Posts Tagged ‘French’

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

 

 

IMG_20140406_121440

 

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

 

IMG_20140406_121502

 

and sealed the pages with white Gesso

 

IMG_20140406_122849

 

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

 

IMG_20140406_124206

 

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

 

IMG_20140406_124413

 

to make it more sturdy

 

IMG_20140406_124709

 

The little window will have something inside

 

IMG_20140406_124927

 

Taking a load of baguette bags I bought back from France

 

IMG_20140406_125201

 

I scrunched them up into balls and wrinkled them

 

IMG_20140406_125243

 

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

 

IMG_20140406_125609

 

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

 

IMG_20140406_143944

 

IMG_20140406_143954

 

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

 

IMG_20140407_105942

 

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

 

IMG_20140406_184232

 

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

 

IMG_20140407_110043

 

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

 

IMG_20140407_110316

 

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

 

IMG_20140414_122959

 

They are tied with cotton mop thread

 

IMG_20140414_122913

 

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

 

IMG_20140414_122839

 

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?

Favourite artist… Marcel Duchamp

Wednesday, April 24th, 2013

Marcel_DuchampMarcel_Duchamp3Marcel_Duchamp 2

 

by Babican Gallery UK

 

Art I saw in Paris

Sunday, April 14th, 2013

 

IMGP2268IMGP2248IMGP2266

 

 

IMGP8723IMGP8773Louvre Paris

 

 

 

IMGP9784IMGP87401sacrifice

 

 

 

IMGP2264VincentIMGP9789

 

 

 

IMGP9834IMGP98541IMGP2257

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Underground Spaces & Art. Beneath the City of Paris.

Friday, December 28th, 2012

Underground Spaces & Art. Beneath the City of Paris. Throughout the world underground complexes criss cross beneath the surface of the above-ground world. There is a thriving underground world where the average person never gets to see…unless that person knows where to look. Fascinating subterranean cities and hidden underground spaces that dwell beneath our feet.

 

MTT EsmallB1jpgsB21jpg

 

For instance, beneath the city of Paris below the Metro tunnels under the railway, stations, is another thriving world where people work 24hr’s maintaining the entire transport system to keep it working at its peak. There’s the famous underground cemetery the Catacombs”les carrières de Paris” full of caverns and tunnels. The walls are laden with an interesting installations of skulls and bones.

 

MTT B1MTT C1MTT H smaller 1

 

Wherever I go, I like to explore hidden underground spaces. In Paris I found a very special space under an apartment. Down there, I create stories, art and listen to the silence & chatter of the walls. I like to set up little dioramas between the red doors, damp earth walls and the ground. I then photograph and make little video’s of the scenes for later projects.

Recycled Aceo. Paris Packaging

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012

POCKET ART SERIES
Small one of a kind transportable patches of Abstraction ready to go…Compact pieces of art for people on the move. My pocket art pieces came about when I needed to transport artwork from country to country. They are small mixed media textile pieces connected to my love of abstraction textiles, text and street art.

Walking my way across the surface I use coloured wools and wires as I would my paintbrush or charcoal, adding, whatever interests me at the time including, advertising papers, cards and packaging from Paris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RUE PIERRE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OOH LA LA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HEARTS IN PARIS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOURISTS

Each one is a tiny 3.5″x2.5″ – 9x7cm and they come snuggly displayed in a clear acrylic card holder

MATERIALS
Indigo blue denim
canvas cloth
wire
press stud
button
paris clothing label
originalParis stamp
Colored wools
found fonts
Acrylic sealer and more….

SIGNED and DATED by the artist

I really had fun creating these pieces and were created with a lot of care

Merci! Merci! Merci!

Friday, May 13th, 2011

My French son-in-law can be so much fun. When I go over to Paris we both go out and glean stuff off the streets. We do it on foot as we don’t have a car. Usually we leave my daughter at home as she is not as keen as us, to collect what we like. Once we are back at the apartment with our stash, I sift through it and set aside a little to play with and then I send the rest back home to Australia.

I haven’t been to France for over a year now and today I received a mysterious brown box in the post from Paris.I wasn’t expecting anything so, I was very excited to open it.

I eagerly opened the box and inside was a gorgeous pile of stuff. When I say stuff, I don’t mean glamorous things from Paris, like Loreal , Chanel or Louis Vuitton hand bags. I mean, the box was a treasure trove of French ‘detritus” litter, junk, rubbish. Stuff that usually goes into landfill, stuff gleaned from the streets of Paris. Food packaging, pretty boxes, champagne bottle tops, clothing tags, fabric scraps, glow in the dark bits of plastic, advertising and all kind of paper ephemera plus a replenish supply of baguette bags for my handmade books ….

All this wonderful stuff I reclaim and use in my collage and sculpture.

Merci, Merci , Merci !  Davidx

View my video on “Gleaning Paris for Art Materials”