Recently I wanted to gift a family a present, so I decided on a book of memories.
After a frustrating start in the studio trying to get a handmade hard covered book to behave itself, I decided a ready made book would be a better option.
I decided upon a cute book of numbers. It had a soft squishy cover on the front which gave it an almost comforting quality to it.
The first thing to do was to cover the whole book in gesso. I was pretty sure most of the book would end up covered in various papers but this is usually how I make a start.
I then set about putting various papers onto the covers (dress pattern paper, wrapping paper and some of my dyed paper.)
Text from old novels is great for providing some background. You can gesso most of it out if you want, highlight some of the text to make new sentences (like the master of this technique Austin Kleon does.)
Coffee is my best friend when I create a book, and it's never too long before it gets used.
I don't have a clear idea of the end, I just start and make it up as I go along. I'm often led along by the process itself.
As I got into creating, I decided to cut out a square window on the front cover to frame a photograph
Which led me to use the perfect quote:
PIGLET: How do you spell love? You don't spell love?
POOH: You don't spell it, you feel it.
The book was created to contain photographs of lots of adventures, with some positive and inspiring quotes along the way.
I almost didn't want to let this one go....
If you're keen to learn how to do this for yourself I'm going to be running a class in Auckland in October. I'd love you to join me if you can.