Design Team RR (2010)
Posted in Altered Books on January 10th, 2010 |
To start off 2010, I decided to organize a little round robin amongst some of the members of my design team at Ten Two Studios. Everyone chose a book that was somewhat postage friendly, and whatever theme they wished.
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- I tore apart two books, and used the covers to create a new one. The new book is filled with assorted different vintage papers.
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- The smaller cover opens to reveal a bookplate with my name and address, and pages of rules and a little background on the idea for the book, which is called Endangered Occupations.
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- I managed to preserve the original flyleaf of the large book, on the left, complete with an embossed stamp of the original owner's name.
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- The Iceman Cometh is one of my favorite plays, so I did a little rip on it for this layout.
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- In a previous life, I was a milliner for stage productions around the country---and it's a profession that is quickly dying out. For this layout, I did a set of fold out pages, in fabric on the right, and paper on the left.
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- The pages flipped open to reveal all sorts of millinery goodness.
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- I have a little stash of postcards of zeppelins that I've been dying to use somewhere. This book seemed to be the perfect place.
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- At the back of the large section of the book, I built a fake niche to hold some occupational photos. The other artists working in the book can choose to use some of these photos, swipe some, or add some, as they wish.
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- Livia's book was a small volume of Roberts Rules of Order, which she renamed No Rules of Order. For some reason, I thought of those silly tags that come on pillows that say not to remove them---and which I always want to tear off...
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- Even though Liv's book was about no rules, she did include one rule I had to try to bend: no cursing. I thought long and hard about this one, and did what I usually do with small books---I added a set of folding pages. Here's my message folded up, so it appears to say one thing...
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- ...and here's the layout unfolded, to reveal the true message. Just to drive the point home, it's all done in flocked papers.
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- My last layout in Livia's book had to do with gender rules, something that affects several of my friends. Here it is closed, with a hint of what's inside.
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- ...and here it is open, with some of the many gender options.
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- Patti mailed her book to Peace, and after waiting two weeks, we decided it wasn't going to arrive. Since Patti didn't have the heart to start a second book, I offered to start a new one for her. I whipped together a small book on Sunday night, for a Monday morning mailing. Here's the title page, using Patti's theme of Artists and Their Habitats.
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- A quick sign in page for Patti's new book---just a photo of some apartment mailboxes and a little stamping over patterned tissue paper.
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- In lieu of a rules page, I gathered some words from Patti's posts about her book, shot a photo of my empty mailbox, and put together this page. It gives Peace a little bit of a jumping off point, rather than just presenting her with a blank book.
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- Peace's book was about witch queens. She invited us to create queens of whatever attributes we wished. My first thought was to do one on the Witch Queen of Bad Hair Days. I've had these photos of albino twin circus performers hanging about for a while, and decided they'd work nicely for a layout, which eventually evolved into a sort of study in contrasts.
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- I don't know why I couldn't come up with a more serious layout for Peace's book. I just couldn't resist being a little whimsical, so my second layout was for The Witch Queen of Lost Socks.
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- Patti's book was about artists in their natural habitats. Since Patti, Peace and Livia had already worked in it, the book had developed its own personality, with each artist talking about her space using her unique creative skills. I decided my work would focus on photography, which meshes will with my constant documentation of my house renovations and garden adventures. My first layout was about my backyard, looking out from the house through the window that will one day be a door...
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- The split photo of my dining room window opens to reveal lots of green, with photos of my vegetable garden, from seed packets to veggies on the table.
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- One of my favorite things about springtime in Texas is bluebonnet season. For just a few brief weeks, if the winter has been cold enough and wet enough, all the grassy areas along the roads burst into vivid blue flowers. It's like a brilliant blue reward from Mother Nature for enduring a miserable winter. I couldn't resist using some of my favorite photos, taken around the corner from my house, in Patti's book.
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- The last book I received in this round robin belonged to dear friend Corinne. Long before I started building my own garden, I sighed longingly at the photos of hers. Since her book was about color, I decided my work in it would focus on our shared love of our gardens. In this layout, I used all my flower punches to create a paper garden.
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- For the past year or so, I've been taking tons of photos of my garden, as it evolves into a native plant habitat. Since Corinne's garden photos inspired me to want to do this, I decided to do a layout sending her all the glorious colors of mine, using my photos.
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- My last layout in this round robin was a copy of the one I did in Patti's book, about Texas Bluebonnets. I thought Corinne would like this, since these are probably one flower she doesn't have in her garden---and also, because she's been listening to my silly Weevil stories for many years.
