Secrets of the Sea Altered Book Spread

I have finished work in a book for my Art Groups Round Robin. This month's task was to create a spread in a book titled "Secrets of The Sea".

This is the first page. I took a very old map of "Oceana"- now the South Pacific, and covered the first page of Trina's book. I then created an overlay of a transparency of a poem from an very old children's reader sewn to a piece of blue vellum.

This shows the map page without the overlay. I added the cut out fish from an old children's Encyclopedia.

Several pages of the original book had to be removed to make room for the art work ,so I chose to use the page tabs as part of the layout. I covered each page stub with papers and then added photos taken at my favorite beaches on Cape Cod. These are my own photographs.

For the remaining page of the spread, I found a wonderful page from the same Children's Encyclopedia, depicting the creatures that live on the ocean floor. I knew that I wanted to hide a mermaid in amongst the rocks, so I cut a slit in the page and carefully adhered the picture to the book page without closeing up the created pocket. I then added all sorts of green fibers to the top of the page as a curtain of seaweed. This added another layer and hid the mermaid even more.

At the bottom of the spread I added "rocks" created from painted and ironed Tyvek.

The basis of the mermaid was an image that I cut from a piece of mermaid fabric. I added the tyvek tail and some stabilizing interfacing and backed the whole thing with cardstock. I then coated her with several layers of varnish for strength and durability.

As you see probably tell, i had a good deal of fun with this project! I topped the whole thing of with strands of shells that I had collected from one of my favorite Cape Cod beaches.

Fabric Covered Book

Several posts back I had a picture or two of my first attempt at a fabric covered altered board book. I have completed the book and filled it with gardening quotes and some of my own photos from my garden. I have digitally altered the photos with various filters to give different effects.

This is the finished cover with the pottery shard face fragment tucked behind the flower. (It is made from Polymer Clay).

This was a great little project! It did not take very long, I expanded my skills with digital photo manipulation and creating the collaged backgrounds directly in the book, worked very well.

Chosen For Her Artwork!!

The Public School System in our County held it's Annual Festival of the Arts Weekend on March 24-25. Becca knew that she would be performing with The Singing Gators at the festival, on Saturday morning. By all accounts they did a beautiful job with their singing- Becca does love to sing and she has a beautiful voice.

On Friday, March 23rd Becca was given a certificate by her art teacher that stated that a piece of her art had been choosen for display. She was Over The Moon with excitement!!

I was unable to attend the concert as I had signed up for a class way back in December, long before the date for the festival had been announced. I was dissappointed but I knew that she and Dad would have a great time together. They left for the event armed with cameras and with orders to take lots of pictures.

Once the Concert was over she and Dad went in search of her art work. They found her Gator Drawing. The assignment had been to draw a picture of a Gator (the school Mascot), involved in an unusual activity. The size was to be no bigger that the 4x6 inch piece of paper.

Becca was not aware that another piece of her art had also been chosen. She was SO excited when she discovered her picture of her shoe, mounted and displayed along with several others!!! The assignment had been to draw a picture of her sneaker with as much detail as possible. They could use pencil and then Sharpie marker and then they were to color it with watercolors.

I am still not able to draw anything that even remotely resembles the original so I must conclude taht she has come by this skill from her Dad, the engineer! We are so proud of her!!!

We are also very proud of our terrific son Matthew. He is 15 and a freshman in High School. This kid excels at everything that he does but he refuses to let me take pictures of him, never mind post stories about him on my blog!! SIGH!!!

Getting Ready for Art And Soul !!

May 3rd is fast approaching and I am so very excited to be able to attend Art and Soul this year!

http://www.artandsoulretreat.com/virginia2007.php

The Art extravaganza (classes, classes and more classes with some of the very best artists out in our world) will take place in Hampton , VA and I will be attending on the 5th and 6th. I will be taking classes with collage artist, AnnBaldwin http://www.annbaldwin.com and jewelry artist Susan Lenart-Kazmer.

http://www.susanlenartkazmer.net/learn.htmand

After reading some of my friends blogs, I realize that when one attends one of these festivals, the custom is to have items of art to trade. This custom had it's beginings with Artist Trading Cards. I have been having some fun making some pins with left over bits and pieces and I have decided that I will continue to do this so I will have a nice little pile to take with me! I will probably also make some fabric postcards and ATC's.

Here are some of my latest pins.

