First distressing

I noticed rather a lot of used teabags in my compost pile, so decided to make a tea bath for my book last night. I left it to *steep* over night and put my book in it this morning to soak. Um, so far all that is happening is that the binding is in danger of coming away from the pages lol. A good dose of sun later on might help I think :o).



And this is the book in the tea bath.

My Book

Sorry folks am catching up here. This is the book I am going to use. It is an old gardening manual, the pages are quite thick paper of various kinds, some is photographic and, as you can see, it is a fairly thick tome! I had started prepping it ages ago for one use or another, so some of the pages have gesso on them already. I have a sneaking suspicion it won't last long though!

Questions 5 and 6

Delgado says:

".....a reader is a traveller through a ready-made landscape"

Now this set me to thinking about the journey we are taking together, using our own imaginations and darings to create a new *landscape* from a *ready-made* one.

So my questions are:

(1) How, in the context of this project/extreme distress, do you view yourself as traveller, and
(2) How do you imagine the landscape that you are attempting to create?

This intrigues me because in this project we are all both traveller and creator, which brings up for me thoughts of duality, illusion etc. (But now I am straying into territory for my future questions).

I am off to think about this more and to catch up with answering questions 1 -4!

Happy journeying fellow travellers :o)

Extreme distress

Tonight I decided to do my little experiment for the Casa de Papel-altered books project. Extreme distress to a book, that is what it's about. I had thought of putting the book into the washing machine, but I thought it would be wiser to put the book in a solid cotton bag first, tightly closed with a rope and a big knot.



Well, buddy, there you go. Regular washing program at forty degrees, along with some sheets and towels (don't mind my cat's tail, she is always so curious about the household and esepcially the closet where my washing machine is):



And here is the result. Is this an altered book or what?

Q3 Book lover...

After considering how I feel about my books, I decided to go around the house and photograph them. I have hundreds, probably over 1000. But I can't be bothered to count them all, having given up at 253 in my living room alone!
The spread is a photo montage of just some of the pictures that I took (the best ones ;>). Looking at all of my books, I realised how some are covered in dust; that they are disorderly (to say the least); a few almost forgotten and others piled haphazardly on the top of cupboards and the floor. They are, however, all loved and kept because I know that I may well re-read the fiction ones, and the reference books are useful.

I think the spread conveys how I feel about books quite well. You may notice a slight discolouring on the edge of the left page - this happened when I was trying to distress the overall book and spilt water on the pages! My attempts to distress the book are ongoing, but have so far included gouging with a craft knife, cutting holes in the front cover and layering with ink, ash, gel medium and bits of foam. The idea is that the book has been on a long journey, was caught in a fire, washed overboard and is now soaking up the sun on a rocky beach... if I work out how to get those effects, I'll let you know ;)

Extreme Distress - Cover

I decided my cover needed to feel like the book that came back to Bluma from Carlos. I wanted a toughened cover with a cement like feel. I now need to develop a filthy crust for my book, so I'm waiting for David (my husband) to go out and then going to half bury it in the garden. David really doesn't understand altering books at all, this will be beyond him. With any luck my labrador will find it and help the process a bit! Cloth Paper Scisssors this month has an interview with Cas Holmes who talks about burying fabric to weather it, so before I bury it I'm going to wrap a piece of muslin around it for use in the book later on.



I had a book last week from Pascale, which arrived in a wonderful recycled envelope, I am saving this until my book is finished as an outer cover I can tie up with string. I may even post it back to myself again!

extreme distress - how to skin a book

After the heavy rain yesterday ( look here! ) my book is still kind of wet....but wanted to do some more with/to it. It still had that protecting plastic wrapper, that was put around it in the library, were I got it from. I decided to skin my book and since it is about the old wild west and the trappers, I tought that was only fair enough!!! But the book was still wet and so some the front pictur came off, too...but also the structur of the book tore and now I have a freshly skined book and the book skin!!!

extreme distress - distressing with a thunderstorm ....

....it is really hot here in Berlin at the moment, but then we often have thunderstorms, too. Today it hit me like a flash of lightning ( pun intended!) who I would like to distress my book: in the thunderstorm!!! my kids were really happy about helping me and we had lots of fun exposing my book to the water!!! It is standing outside now, but on our balcony and I will leve it there until it will get try. Hopefully the heat will get to the pages and take its toll, too!!! We will see....!!!

#4 extreme distress

for extreme distress i start a little story of several books. Books in the tree,i was put since 4 july this photography is the number 1.
I will used it for a second spread!!

#3 spread how i love book

I like engraving in old books and in this spread i choosed to use one engraving paper and a cover from 2 old books. i was finished with acrylic painting and glue !

Question #3: What kind of book lover (or hater) are you?

well, I think I am both...;-) I do love books and I have done so many things with books: reading, of course, altering ( obviously) ,
I used them as source of information, and I have write a book ( hopefully there are more to come!). But I also bind them, tear them and I used them as furniture. I try to get rid of them, I loose them and I trade them. I make books and take them apart.I collect them....!!!
At first ( before I could read and write!) I was very interested in them and I told my Grandma stories, which she wrote done for me and I was dreaming of being an author. Then school started and I had a real hard time to read and write ... I am dyslexic!!!
I was hoping a type write could solve my problem, but unfortunately it did not. So I started hating books and reading and writing, too. I was forced to write and read a lot, but with the years something changed and now I can not live without books anymore. I can go without a lot of things, but take all my books away from me and I will be like a flower without water!!!
I definitely have to many books, but I work with them, in them and around them. And as a Persian proverb says: A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.
Sometimes I need that garden to hide in and forget about what is outside of...;-)

#1 the book in frensh!

the book "la maison en papier" is arrived and i can start to read all!!

Question #3: Booklover or bookhater

Well, I am a booklover for sure! I don't have an indexing system, but despite the bit of a chaotic look my bookshelves are pretty organised. I have a lot of books I bought for my study (theatre). A few months ago my shelves contained more books, but I have sold about a box full because I wanted to make space. The books I sold were of the kind that you read only once.

I thought I'd answer this question with a picture, so you can have a look yourself. If you click it you can browse a bit :-)