wow, daniela's altered book class today was so inspiring. i've been wanting to alter a book like this, what a great day!i never seem to follow the rules in daniela's classes. thankfully she is really great about working with both kinds of students - those that want to make her beautiful piece exactly as she designed it, and those who want to take all the goodies she provides and run off in a different direction!
we took an old book and glued a chunk of pages together in the middle with gloss medium. then we carved a niche out of the center with a blade. i have this wonderful broch that a family friend, steve kalar, made years ago—and i've been looking for a way to showcase it.
i used a lot of walnut antique colorwash and distress ink to age everything, I wanted the front of the niche to look like beat-up leather, and the little schoolboy is guarding his treasure.
i contrasted the collage on the opposite page to be more feminine with a flowery dress form and graceful curves in the torn papers.
i am so happy with this piece - the pictures don't show how warm and caramelly coffee colored it is, plus there are accents of gloss, glitter, gold leaf, and crackle medium all around that make things stand out a bit more.