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Friday 20 April 2012

My Altered Book - playing catch up ...


 I'm altering a book following the on line lessons
being very generously offered (for free) by Elizabeth on her blog
If you click on the photo above it should take you to
the Syllabus page on Elizabeth's blog.

I've now completed lesson 4, but my earlier
progress can be found on my blog here.
 

This lesson was all about different glues and gesso.
If you're a fan of the sticky stuff do go and take a look at
Elizabeth's extensive blog post on this topic. 

We had to stick two pages together using different types of glue,
then make tags to record our observations.

Here goes then:






















(Well, that was blogging fun - not!  Trying to line all these photos up!
Sorry if they are appearing all over the place)


Each medium gave good adhesion, sticking two pages
of the book together really well.
The only real problem was all the wrinkles and creases
which each of the different glues gave to some degree.
I did these pages a few weeks ago and at the time my preferred
glue (as documented on the tags) was the Power Pritt Stick.
Looking at them again now, there really isn't much difference in 
any of them - and if anything, the Gesso may even be the best,
although at the time I recorded it as the second worse!
Note to self then:  Use whatever you have to hand, it all works!


The second part of the lesson concentrated on Gesso.


These words are from Elizabeth -
"Gesso is a chalk-like substance used by many altered artists. Gesso adds tooth to any page, fabric, or substrate. It allows any page or substrate to accept paint without the paint sinking into the page. It can be used to strengthen thin pages or pages you want to add heavy embellishments to. It can be used to texture a page. You can think of it as a primer." 

We had to create a two page spread both
covering the pages with Gesso and using Gesso as a glue.

 
I had never before thought of Gesso as a glue, but it works!
For the background, once the Gesso was dry, I used Distress Inks
and Pastels to add some colour.
I used Gesso to stick down the images and the words,
which are printed on thick card - oh and not forgetting the
scraps of sequin waste - they too were stuck down with it.

I finished decorating the facing page to the niche page too.


I rubber stamped various images onto tissue paper
and stuck them onto the page using Liquitex Matte Medium.

That's about it I think.

I see Elizabeth now has Lessons 5 and 6 on her blog
'Design Principles 1 and 2'

...gulp... hope I'm up to it!

If you're still here - thanks for looking :)

7 comments:

Ann B said...

I love your pages - all of them. Great theme as well - can see you don't really need any lessons on altered books but glad you are taking part if I get to see your book.

Ann B
x

SandeeNC said...

Hi Sherry, So glad to see the wonderful progress you are making on your AB! I really loved the quotes about love binding us together, awesome with your sewing theme! You are doing a fabulous job! waving hi from the hills of North Carolina :)

Dawn said...

What beautiful pages Sherry and loving the theme. If any consolation I am playing catch up too, I have managed to blog lesson 5 but am still way behind on all the other stuff!!!!

paulaexuk said...

Hi Sherry, thanks for showing me the way to this altered book tutorial, now I am hooked too. Love your pages, a subject from your heart I know
Cheers Paula

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

I apologize that it has taken me so long to get here. It's been a busy week. And yes, I love the way you documented these glues. You made the pages exciting and fun to read. I so enjoyed how you kept with your theme, too. Well done!

BTW, I'm glad you liked the gesso as a glue. It's amazing how well it works. And I'd never heard of that Pritt glue until I saw it used by some people. It must be a British or European product, because I've still never heard of it here in the states.

JaN's ArTy JouRneY said...

Oh WOW...LOVE your pages Sherry (and the theme you have chosen)....Simply delightful...sounds like a fab lil AB course :)
Jan x

BJ said...

Sherry, Knew I must have missed some of your beautiful AB so have leafed back through your blog posts and came across your earlier pages. They are brilliant, I am loving the sewing theme big time now (since doing Tim's May tag) and the memories of sewing as a kid are flooding back too. Adore how you used the dress form as your tag on your glue pages, and you must have loads of lovely sewing stamps too. Your book will be a truely awsome treasure. BJ