Lesson 4 - Selecting the book

Which book to alter? Do you have some old books you no longer want? Even children's books will do. Select a book the size of the images you have collected. In one of my books I used images of fashion models so the book had to be tall enough for their long bodies. If you don't have any old books around, go shopping for one.

Where to shop? Garage sales. Thrift stores. A local thrift store has all hard backed books marked at 69 cents - regardless of age, titles or size. Our town has a fabulous Friends of the Library Used Book Store and it's less than a mile from here. I visit it often. They have no idea what I do to their old books!!! And, by the way, unless you have worked in a library, you can't imagine how many books end up in landfill every year. Libraries get donations of huge numbers of books that do not fit their collection policy and won't fit on their shelves, or are outdated. Libraries have nothing to do but filter them out to other libraries, shelters, prisons, sellers, or the dumpster.

Look at the paper inside the book. If it is very brittle and yellowed or stained brown - it is probably not a good candidate for altering. Brittle pages tend to chip away when you try to cut them. If the book is really old, make sure it is not moldy. Smell the book. Some people are sensitive to some papers and inks. I'm very sensitive to newsprint and many of the old books - particularly the brittle pages. I mention this because it is something people usually don't think about - but you will be working very closely with your book and it needs to be health friendly. Get one that won't make you sneeze!

Check the binding. Is it secure? If it isn't, pass it by. You can find another one that is. Make sure the pages are sewn in rather than glued in. When you are altering the book it puts a lot of stress on the binding, and the glued pages will often come loose or whole sections may fall out.

Refer to Lesson 3 on Themes - if you want to tie the theme of your altered book to the book title.

The Practice Book - How and Why

People who have not altered a book are sometimes hesitant to start because there are so many options and they want their first book to be a masterpiece. Or- they have a natural hesitation to cut into or write on a book. Remember what we were told as children? Those things stick in our minds. But, you are going to work on a book that has been discarded, it is not the last existing book of that title - you can get another on to replace it if you want to. So, it is now - ta da! A bunch of blank canvases bound together. What could be more delicious? You'll be making art in it. What better way to recycle a book?

The Practice Book is where you can try new techniques and old techniques. You can make notes of what you've done to help with your next book. This is the place to experiment. When teaching, I give out sheets of exercises (prompts) I've printed out for practice books. I've been encouraged to publish them or market the label sheets - but I think I'll just share them with you here. Students soon become comfortable with the process of altering (attacking) a book when they have prompts. If you are thinking about starting your first book, you will find this very handy. Even if you've already done some altered books, sometimes it's fun to work on a practice book where you can try new things, or record some of your own favorites. I'll label these posts as Practice Book and give each one a number. Follow along if you like, and if you have some photos to share of your work, please post a link in the comment section so we can see what you did.

Board Books - Kitchen Chairs

Children's "board" books are wonderful bases for making an altered book. As with the fabric covered board books, you can also cover them with papers. This little book was made because I came across a little stash of paintings of wonky kitchen chairs I had done a decade or more ago. It made me think of all the things that happened around our kitchen table as a child. I used fabric for the binding because it is so flexible. It reminded me of the aprons my mother used to wear.

Cutting the papers to size with a scissors, a paper cutter or box knife and metal edge ruler, and applying them to the board books with Aileen's tacky glue, and then gluing down the chair and little snip of words - what could be faster and easier? I used papers from a scrapbooking store. They had just the look I needed to pull it together.

If you want to make something like this, you don't have to paint chairs, you can find images in your old photos, or in catalogs or home decorating magazines. Whatever reminds you of home.
I didn't get any comments on the blog about this, but I sure got a lot of private emails. It seems that this theme evoked a lot of good memories for some of us. I invite you to share yours with us here.

Found Text

In a previous post about adding words I mentioned "found text". It is one of my favorite techniques for altering a book. My friend Jackie and I exchange books in which we each alter a few pages using this technique and any other art techniques we employ - and then passing it back to the other person for a few more pages. We have done this several times. Right now one of the books that is going back and forth is a book of poetry. It has proven to be difficult. It's hard to isolate words that can string together into a thought. But, we love the challenge. Here are sample pages out of books we have done in the past.

For those of you who are intrigued with the idea, but are not ready to leave your marks in a book, I suggest you visit Erasures online. It is a site with many selected writings where YOU can play with the technique by erasing words you do not want to show, and leaving only your own found words. You can change it as many times as you want. You can also see examples of the words done by others with the same text. It's awesome and mind blowing how many different found texts can be picked out of the same text. We tried this as an exercise at a Mixed Media arts group meeting -and sure enough - each one was vastly different.

