Practicing New Techniques

As artists, we all have other artists we look up to, learn from and generally admire.  One of my favorites is Liz Constable from Book Art Studios.  Not only is she an incredibly talented book artist, she is a great teacher and very generous with her knowledge.

I have always wanted to take one of her Dyed and Gone to Heaven workshops, but unfortunately, I could never figure out how to make that work since she is in Auckland and I am in Texas.  Up until now, she has only taught in-person workshops, but the pandemic changed all that.

I was able to take both her coptic binding class and her dyed and gone to heaven class via zoom.  They were great, and thankfully recorded, because I had to refer back to them more than once.  I had done coptic binding before, but this is a new method that took some practice on my part.

Here are some pictures of one of my favorite books I made, filled with scrumptious, hand dyed paper, using a process that I’m sworn to secrecy not to divulge.  If you want to learn it, you can visit her website and sign up for her next online class!

Faux Leather Travelers Journals With a Twist

I was fortunate enough to be gifted some very nice faux leather fabric samples a while back.  At first I wasn’t sure what to do with them, until I came across a journal in a craft store that give me an idea of how to put them to use.  This is one of the first ones I made.

faux leather travelers journal
Journal Cover

I recently decided that it was time to make a few more.  After sewing the covers together, I decided that I wanted to do something besides a plain cover, so I decided to create some vignettes on each one.

Here is how they turned out.

faux leather travelers journals
Faux Leather Travelers Journals
faux leather travelers journals
Faux Leather Travelers Journals Spines

To say I love them is indeed an understatement!

Altered Book Cover

This is the start of the cover art for my next hand painted travelers journal made from an upcycled book.

Image transfer, collaged background

I started with creating background layers created from magazine text and gel medium.  After that layer, I repeated the process with colored images.  Next came the paint and stenciled image.

altered book travelers journal
Cover in Progress
altered book travelers journal
Front Cover

Once the outside cover is complete, it’s time to add signatures, pockets and envelopes.

Faux Leather Travelers Journal

A while ago, I received several smaller faux leather upholstery fabric samples.  During one of my many trips to my local craft store, I came upon a small travelers journal they were selling for $10.  It was made of really cheap plastic that mimicked leather and had two notebooks made from kraft paper and one folder also made from kraft paper.  All of these were held inside by very thin, cheap elastic.  I purchased it, took it home and made a much better version of it.

I really love the size.  It’s more compact than the other travelers journals I make.  I have this fabric in lots of other great colors, so I will definitely be making more just like it.

 

 

Coffee Dyed Paper

One of my favorite things about the Internet is that it allows me to connect with like-minded artist from all over the globe.  One of my favorite book artists is Liz Constable and I’m very fortunate to have received her new book “DIY Notebooks made easy”.

In it she describes how she creates the amazing paper she uses in her notebooks, so I just had to give it a try.

coffee dyed paper
Dyeing Paper in Coffee

The longer the paper sits in the coffee, the darker it gets.

drying dyed paper
Paper drying with cookie cutter shapes on top

If you place things on the paper while it’s drying, the area under them will be lighter.  It looks like I finally found a use for all those cookie cutters I bought years ago and never used.

coffee dyed papers
Stack of dry papers

Here is a stack of the finished product.  They smell as amazing as they look!

liz constable's book
DIY Notebooks made easy

To learn more about this technique, as well as how to make some amazing notebooks, head over to www.bookartstudios.co.nz and order a copy of DIY Notebooks made easy.