artist book

Using books as ART materials is a circular process for me.

First I am inspired by something about the book.

It could be inspired by the:

• cover design
• yellowed pages
• old notes or scribbles
• color, drawings or illustrations
• title or story
• kind of paper
• spine letters
• old pockets or labels

Then the next step is experimentation. How can I take what I love and use it in a new piece of art work? This can be the scary part, if I am really attached to the book part and afraid to wreck it or lose it. So I start with books and parts that I am not so attached to.

The experimentation can be:

• Cutting the book apart to use the covers
• Making a black out poem on a page
• Cutting and collaging pages
• painting pages
• folding pages into origami
• replicating pockets and labels
• Shredding pages into bits
• Photocopy and enlarge drawings
• Cutting words and making new meaning
• Anything that you could do with paper is possible

Then the final step is following my intuition. This would be different for every artist.

The things that inform my gut feelings and intuition are:

• the texture and feel of the paper
• the color and age of the page
• the strength of the material
• the intended purpose/viewer
• design elements/principles like texture, value and focus

It is a back and forth of building and covering, uncovering and revealing. I often don’t know where the process is going to take me.

I hope for a pleasing expression of materials that make the viewer want to get closer and interact with the piece.

I think layers of information can pull the viewer in. They want to know and understand. I think that will be different for everyone.

Join me – in the online class – Book as ART Materials – class starts soon. READ the details on the workshop pages and register today.

The Mixed Media Printmakers Retreat is designed to meet you where you are in your mixed printmaking process.

Then add a few new skills to reform and shape some of your prints and papers into books and mixed media prints.

In preparation for the course, I did a little sample book that included several of the processes that we will be using,

• Rusting paper or prints
• pamphlet stitch book form
• Wax rubbings
• Tissue paper collage
• Gesso transfers
• Stitching without thread
• Smoking, burning
• Text as texture
• Trace monoprint
• accordion fold

You still have time to join this online class.

Read the details on the workshop page.

Class is 2 weeks long and is designed to help you dedicate a concentrated effort to your art practice.
And you have access to the classroom for at least a year.

Get inspired! Give your pile of prints new life!

When working with old books it is exciting to find notes and scribbles and old library check out slips.

I like to call this patina or history. It is not something that you can make up, it’s real and can transport you back 100 years. I like to take these treasures and re-work them into a new book that can be handled and interacted with.

The books cannot be precious in either state. I love to make artist books that seem so precious and fragile and still invite the viewer to open them and experience the combination of old and new. This process can give old found marks new meaning.

Are you interested in re-working some old books into new treasures?

Click here and read the details of the Book as ART materials workshop. Registration is open and class starts soon.

Sewn book bindings can intimidating. But the more you do the better you get.

Every time I make a Coptic stitch bound book, I need to refresh my memory and skills.

So with this journal I set perfection aside and embraced the re-learning of the coptic stitch binding.

When journals are too perfect and precious, then I seem to be reluctant to use them. So I guess is is great to have this less than perfect journal for doodles, lists, notes and drawing.

If you would like to explore re-use old books this summer, then stay on the printmaking list below and I will keep you posted.

I love books as tools, inspiration and touchable works of art. Today I made a quick little journal with a piece of monoprinted fabric.

I like to make up the binding as I go. so this is a modified long stitch binding.

The steps to making this little artist’s journal:

1. Cut the inside folios. Folio is a folded sheet of paper
2. Rounded the corners with my new corner punch
3. Nested 8 folios inside each other to create 3 signatures.
4. Cut 2 pieces of mat board  a tiny bit bigger than my page size.
5. Taped those together with duct tape, and created the spine, wide enough to fit my pages.
6. Hot glued my hand printed fabric to the cover, wrapping it around the edge to the inside.
7. Poked 3 holes in the spine at the top and bottom.
8. Then poked holes in my 3 signatures to match
9. Starting on the inside of each signature, I stitched out through the spine, down to the bottom and back into the spine and through the signature. 
10. Tie off each signature in the middle. Tie it snug enough so that the signature does not wiggle but not so tight that you tear the pages.
11. Finally I added some end pages to the inside covers. These cropped monotype prints cover up the uneven and unfinished edges of the fabric cover.
12. I used hot glue and tape so I could quickly finish my book project. I used waxed thread, because I had some on hand and I like the way it locks off on itself and keeps a good knot.

Do you love books? Do you use them in your art? Do you make books? Or do you dare cut them and use them as foundations for you artwork?

If you have not tried using a book in this way – try it today! Maybe  use just a page or the cover.  Play with a book. Make touchable, intimate art.

If you like the fabric portion of this project and would like some help monoprinting fabric, then join us in the online printmaking workshop, Monoprinting Fabric. Get the details on the printmaking class page. Class starts soon.