Lesson 3 - Altered Books - Picking a Theme

One of the questions I always get asked in classes is - "how do you pick a theme?" This is a really good question. Usually themes pick me. Maybe the title of a book will suggest a theme. I actually shop for titles in the thrift shops and used book stores - or yard sales. Some titles are just irresistible. City of Bones, Born to be Wild, Surviving, Headaches. These are all titles I have used. The whole concept for these books sprung to mind as soon as I saw the titles. Now friends are saving books with interesting titles for me. Someone recently gave me the book Kiss of the Virgin. Hmmmm...... (Now, don't think you have to keep or use the title that's on the book. Sometimes I use a book because the size is right. I'm working on a religious theme in Jane Fonda's Workout book. )

Maybe you want to do a book about something in your life, or someone else's. I did a retirement book for a friend when she left the workforce. Romance can be a wonderful romantic theme. On the other hand, aging and death can also be strong themes.

Perhaps it is the lyrics of a song that will inspire you. Maybe it is a quote that means something special and that can be illustrated some way. Sometimes images themselves suggest a theme. Maybe it's a mood. Love? Tenderness? Anger? Political injustice? War? Family reunions? Chocolate? The Beach? Paris? Flight? There are more themes floating around out there than there are artists to do them justice.

My suggestion is to make a practice book first and not be tied to a theme. Just play with it and have fun. It may develop a theme by the time you are through playing with it. Maybe the images you choose to use will suggest a theme, or the colors. Perhaps the construction will develop into a theme. Windows? Doors? Tunnels? Folds?

Your themes can be as frivolous, or as serious as you want them to be. Altered Books give you total freedom and control. You are the artist. It will be what you want it to be. Relax and let the artist in you take over and see what you can do.

Lesson 2 - Altered Books - Basic Tools and Supplies

It's amazing how few tools you really need to make an altered book. You can get by with only a glue stick, a cutting tool such as a box cutter and a pair of scissors. Actually, you can do an entire altered book with only folding. Or, only cutting. Or only a pen or crayon for writing or drawing.

But, most of us use many art techniques in our books. Here is my list of basic AB tools.

Scissors
Box Cutter and small pliers to snap off tips to bring up a new tip. (you might prefer Xacto knife)
Cutting pad, the self-sealing type.
Glue Stick.
Golden's Acrylic Gel Medium.
Bone folder.
Ruler with metal straight edge.
Credit card (no, not for buying supplies, silly! It's for smearing and spreading gel medium and paints, and also for use with clamps so you don't mar your pages.)
Pencil and pen.
Sponge brush.
Paint brush.
Small spray bottle with water. Use to help keep sponge brush damp, and to do quick clean ups.
Sponge.
Paper Towels.
Deli wrap paper or wax paper.
Dorland's wax to wax over pages, particularly if there is a stickyness problem.
Stencils of letters and numbers.
Rubber stamps (I use them for text).
Ink pad with permanent ink.
Post it notes. Tuck them in to help plan where you will use an image or quote.
Clamps for holding sections together while glueing or cutting.
ICE (Imagination,Creativity, and Enthusiasm)

If you have additional things you can't live without in your tool kits, please post in the comments so you can share what you know. We all have favorites!

FAT BOOKS OR THIN BOOKS - THAT IS THE QUESTION

I've put a lot of information and photos up here in the last couple days. I'm not always this prolific, but I wanted to give you a good variety of things to think about. It's part of the no rules, no right or wrong ways of doing things that I really want to stress. You can have a powerful message in your work - or you might do something for the fun of it. Or for the beauty you can create.

Almost all my book art friends make fat books, or I should probably say thick books. Books that are so chock full of interesting interactive things that the books cannot close. They stand open - ajar. I absolutely love their work and think the fullness and richness of their books deserves a big cheer!

BUT - I'm a closed book kinda gal. I worked in that library too long! I want my books to sit neatly tucked into a bookshelf. Mostly looking very innocent. It isn't until you open them that you discover the secret life they have taken on. My friends laugh at how stubbornly I stick to this with my altered books. But, then I pack them up all the time and haul them around to shows and book talks. They hold up a lot better without things hanging off or out of them.

You may want to do both! Or you may have a preference. Do whatever feels right for you and remember you can change your mind any time.