Homage to an Italian Honeymoon

It all began at Art and Soul, with two book making classes I attended given by Albie Smith. It has blossomed into a full blown addiction. My beloved sister, Linda, is getting married tomorrow!! She and Tony are honeymooning in Italy. What better present than a handmade book to store photos and ephemera from thier trip? Work with me here, I just wanted to make another book! I made a mix of color washes using water and Golden Acrylics. I used Albie Smith's book kit purchased at Vendor night at Art and Soul. Scroll to previous post for pic of kit and contact info for Albie. Here is my chosen color palette, think ancient sun warmed stone......

There was a wonderful team running the store at Art and Soul. Marie and her cohort (whose name escapes me, so sorry) from Collage, were fantastic. They were the hardest working people in show biz that week. The variety and abundance of stuff I just had to buy was unbelievable. Topping the list was this Clear Gesso. oh yea. Clear. Tintable. shiver. Can you feel it? ok, getting a grip now......

In this application I used it straight out of the jar and brushed onto Archway stamps, also purchased at Vendor night from Lost Coast Designs. I dropped a benjamin at thier incredible booth. All of the stamps used in this book are from Lost Coast Designs, unless otherwise specified.

Here is a color wash over the dried gesso stamping.

And another wash over gesso stamp.....

Ooh aah, yet another one......

So this went on for about a week. Here are a bunch of my favorite pages. In this next one, I have added a piece of Albie Smith's handmade paper into the mix.
Torn page with gesso/colorwash archway.

Stamped and colorwashed torn paper. Stamp by Stamper's Anonymous.

Gesso'd Italian Poetry stamp. Love the texture. Stamp by Hero Arts.

More of Albie's cool paper. You know I really love my sister if I'm willing to give up all this awesome paper.

Mona's eyes. Creepy, yet all knowing, just like all us girls. teehee. Stamp by River City.

Next pics are just cause I couldn't narrow down the choices about which one to post......

Botticelli stamp from Invoke Arts.

Here I am deciding the order of the pages.

Adding book cloth to binding.

Almost ready to add paper.

Deciding placement of signatures.

Using Japenese screw punch through each signature.
Sewing signatures to binding.

Waxed linen, size 22 needle. Or maybe a little bigger.

Finished binding.

Fat Honeymoon Book!! Colors of cover are Golden Heavy Body Acrylics; Iridescent Bronze and Cobalt Teal. The covers in the kit came white with the stencil design already in place. I can't take credit for that!! I'm guessing Albie used Golden Light Molding paste on the book board. Since time was a factor for me, I'm glad the covers were already stencilled. When isn't time a factor???

The colors of Italy. In my mind. sigh.

Dedication page. Stamp just in case she had any doubt about the art thing........

Well, that's my Homage to An Italian Honeymoon. Much Love to Linda and Tony. Can't wait for tomorrow!! Ti Amo, Susan

Still More To Show and Tell

The beautiful and very talented Anne Grgich taught our Painterly Portrait Books class. It was our last class of this exhilerating week. Anne sent us out with a bang. Diane and and I were in awe watching her create. We worked in old books that had 2 pages glued together, white glue, nothing fancy. We cut strips of paper and glued them over the inside bindings to create a more level page to work on. This is my favorite page in process. I loved Anne's techniques and the symmetry of her collage work. Its ok to be symmetrical, yeah!!!! This page I call "Stung by the Tang of Injustice".
Here is another fun page in my book. This one I call "Loved but Not Wanted". I got to use my vintage comic book in this one. Anne had an abundance of awesome collage papers and ephemera for us to use. How cool is that tape at the bottom?
Here is a closeup of the tape. She told us where she got it but it went out of my head. I hate when that happens. If you click on the pic for a closeup you can see Barbie's eyeglasses make up the face's nostrils. teehee.
Here is more awesome tape. Jesus tape. Who knew??? This page will be done in teals and yellows. I only worked on 3 pages during class. There just wasn't enough time in the day. I will probably spend years filling the rest of the book.
Here is my third page. There are layers and layers of glue, Anne calls it "making a skating rink of the glue". Also layers of coffee mixed with tar. Very glossy, latte colored finish that smells great.

Another shot of my fav page:
Two girls driven to work thru lunch......We didn't want this last class to ever end.
Diane made it even without her beloved Dr. Pepper!

And Amy peaked in during lunch to see what we were up to!
I am very excited because Anne will be in Reading Pa for a gallery opening in July. She will be teaching a workshop and I'm so there!

More Art and Soul Show and Tell

Here I am with my hero, Albie Smith. We are holding books I made in her classes. Look at my face, am I in heaven or what????

Here is more show and tell from my second class with Albie. We sewed 5 signatures together using waxed linen. Then we sewed around the 2 paper strips and added beads to the binding. I went with cool colors this time. I'm glad I brought some of my favorite Golden paints, especially the Iridescent Pearl and Violet. This spread was Albie's favorite in my book.
Here are more of my favorites, I know it's alot to look at, but I love them all and couldn't choose which pics to show! A really interesting feature of this book are pages that are cut in different shapes and sizes.








Here is the finished binding:

And a close up of the beads. Here is contact info for Albie. I highly recommend her classes.
I purchased handmade papers and this book kit on vendor night. I'm going to make the book for my sister, Linda, as a wedding present. I'm going to use an "Italian palette" because the happy couple will be honeymooning in Italy. I hope she will put all her souveniers in it. Now if only there were more hours in a day......

Look at this bounty of trades! That cooler is jam packed! I came home with about 6 of my trades from about 100 I brought with me.

Here is a really cool trade from a very cool girl, Keli , from Montana. We had a great time together in Dan Essig's Mica cover class and in the bar.......I just wish I had gotten a pic of us together.
Speaking of Dan Essig's class, he was an unbelievably patient man. He had to be, because the lights went out in our classroom several times due to stormy winds! Here is my finished binding. It's a little sloppy but not bad for a first timer! We used Tyvek that we cut into strips and painted. Waxed linen to sew. I believe there were 12 seperate signatures.



Here is a shot of the inside cover. The mica color varies greatly. We glued two sheets together with old encyclopedia pages in between.

Here is what the binding looks like on mine when the book is open. Next time there will not be so much space!!

I sandwiched skeleton leaves and silk insect wings between the text and the mica. Can you see it?

I'm very happy with my results. Next time I'll take an all day class with a more involved book structure. I just wanted to get my feet wet with a night class. I'm so glad I did!