Mixed Media Artist

We're crazy about books here...we love everything from altered books to handmade journals. We love making them, decorating them, filling them, and even reading them! I have gathered up a load of links from our archives that cover every aspect of books that we've examined over the years. And I'll be adding more to this list as we go on...in fact, you'll always be able to find this post easily by looking in the sidebar under The Basics :-) Altered books: waiting for the lightning to strike! How do I get started? Who can I talk with about altered books? Other book arts groups Books on collage, altered and handmade books, and mixed media Mixed media arts magazines Paper and string: the stuff you'll need for book arts Some fabulous book artists Assemblage and sculptural books Sorted books project Brian Sawyer's bookbinding links Design ideas for page layouts Online publishers for your artist books More book arts resourc...

I decided that I wanted to make a little accordian-style books with some of my background papers. In particular, I wanted to use what was left from the pink and fushia monoprint paper . My first experiment didn't work out too well, as you'll see. I used a 1/2 inch paper punch and crocheted the pages together with an oversized hook. The crocheting went fine, but the holes were way too big! My second attempt resorted to a standard office-style paper punch and a smaller hook. Much better! I trimmed the rectangles to get rid of the large holes, and cut two more pages out of another piece of background paper. Here's how you assemble a book with crocheted joins: 1. Punch matched holes all along the edges of your papers that you want to join. Put the wrong sides together with the holes matched for two (or more) pairs of papers. 2. Leave a 3 to 4 inch tail which youll cover as you work. Pull the yarn through the first pair of holes with your hook, and single crochet over th...

Once I've got a great big stack of background papers to work with, I like to take a few days or weeks (however long they last!) and do some collage projects with them. Before cutting the papers up, I usually scan them so that later on they'll be available for mixed media digital collages too. The Prodigal is a piece that came to me all in one flash. It's not very complicated, but the concept of the prodigal had been rolling around in my mind for a few weeks, and all at once I knew how I wanted to visualize it. I used two monotype background papers that I made a few weeks earlier. Here's how Prodigal was constructed. How about using the basic methods to make a piece that represents a theme you are thinking about? Materials & Tools Decorative papers (heavy watercolor paper) Clear ruler Exacto knife Gold leaf marker Double-sided tape Beads, nylon thread, needle 1. Choose your papers and cut to size. I made the small squares 2 inches, but you should vary this fo...