book collage fun


OldBirdKing and Tom Cat



in their prime




as they are now

OBK hitching a ride on Tom Cat's scruffy old tail
Inspired by all the ladies Dee Grace Liz Marti Nancy (and those whose blogs I could not locate - sorry for that) who were collaging with Acey, I had a go at collage myself. 
As I don't react well to prompts & in the spirit of regaining as much self confidence as I can, I decided to follow my own rules.

I had a story 'Cat&Bird Tale', I have life long desire to make a book (by hand), I had a ready-made leporello for structure, as the printer* refuses to print yellow tones I had to improvise with the printing and used magazine paper to compensate for the lack of full colour, I churned out a couple of ink-wash illustrations, retraced photo's of old cloth pieces with a shadow cat and a shadow bird from way back
I looked for and found a photograph of my father as a young boy, he's the proud owner of Tom Cat. And so it began: I took photographs of the images, printed the story and the images onto appropriate bits of magazine paper, cut them to size and glued these images all into the leporello

* not going there today;-)





Front cover

I realised - too late! - I had glued the beginning of the story to the end part of the book by mistake, oh well

the print results are not perfect on the magazine paper, but the text is still reasonably legible; I am not happy with the bubbles but hey, first effort 




Back cover







it's not a practical way to read a book, but I do think it would be an enjoyable experience to read a book like this together with a child





Comments

Mo Crow said…
love your drawings!
Saskia said…
thx Mo, the ink has me hooked;-)
deemallon said…
Oh oh oh!! Would love to hold and open the accordion. Love this so much. The favorite for me is the one with vertical lace.
Nancy said…
Saskia~ OH MY! I love it, bubbles and all! I may still have an article or two on how to make an accordion book or a book on book making...as I love this too. I am hooked on your drawings too. I think children would love it cozy on your lap and as they get older, would be inspired to make their own. This is a great idea/project on so many levels and the teacher/writer in me is having my brain going spinning off with ideas. More! More! More! cried the adoring fans. xo
Ps This really brightened my night after a rotten day. Thanks.
Liz A said…
I love the text over textured backgrounds ... looking like it should be lost in the folds, but not ... and I think the accordion structure would be lovely to hold with a child ... hmmm ... now you have me thinking!
Saskia said…
thank you Dee, the thing about that particular piece is that it no longer exists! I have cut up and remade so much over the years, not just my sewn pieces; however, the photo's are still there as a reminder (to me). I have kept the shadow bird and the shadow cat....the colours on the print are different from the actual colours due to my 'difficult' printer! although in this case it worked out okay. I plan on making more.....

I happen to have a great book on bookmaking, Nancy, aptly named 'How to make books' by Esther K. Smith, itself a beaut' I ordered it a year or so ago - if my memory serves me well - and haven't gotten round to actually using it properly. I will reveal more in next post; glad the post brought some light after your rotten day. These days my goal in life is to bring as much joy as I can in my art (and in the tidying up)...there's enough BS as it is.

thanks Liz, that was an experiment brought on by a faulty printer and all of your collage work! I look forward to seeing what you might come up with, accordion-wise.

tungsten

tungsten

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