Have you visited a library lately? Are you familar with the area where old, discarded books are kept, usually sold for a dollar or less? A lot of us these days do our reading on our computers or Kindles, so while these old books might seem like useless objects to some, to an artist they can easily be altered into glorious and fantastic works of art. They might become the starting point for a wonderful album or maybe the start of an exciting art journal . . . the possibilities are endless! When you look at an old book and you're told "be creative", what comes to your mind? What would you create? Where would you start? That was the Challenge given at our "ATC Workshop & Swap Challenge" Group last November. If you take a just minute and "think outside the box", each old book is actually just blank pages begging for all sorts of artistic touches. Take a look at some of the amazing and creative results from our extremely talented group of artists . . .
This month's Challenger, Jeanette Lee, who just happens to work at the library, couldn't stop with just one ~ book that is! To go along with the season, Jeanette created her first altered book in the shape of an Halloween "jack-o-latern" after carving its shape from an old discarded library book. To continue with the illusion, she pulled all the book pages together to meet and adhered them, forming a circular shape, then inked the page edges in bright orange. As a finishing touch, she inserted a twisted floral stem into the center of the pages, and viola . . . it's a pumpkin!

Charmaine Conway approached the Challenge in a little different direction. She created deep texture & depth on the outside surfaces of her book using texture paste, then pressed a woodgrain embossing folder into the paste. The embossing folder was removed while the paste was wet, leaving a wonderful moon crater-type surface. When the texture paste was dry, a coating of rust was first applied, then highlighted with various metallic acrylic paints. The book pages were adhered together along the edges, as well as to each cover, then painted in several shades of gold & copper metallic acrylic paints to give the illusion of an old book. Nuts from the hardware store & pearls to mimic rivets were added as embellishments before painting, with a vintage style jewelry piece placed as the center focal point.

Lylia Hagerty took the title of her discarded book, "Blue City", to heart. First painting the exterior hard covers of her book in shades of blue, she torn out the title & cover art from the paper sleeve & applied each as embellishments. Pages that were removed from the book were torn in random pieces & collaged on the back cover, allowing the embossed publishers mark to show through. Everything was then painted in the same blue shade as the front cover. Inside pages were glued together, then carved out to form a shadow box effect, where Lylia added embellishments to emphasis the idea of a "blue city". Each piece, if not originally blue, was first painted before being placed in the cut-out area. Beautiful background paper was added for additional interest, as well as Lylia's hand drawn cityscape. To camouflage the existence of the cut-out, Lylia left the first few pages of the book in place, including the coversheet, but painted them to coordinate with the entire blue city theme.

Shiela Rose was another artisit who ran with the Challenge by creating two books. Her first has been created in an art journal style, the perfect place to keep many of her favorite techniques & designs. With pages overflowing with collage, Zen Doodle designs, & the use of stencils & stamps, as well as beautiful colors of inks & sprays, Shiela has created the perfect "go-to" techniques reference book. Prior to the addition of any technique, gesso was applied to each page to give her a clean slate for her designs. Front & back covers were also decorated after a coat of gesso using her favorite paints, then stamped & stenciled with many of her favorite designs. Shiela is a firm believer that it's not a true work of art without a stamp or two, and she's definitely proven that with this book!

Any member of the group can "Challenge" the others with creating something special and unique. Anyone who takes part creates one Challenge Item for "Show & Tell" using everyday mixed media materials . . . embellishments, paints, papers, stencils . . . whatever strikes their fancy! Without any themes or other guidelines, the ultimate goal is to showcase each artist's personality through the type(s) of embellishments, decorations, or techniques used.
Please join us in congratulating & thanking each artist for a job well done! We'd love to hear what you think, so please leave us a comment . . . or two! . . . and share your thoughts. And if you'd like to take part in our monthly "ATC Workshop & Swap" or Challenges, join us the second Thursday evening of each month from 6:00pm-8:00pm and you too can begin to think big in a small way! No membership required and it's FREE! Hope to see you there!
Watch for our next Challenge Results ~ Altered Hearts ~
coming soon!
coming soon!
CraftFusion
(480) 821-3758
2986 No. Alma School Rd. #4 ~ Chandler, AZ 85224
s/w corner of Alma School & Elliot Roads behind Bank of America
(located next to Catherine's & King's Buffet)
Tuesday - Saturday 10:00am-6:00pm ~ Closed Sunday & Monday
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