, unwanted, unnoticed, unloved? Anyhow, I'm happy with how it has turned out so far.

Responses from Others:
And to answer your question about reinforcing the tissue at the gutter I think that at this point all you can do is to paint over the area with acrylic matte medium. Next time you might use a strip of lightweight cotton fabric adhered to the area with matte medium. Then glue your tissue in place. Thanks, Jo!

As far as spraying your pages. I'm sure we will hear from others. Generally, I don't spray my pages. I am from the school of thought that says, "my art is for now. It isn't meant to last forever." Other's are far more archival and would spray the pages. I don't sell my books but if you lean towards selling your art then I suggest you look into the archival qualities of the sprays. Thanks, Linda!

Ahead to Page 2

Want to be notified when something new is added to Karen's Whimsy?

Subscribe to Karen's Whimsy Newsletter!