Module 4 - chapter 10

Altering a book

The original book was about birds in the USA.  I removed about half of all the pages and stitched the remainder in pairs. the subject was opportune as some phrases were apt for my story.

I will start off with the cover which in fact I did last. It is not as I hoped but I have run out of time as the house is being demolished around our ears and I wanted to get it finally done. I would like to make a new cover some time in the future, perhaps out of textiles to slip over this one.

The gesso has been coloured with Inktense, the Owl & Cat applied and then coated with acrylic wax. This was not a good idea as the applied paper then began to run and messed up the colour. Also I wouldn't have done the title as I have, given more time.

Almost the whole of the book is coloured in Inktense pencils and blocks. The pages for the end papers were first coloured then a diamond grid pencilled on. The owl is a commercial stamp but I made the stamp for the cat from fab foam and extremely fiddly it was too.

In retrospect I perhaps didn't need these two pages but decided to put in the title on one page and some information on a hand made luggage tag on the other. The reverse of the tag says 'The Owl and the Pussy Cat written by Edward Lear in 1867. Illustrations by Janet Gent 2012.  It is fastened by a brad through some hand dyed cotton ribbon so it can be turned over.  The silky thread  on bottom left hand side of the page was hand stitched and then of course the colours went through onto the next page.

I had intended to keep the stitches white on both pages but it didn't matter.  The start of this whole idea was the thought of doing the story of them going off in a green pea boat not the other (correct) way around. As with most pages the pictures are collaged onto the background. The sun was intended to be stamped through to the yellow on the previous page, but it was just too thick.

I had to use the reverse of the stitches from the previous page so this time they turn into the flight pattern of honey bees. The honey was a photo I took of a lovely tin of French honey I bought ages ago. I wanted to make the coins so used card circles covered with chocolate money foil, so not entirely round. I love the colours on these pages and the way the pencil over the rough gesso gives extra texture. I enjoyed lightly touching the machine stitching on the edge of the pages with Treasure Gold.

Oh I know it is corny but I couldn't resist making the owl with a beak that opens and closes with the movement of the page and the outspread wing is loose and flaps to and fro.

I was just so lucky that I could get the word 'dawn' into the sunrise here. I very much enjoyed looking for various words and phrases throughout the book that could be left peeping through the colour.

Hmm what does a Bong tree look like? It took days to come up with this answer and I decided there could well be more than one, so made the first fold out into a second tree with free machining for extra texture.

The first Piggy page has the reverse fold out of the Bong tree on the left and three extra fold outs on the right. These trees are the ones that gave me so much grief in July trying to work out how to make them look light enough. I made the stamp for the tree from Fab Foam again and didn't back it with any card. This meant it was floppy enough to also use individual branches as well as whole trees. First I did the background, then trunks and branches then more greenery.  The tiny birds were cut from wrapping paper to brighten the trees up a bit. There is a tiny extra touch of gold on parts of the trees.

This triple fold extension now goes to the left of the next page

In some ways I think this is my favourite page. The bride look so pleased with herself, perhaps it is the real owl feather in her lace headdress. The owl and turkey wanted a lace buttonhole too.

After all my previous experimenting with quince stencils and masks the following double page has ended up quite low key. The mince is 3D crumpled tissue and the pieces of quince on the plate are separate slices only fastened in the middle so they stand up on the plate. The runcible spoon was about the fourth edition I tried. It is metal tape on foam with square sequins, a scrap of Angelina and some gold cord.

The final page consists of three separate pieces of pop ups. These are a direct result of the Paul Johnson books that I have bought and got from the library. Getting the angles on the second and third sheet was quite a game. I liked the idea of the extra stand ups that can be added to the main pieces and made several clumps of grass as well as the sand castles, though they are not so easily seen.  The moon (which is a semi circle though doesn't quite look it) was coloured with Markle silver and opalescent. I found myself seriously thinking 'now what does a dancing cat look like?' Perhaps I have spent too much time on this book!

Altogether a thoroughly enjoyable exercise. I had the luxury of being able to indulge in spending lots of time on it and it took my mind off the ever worsening building works.