Thursday 3 July 2008

Garden Altered Book - Nesting spread

I'm having great fun with this Garden Altered Book. I thought I would have a go at depicting a couple of the birds in my garden - for posterity! I painted the background (already whitened) with very watery acrylic paints in golden yellow first then while still wet added sploshes of magenta, then some yellowy green (no blue) When dry, I drew the brown bird with a pigma pen, and then the nest and branches, then I used very watered down brown paints to colour them in. The leaves are a piece of fabric made from newspaper stitched to muslin then painted several times. I then stitched the shapes randomly, cut them out and stuck them down. The bluetit box is painted tyvek, shrivelled with an iron, and the bird I traced onto tissue paper, stuck it down with watery pva, then washed it over with the yellow watery paint. I even had a go with stencilling along the top edge!
The Recipe I borrowed from Juanita Olson's Recipe Card in Issue 14 of Cloth Paper Scissors - I do hope she doesn't mind!
I really must give the book cover some consideration .............

9 comments:

Angela said...

Your bird pages are great. I've wanted to try an altered book for a while now but am just not brave enough to give it a go for fear of failure :)

Doreen G said...

Wonderful Val and your birds are beautiful

Ruth said...

Great job! I love the colors and the bird drawing is wonderful.

Mandi said...

Oh to be able to draw! You put me to shame!! Your book is coming along beautifully Val. I hope to get the chance to see it in the flesh sometime. :)

sharon young said...

Lovely gentle summer pages, Val, your birds are beautiful and the colour mix on the BG is very harmonious.

Sandy said...

It's such a nice spread-so cheerful. We have a lot of birds and really enjoy them.

Purple Missus said...

These pages just get better all the time and I love all the little things you are using to put them together- like the newspaper stitched to muslin and the shrivelled tyvek - so much more interesting.
Do you remember a few years back when they found the 'diary of an Edwardian lady' and all the interest that caused? I can imagine that happening with your wonderful book. Maybe you could put a pocket or something in the back with photographs of your garden showing where you got your inspiration from.

dot said...

Feel really privileged to have seen it in the flesh and it's even more delightful, awaiting the next page with anticipation.

ArtPropelled said...

I love your altered book pages. Why is it that a birds nest with eggs is so fascinating? It gives me such a thrill to look into a nest.