Posts Tagged ‘handmade journal’

Handmade Books. Recycling.

Monday, April 14th, 2014

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

I love to recycle packaging, junk mail and advertising materials into books

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

I like the freedom of designing my books as I make them, discovering ideas along the the way

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

Its amazing how much packaging can be saved over time

 

 

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For this book I used cereal packaging with a peephole and pasta boxes with acetate windows for the interior pages

 

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and sealed the pages with white Gesso

 

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only on one side because I liked the dark look of the cardboard ( later I painted them with Parisian essence to age )

 

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On the cover I used double sided tape to stick down the tabs

 

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to make it more sturdy

 

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The little window will have something inside

 

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Taking a load of baguette bags I bought back from France

 

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I scrunched them up into balls and wrinkled them

 

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opened them up and stuck them to the cover packaging with pva glue

 

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This gave the cover an oldish feel with a lovely rough texture.French text shows through the window

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

 

I covered the inside with some French text from a 1900’s magazine, stamping and my hand drawn doodle drawings.

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

 

I didn’t like the brightness of the gessoed pages so aged them with washes of Parisian essence

 

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When dry I cut off some of side flaps from the inside pages saving them for tags and pockets later

 

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I didn’t have an awl to make the holes for binding the book, instead I used a hammer and nail. It worked fine

 

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I punched 3 rows of holes weaving in and out with cotton mop thread

 

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leaving a tail inside I then plaited the threads and added a piece cardboard for a bead thing

 

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The extra holes seen were a mistake and can be covered up with more baguette paper and glue later

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

 

Side flaps on some of the pages hold piles of water colour papers for collage and drawing

 

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They are tied with cotton mop thread

 

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The loose water colour papers are white and hand dyed with Parisian essence

 

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See through windows add more interest

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

 

Pockets and string hold found papers and tags. The book is still not finished and I will probably add more tags and pockets

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

 

Toggles were sewn on the front with a string to close

 

Jenny Davis_ Handmade Book

This book has a Japanese feel to it and measures 24 x19cm. 5 pockets hold 40 pieces of water colour paper with another 12 pages. Some have windows.

I try to keep on top of my collecting by making something with the packaging every few weeks.

What do you make from your junk?

“Artplay” Day One

Tuesday, November 5th, 2013

My first practical day of the “30 Days of Collage” by Stephanie Levy course.

It was Melbourne Cup Day  so this was a good excuse for me to grab a (naughty snack attack) stash to help me along with my artplay day. I gathered all my paints , crayons, salt, tapes and began.

The first lot of images are the process using, paint with salt, glue , tape, pastel and more…The second lot of images are the finished result.

 

 

What a fun way to get a big bunch of gorgeous papers together for creating collage and books !

 

and a few more papers felt pen, masking tape and water