These were made from collaged cut pieces of painted paper towel. I say "cut" specifically because I usually tear everything that I fuse or collage. For this project I decided to break my own rules- OOHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, and cut pieces with SCISSORS!!! I used matte medium to fuse the pieces on freezer paper and then added bits of text from some old chinese text books, for contrast- (No idea what it says!) These pins were also backed with watercolor paper and finished as described in my previous post. Then I signed the backs, punched holes and added danglies.

Artist's Trading Pins

It's a new thing! An offshoot from the now famous Artist's Trading Cards, these little pins are wearable art that are always traded never sold. They are meant to be quick and easy and wearable. I have made several, again for a swap, but I think that I will be developing some of my ideas to make jewelry for sale.

These particular pins were made from scraps of paint-scapped collaged text pages. I stamped the phrase on the front, added stenciled stars in some cases, backed the piece with 140 lb watercolor paper and added some danglies. The whole thing was sealed with Diamond Glaze and pin backs were added to the back of each.

This photo is a bit blurry, not sure why. The phrase is ART HELPS ME BREATHE. These pins look alot better in real life- the colors are yellows, golds and orange and text from the collage paers is visible in some parts. If you wish to see a larger picture, just click on the photo.

Here on the back, I have signed and dated each oneand noted that it is a one-of-a-kind original piece.

Art Dolls are taking over the Asylum!!

I have been creating these wonderful little stuffed art dolls for several days now and I am finding that it is hard to stop!! The precipitating event was the announcement of a new swap on one of my art groups. As I began to see what some of my oh-so-talented art friends were creating, I could not resist.!!!! They are quick easy and oh, so much fun. I made the first one for daughter Becca when she was so sick. It really brought a smile to her face. The second one was quickly abducted because the first little mothie needed a friend. But, of course!! I have given several otthers to little friends and I have finally gotten around to finishing the two that I am obligated for in the swap. I have more waiting to be embellished that will be sent off as little surprises to various folks.

Well, enough discussion, here are the Mothies!

And some more!

This next picture shows how the backs are finished!

These little darlings are only agout 4-5 inches long and take just small scraps of fabric to create. The embellishing is the best part as each one takes on a personality of it's own.

New Projects- Beading and Books!

I have finished up one project and am well on my way to finishing the next! I have several new projects coming along and tomorrow my art groups meets and I will get the next Altered Book from the local RR that I am participating in.

Here is a picture of the beaded braclet created as a gift for my Mother-in-Law.

I had seen a bracelet very similar to this and tried to get the same effect on my own. I think that I will call it Twining Vines.

This next project began it's life as a child's board book. I have striped the top layer of each page and collaged each with pieces of torn text pages. Then I applied various shades of green paint.
This book will become a collection of gardening quotes and photos from my own garden. I have been playing with the photos on the computer and applying different filters to the shots. I am in the process of printing the photos now and I will post the final project soon. For now, here are the front and back covers of the book.

The front cover .


The back cover.

Mellow Yellow!

I have been a major Altered Book making machine lately! This will be my last one for a week or so till the next round kicks in! In the meantime, I am working on a beading project and a Mini Board Book of Gardening Quotes for my Mother-in-Laws birthday. I have many other projects that need doing as well. Now it seems that there is a lovely little stomach virus going around. SO far, my son and I have been able to avoid it but we shall see.... Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Anyway, enough chit-chat! On to the art work!! This book is a part of the 'True Colors Type" RR that I am currently running. I have been waiting to work on this book for months! I was emptying a bag of stone ground corn meal when the theme for this spread hit me!! The bag is bright yellow and red and we use the corn meal to make my husbands famous corn griddle cakes. So the spread had to include the recipe, of course!

This is the left hand spread with the corn meal package. The background for the whole spread was the collaged and paint scrapped with yellow and golds.

This is the right hand side of the spread. The seed packet contains the recipe for the griddle cakes.

The quote is form Anne Frank and can be read when the seed packet is flipped up.

This shot shows the tag that I made to hold the recipe!

I had a lot of fun with this layout. The colors are so happy and bright. The buttons and the dry cleaning tapes added the right amount of whimsey to this very happy spread. I hope that my friend Judy will be pleased!!

I will be posting my other projects as soon as they are completed. I hope to be done in the next day or two as my Mother-in-Laws birthday is going to be celebrated this Saturday!! I need to get cracking!!