This month's theme over at Art Elements was "Repurposing". Lesley chose this wonderful theme that was (should have been) perfect for me! I love to use anything I can find simply because I like the shape, the color, the texture... or the weirdness.
This is a picture of my work table... and this is nearly the clean and orderly state since you can see some wood of the table! But in a lot of the small vessels and dishes are found objects and other strange pieces that I love to use for my work. Repurposing is a big part of a lot of my creations.
I had a lot of ideas and plans... nope... didn't manage most of them. But I did finish my tin can book! I showed how I made the book covers in my blog post for this month (here).
I painted a little bit more on the edges (and will go on with this, my sketch books are ever eveolving things) and chose my favorite red thread for the binding. I love the contrast!
This will be a wonderful sturdy tine wee book.
I went for a selection of different water color papers. I got a lot from different companies to try them out.
Since the pages are often quite thick, even cardboard like, I had to use a single page binding stitch.
It really took some time to find a stitch that worked for me. I watched a lot of tutorial videos, I have some books on bookbinding... in the end I played so long until I had my own way for stitching single pages.
Just for today, I even played a little bit!
The first row is still uneven, I was in the "figure it out" phase but I love how the other rows look.
And I made a second new sketch book with single page binding. At first I thought... mh... not fitting the theme... but then I remembered that I always use the leftover cardboard for my book covers. I don't think of it as repurposing although it is. I simply use what is available.
I finally used one of my favorite monoprints ever! I try not be a hoarder... but it is hard!
Again, the first row is a little bit uneven, maybe I have to fix the book better doing the first row.
In this bigger one I enforced the ends with washi tape. Since I used three different kinds of paper I also used the washi tape to color code them.
Since I am doing monoprints, most commercial papers lost their appeal.
By the way... the company already color coded the pages! I just didn't see that.
This was of stitching allows the book to lay completely flat when open. But of course it is also more flexible in all directions. If you don't like that in a sketch book, then I would not recommend this kind of stitching.
I need to make more monoprints like this!
I also had some lose water color papers that I used for testing. I keep them as reference.
Can you see the different thickness?
Aaaaaand a lot of them!
So I went through my paper stash and repurposed some packaging cardboard for the back to make a little cover.
The papers are not fixed, I a not sure whether I want to bind them or not.
The outside...
As a last point I wanted to show you my latest tools I use for monoprinting. Because in the end monoprinting is the perfect repurposing method! ;) A package piece that creates wonderful lines, two trash plastic pieces that from the lab, and another package piece I cut down to have this wonderful eight figure.
This was a wonderful challenge even though I didn't manage the projects I had planned. But so is life and the project will be done at some time. I know myself.
Thank you for joining us and please have a look what everyone made!
Such a clever idea Claire - I really love your little books. Many thanks for joining us in this challenge.
AntwortenLöschenIt's always fascinating to see your process, Claire, thank you for that! I love your books, and what you paint in them!
AntwortenLöschenClaire, that's a lot of work for a little book and if one can do it, it's You! It came out beautifully and I assume well made too. Alysen
AntwortenLöschenLove seeing your work Claire, your little books are wonderful... especially the fish print, I'd have hoarded that one too!
AntwortenLöschenFabulous work and process and ideas as usual, I love your creativity!
AntwortenLöschenI love your books you inspire me to make my own but I am too lazy and it is too easy to buy a commercial sketchbook which I then find 'issues' with and wish I had attempted to make my own with paper I really want to use! I love your use of colour and texture very much.
AntwortenLöschenI always love seeing how you put your little sketchbooks together. These are so lovely! I really love how you used the cans for the covers. But I am very interested in learning how you created your single page binding. Can you please share a tutorial with us one day.
AntwortenLöschenI love your little books and how scientific you are about your process (I wonder where that comes from anyway. lol!) That fish monoprint is amazing and now you can look at it all the time. I love the little folder you made for your tests and I love seeing the tests themselves, to be honest. I never find cool tins like the one on your first book. I do keep watch just in case though.
AntwortenLöschenThese books are fascinating and so appealing to the eye! The flat laying feature is probably something everybody will like :)
AntwortenLöschenYour bookbinding is so exact and a definite work of art. You may see flaws in it, but I totally don't. And, the pieces you've found for monoprinting are so cool! I've never seen shapes like that. I'll have to keep a better eye out!
AntwortenLöschenYour sketchbooks are beautiful! The book binding too - I don't think I'd have the patience for it, but I can see how it could be meditative.
AntwortenLöschenYour books are so wonderful they make me want to learn to make some. What I would do with them I don't know, because I don't paint or sketch, but perhaps I would if I had books like yours.
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