An etherealgirl's Adventures in Cyberland

Thursday, March 24, 2005

something old, something new: the altered book

from the lemuria writing sanctuary's Shoe-string Publishing Breathe life into old books! Making Altered Books.

I'd heard about this idea from a few of the newsgroups I belong to, and I'd always been curious about it, but I have a sort of a hesitation about using any book in this manner. But the article stresses using a "solid book, diary, directory or magazine that has become redundant and is yearning for new life."

It sounds like an exciting and inspiring little act of creation and I think I'm going to give it a try because we have zillions of lost, lonely books out in the garage just stacked up gathering dust. So I think I'm going to go out there and have another look. It's time to do something with them anyway. Another idea is to see if any of them would be candidates for BookCrossings. I'd finally sent off for some labels to affix to books, but I need to figure out: where to release them and what books would be likely candidates.

Then there are the books I have had forever (some from childhood) and cannot bear to part with and would never alter in any way, of course: The Anne Books, a couple of them actually belonged to my mom, and also her passed along copies of Understood Betsy and The Five Little Peppers to name a few. Those have been passed on to Mina but are currently in storage with all of her other favourite childhood books.

But the altered books idea ties in to giving a beautiful purpose for all those magazines I can't throw away, the cards I can't bear to part with that are stuffed into stacks of boxes and objects I collect but don't quite know what to do with....

Anyway, some amazing examples of altered books can be found at ArtZine's altered book cam, How to make a Mini Altered Book, The International Society of Altered Book Artists and Karen's Whimsey, Tera Leigh's Altered Books Portfolio, Beth Cote's Altered Book Gallery, Jenny's Altered Books and ModernGypsy's the Altered Page.

Also at Dragonhomes Place's Altered Books there are tons of links to examples of lovely altered books! A veritable feast for the eyes... and for the heart and soul!

Among the how-to links: A tutorial for altering a children's board book can be found here and Collaging a Book Cover here.

And a great altered book link resource can be found at The Creativity Portal.

Posted by etherealfire :: 1:21 AM :: 0 Comments:

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