Saturday 30 April 2022

Not everything works well

As you know I love to make things and show you the pieces in progress and finished.  But sometimes things don't work out as I might wish.  That has happened to me this week but I thought I would show you anyway.

I made these large collages last year at Committed to Cloth.



They have lived on the spare bed since last October!  Last Saturday I was watching a video from Hilary Beattie in the Saturday Sketchbooks online course and she was making books with large collages she had made.  And I thought it might be a good idea to use the collages I had made.

Wrong!

Two reasons!  

1.  I made them on thin card rather than cartridge paper and it really didn't want to fold.

2.  I used a glue stick rather than gel medium and as I folded the card some of the collage papers came adrift.

To make the books you fold the paper into 4 in one direction and then into 4 in the other direction so that you have 16 rectangles.  Then you cut along proscribed lines.The red ones in this diagram.  Then you fold it concertina style starting from the bottom left rectangle.

I made the first one.  The edges weren't straight.  The folds damaged the collage papers.  I was disappointed.  I managed to salvage it by putting washi tape along all the edges.

I used doublesided tape to tape the pages together.



WIth the second one I cut the original collage down to a square.

Folding this one was even worse.  And I have given up on it.


I was rather reluctant to fold and cut up the third collage but the paper seemed to be stuck down better than the others had been.

I cut it and folded it and stuck the pages together.  What a mess!  It was all skewiff!  The pages don't line up.

And they're not all the same size!

However, I persevered.  I trimmed the pages top and bottom in attempt to tidy it all up.  I found a copy of a gel plate print that I had made some time ago and made it into the cover.



I think the photos probably flatter the last book a bit.  It's not bad but it's not excellent.  However I shall keep it so that when I am demonstrating this technique I can show people what happens when it doesn't quite work out.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

5 comments:

  1. Hazel Usher-Jones30 April 2022 at 10:59

    It's not as easy as people believe is it. I feel your pain having done this myself but I'm not a perfectionist so I'm quite chuffed with my wonky first attempt. I think you are amazing for persevering and your last book in particular looks great. Have another go with some collage that has pattern on it rather than blocks and it may relax a bit more. Great work. Well done you.

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  2. I really like your little books, and my favorite is the first one! Thank you for being brave and letting us see even the ones that didn't live up to your expectations. I would like to know what size paper the original collages are on. I was thinking a 4x4 book would be a great size for these little gems. I am inspired to do some of my own, thanks to you. I just love glueing paper in a random fashion. It's my happy place. Now I know I can make something great even if I'm not sure I love the original.

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    1. Hi. Every finished book will be one sixteenth of the starting size. My sheets were A2 I think. To get a 4x4inch book you need to start with a 16 inch square

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  3. GLAD YOU PERSEVERED THOUGH BERNICE. I ALWAS USE MATT MEDIUM FOR THOSE SORT OF THINGS AS I HAV EFOUND TO MY COST THAT GLUE STICK DON'T ALWAYS LAST LONG... THE PIECES CAN FALL OFF. I ALSO DON;T USE MOD PODGE AS THE ONE I DID TRY, YELLOWED WITH AGE. :(


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  4. I found this quite fascinating turning one work of art into another and not being too “precious” in case it gets spoiled but persevering and letting it evolve

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