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Book page spread collaged with various elements.
More Altered Tree Book Pages

More Altered Tree Book Pages

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My altered tree book is moving along slowly. I made a few more pages and used some of my scraps from the word printing experiment.

Book pages spread on the work table after being gessoed.

I try to keep some page spreads that already have gesso on them so that I can sit down anytime to create a few collaged spreads. The one on the middle left is gessoed with clear gesso that Paula uses. I just have the white gesso so most of my pages will be covered first with that.

Book pages spread on work table after walnut ink applied.

I then added some walnut ink to tone down the whiteness of the page. I decided to add walnut ink to the edges of one of my miniature paintings too. It definitely helps to tone down the white edges for this project.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.

Then I have a bag full of scraps and papers in my chosen colorway. It’s fun putting the mark making and other papers together.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.

The eco printed leaf is one that Paula did and gave to me.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.

I was much happier with the miniature landscape once the edge was no longer white. The words are a poem about trees.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.

The old “papers” are such a great addition to the book.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.

I found this “tree” on the right that I had made but not used in a different collage. It’s made from printed black paper. I finally used my original color inspiration in this spread.

Book page spread collaged with various elements.

Here’s another one with the screen printed inspiration paper and some mark making from the word experiments.

I have to figure out how I am going to make my signatures. For those of you who don’t make books, a signature is a group of papers that are stitched into the binding in one “piece”. I don’t think I will have all the pages filled. I will leave a bunch of blank pages so that I can draw or write or make marks in the book later. I am also planning on adding some fabric pages into the book. Then those can be stitched when inspiration strikes.

Mark making on papers
Deconstructing a Book about Trees

Deconstructing a Book about Trees

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My art group has started a new project. We are taking old, unwanted books, deconstructing them and then reconstructing into a new creation. Paula has tons of old books, antique papers, photos and memorabilia that she has shared with us.

She found the perfect book for me. A reference book about trees that came out in 1950. It’s a great start on another tree book.

Hand made mark making tools

We had a session on mark making. These are tools I have made in the past for mark making mainly using turkey feathers. They give some random looking marks which was great for our project. We used different tools on different types of paper to create some random and some not so random marks. None of these are finished “works of art”, but will be used in different ways when creating the book.

These first sheets were a start using different tools and getting some lighter, thinner marks and then thicker, heavier marks.

I then started thinking more about trees, branches and leaves. The bottom right is a Japanese newspaper that my friend Louise gave us.

Then I started playing with spraying water on the pages and then adding ink to create pine trees. This is a bit tricky on figuring how much water to spray first and then draw your trunk through the water and watch the ink spread. You can add little dots of ink where you need more branches.

Mark making on papers

This was my favorite of the trees that I created.

Here’s some leaves with different tools used to create different types of marks and lines.

Mark making on papers

I have also been putting gesso on a lot of pages so that I can either draw or add painting to the pages.

Deconstructed screen print on paper with black background and yellow highlights.

I chose my color scheme from this deconstructed screen print on paper. The colors will be black, burnt siena and yellow ochre. Perhaps there will be touches of green but I haven’t gotten very far yet. This will be another long term project that will be a slow work in progress. I will update you periodically on how it’s going.

Handmade book spread with cutout printed leaves on blue plaster page and painted pinecone on opposite page.
Tree Specimen Book

Tree Specimen Book

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I started this book in October of 2022. I have been adding things slowly and painting pages when I had leftover paint from other projects. I had thought I would sketch on the blank pages covered with a mix of plaster and matte medium but they were too rough and difficult to sketch on. I haven’t shown you the book since last year and I decided to “finish” it up because we are starting on a new book project that will be made differently and I didn’t want to try to keep working on this one. I will be able to add things into the book if I like but it at least has color on all the pages and some with more ‘design’ than others. I had to cover a couple of pages that were not in the main color scheme. Somehow I got off track and added red which I shouldn’t have done. The book is mainly browns, blues and greens. The red/pink that resulted from painting a couple of the plaster pages was just not doing it for me. That’s what happens when you aren’t really thinking about what you’re doing!

Handmade book spread with a page that looks like tree bark with lichen.

I am not going to explain each page but you will notice the piece of blue glass and a small rock on the left hand page. I am using these as weights to hold the page open. The problem with this style of binding is that the book doesn’t open out flat unless you hold the pages. So you will see the page weights throughout. You can click on the photos to see them in more detail. Please feel free to ask about specific pages or techniques used.

Handmade book spread with a page that has cracked green and yellow and pine needles on the right.

Handmade book spread with a teabag leaf and dark painted plaster page.

Handmade book spread with a page of ink samples from a variety of natural sources.

The page on the left is one that I covered that was too red. These are small samples of ink that we made from natural ingredients.

Handmade book spread with a print of black capped chickadee artwork and cut leaves behind handmade paper grid.

Handmade book spread with cutout printed leaves on blue plaster page and painted pinecone on opposite page.

Handmade book spread with painted green leaves on blue sky background.

Handmade book spread with dark brown painted plaster opposite a leaf collage.

Loads of tree bark interpretations 😉

Handmade book spread with green painted paper opposite painted "bark" on plaster page.

Handmade book spread with painted plaster page opposite handmade paper grid threaded with orange/brown feathers.

Handmade book spread with sample strip of pea pod ink mixed with various agents.

More sampling of ink.

Handmade book spread with light blue painted plaster page opposite green deconstructed screen print on paper enhanced with paint.

Handmade book spread with lino cut print of birch tree.

Handmade book spread with green painted plaster page opposite hand dyed hemp canvas page.

Handmade book spread with teal painted plaster page opposite teal painted paper page.

I made an error here. Do you see it?

Handmade book spread with deconstructed screen printed page opposite painted canvas page.Handmade book spread with painted plaster page opposite 'bark' collaged to ecoprinted paper.

The bark paper is from a napkin.

Handmade book cover made from deconstructed screen printed hemp canvas and bound with copper wire.

And for those of you who have forgotten or never saw the cover, here it is. On my monitor, the book cover photo is not showing correctly. If yours is also weirdly stretched, please click on the photo to see the book cover.

If you search on the terms “tree specimen book” in the right hand sidebar, you can see all the other posts about this book where I have given more explanation about it.