Progressing Right Along

It's the 17th day of Traci Bunkers 30 Days Of Get Your Art On.  So far, so good.  I haven't missed a day yet, and I've not made such a radical committment to it that I'd whine if I did miss a day.  But it's nice to know that things are rolling right along, and it does get easier every day.  

I keep many open journals at a time.  Each are different from the others, sometimes subtly, others are drastically different.  I usually skip around from book to book.  Whichever way the muse strikes. So far, I've kept to this book since the beginning of July.  I've broken my own record several times over with this one.

The pages in my FTB HandBook are large.  This spread really needs to be photographed so you can see everything that's on the pages.  But there wasn't enough light, so I had to scan partial pages, and quite a bit is left off.  I like the way the gold paint on the design at left resisted the India ink.  It made my stars look transparent.

I'll add more to the pages later.  Right now I'm farming one of the larger library discards I got yesterday for images.  This is how I usually do it:  By removing the book block, saving the boards for a future book cover, and cutting out what's salvageable.

A good portion of these books are damaged.  I get rid of the damaged sections first, then I separate what I might want to keep into piles.  One pile for images, another pile of background color pieces and strips, and a third pile of numbers and words.  

The collage fodder is used for lots of things, not just the journals you see on the web.  Some are used for collage, some of them go into SoulCollage® cards, others find their way into a variety of mixed media pieces, and the rest go into random grab back packets for swap or for sale. I don't spend too much time thinking about the images.  If there are some on both sides of a page, I make a snap decision and I'm done with it.  Most of the book block ends up in the recycling bin.  I don't have to use it all.  

And pretty obviously, not everything I use came from a book or a magazine.  The striped washi-tape down the middle of the spread was a gift from my friend Lisa.  You should stop by her blog and see some of the amazing books she's put together!

Comments

[Sandra]

I had never heard the term "farming a book". Thanks for explaining the process. Sounds like so much fun! I love your black stars over the gold paint design. Lovely ;-)

[Holly]

I really like this journal spread, Barbara. Do you have any specific way of organizing your images? I am still trying to find a way that works best for me.