Here's my newly-completed, sewn-on-tapes journal I made for a good friend at work. Since she loves astrology, it's perfect with those symbols adorning the front and back.
Recycling very old book covers--"The Century," from 1891--from a discarded library book, I again used a mixture of papers—scrapbook, maps, calendars, drawing and pastel papers. For a personal touch, I used several of her own greeting cards and saved papers. My gelatin prints and acrylic paintings on watercolor papers became pages and pockets.
After using my new journal for a while, I decided to change the cover. Adding more of my acrylic painting (on watercolor paper), I tried to complement the circular silver design on the original covers. Replaced the original jute cord with brown leather closure, too. I like it MUCH better!
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| ink on Mi-Teintes paper |
Cleaning up kitchen scraps one evening, I saw the end of a baby bok choy on my husband’s cutting board and immediately recognized it as a rose. How to use it? As a stamp, of course.
Although it doesn’t last very long, the natural stamp was fun to experiment on various papers. It might make a stronger impression using heavy body acrylic paint, though I haven’t gotten around to trying that yet.
What else could be re-purposed? The end of a celery stalk? Half a cabbage? Once you begin seeing with artist eyes, it’s hard not to see art in everything!
