Tuesday, July 29, 2008

First altered book

I finally completed the first altered book. I used a small board book and peeled off the shinny layer. Each spread has a different topic. I am not very good at following one theme - I go with what I have on hand, techniques I want to experiment with etc.

The cover is fabric. The first spread has a folded book attached in th em iddle. I played around with inkblots and I liked the result. I folded the paper and then cut it to make a small book. On each spread, I wrote verses of a fridge poem I made a while ago (I have 2 sets of magnetic words on my fridge - one English, one Italian. I like playing with them every now and then. The whole "poem" is at the end). The next spread - background is graffitti fabric, hand sawn transparency images. The "Mysterious" one - the background is glue paper (while glue spread over an onion bag on freezer paper; once the glue dries, remove the bag and the result is a sheet of white glue paper). Next, a canvass with a direct transfer. I tried first a liquid drano transfer from Karen Michel's book, but it did not work out well - I let it sit too long and the image was gone. But it added a bluish tint to the canvass, so I applied the transfer on top. On the "Spirit" one I used rusted washers, old paper from a novel, transparency image and other scraps of paper anf fabric. The "Totally tourist" has a was finish on top. I was not sure what will happen if I apply wax on top. I used bits of wax melted with the heat gun and spread with the pallette knife. Worked out well. I made few more things using wax and will post them shortly.

It would be nice to know what people think about it...

































































































Here is the whole poem:

I close my eyes
in a deam
random reality

without limitations
echoes
a perfect world

this life in a thousand pieces
the universe in a million directions

my imagination collects
pictures
surprises
thoughts

the monkey draws conclusions ...