More Books

After doing the book demo last week, I finally had a chance to upload some pictures and am going to put a few of them here.  Some are entirely polymer clay covers...the others, well you'll probably be able to detect what they are!

This is one I started a long time ago and bound rather recently.  It's got a ton of texture and is loaded with parchment type paper.  It is a medium sized journal with about 80 pages, but I really haven't counted them.  The colours are very warm and the beads on the side are a little off the beaten track in terms of style.  One of the strands is split into two about halfway down thecord's length.

The cover is a Skinner blend that was  textured with some fabric.  Additional elements include a drape of  cane slices and some variegated canes I added for visual interest.

This rockin' one was inspired by the surrounding rocks out here.  I  actually put it down on the ground amid the stones that are outside and it blended in very well.  The rocky top on this is quite bumpy, but in the end I buffed it to make it less so and to make it easier to hold.  It is filled with charcoal type paper so that any naturalist can go out and do sketches.  In keeping with the rocky theme, there's a nature video inside with the sound of water running over the rocks.  I incorporated some smooth and irregular 'rocks' and also some glass and pearly beads.  Glass was once rock, right?

This mixed media book is of the type I made before Christmas in 2010.  It incorporates book board, which I coated with Gesso and then layered on coats of Jacquard Paint.  I added a few sunrays of co-ordinating colors of paint and then put on the polymer embellishment.  It consists of cane slices surrounding a medallion.  I also sewed some beaded elements into the cover and used similar beads on the spine.  This book is somewhat larger in dimension and is filled with good watercolor paper so that any media can be used to enhance its interior.  It was fun to combine a couple of elements in creating it.

Lots of folks ask what kinds of things should go in these art journals.  I decry those who want to use them as little notepads for grocery lists or telephone numbers.  It's so hard to be polite to people who call them notebooks...to me, those are the things you pick up at the dollar store and just rip the pages out when you are done with them.  To me an art journal is something you'd like to keep forever.  One of my friends has a guest book in her home that she has everyone write in as they visit.  Over the course of a couple of years, that has proven to be a wonderful recollection of all the friends who come over and the good times they've shared.  I also gave a similar book to another friend who decided that she'd use it for memorable events that occur over the years.  Of course most of the entries are happy ones, but she's also had the good sense to include some not so fun moments, because we all know that life doesn't always deal us good times every day.  And of course sketches,  paintings, significant quotes, photographs, calligraphy and other art forms can all be incorporated within the covers of these books.  That would make it YOUR art journal.