Books Unbound

Another workshop I participated in at ArtFest was Books Unbound by Lorraine Reynolds. I made two books in this class. The first was a Mariner's inspired book. To create the compass I used a pocket watch case, an image transfer of a compass rose and a small anchor charm. The photo of the fisherman I used came from an old knitting pattern book of fishermen sweaters from Ireland and the UK and was made into a transparency. You can see the original old german text of the book behind the image. The border around the photo is an old broken metal picture frame. This is the inside of the book. There are a few more pages inside that I am still working on.

  Below is the back and front of the book. The image of the sextant is a contact paper transfer on metal. The ships wheel on the cover is also mounted on a disc of rusted metal that is barely visible through the spokes of the wheel. Fishing net adds strength to the binding of the book as the spine fell off and I have to say I like the exposed staples and binding cloth that is visible between the the mesh.

The second book I made was a small pocket german/english dictionary that I found at a thrift store. I cut in to the cover to add more depth behind the keyholes and added some chain with several small skeleton keys to the spine and used a crackle paint effect to add texture to the cover.

 Inside the book I added a transparency photo of a man with a mustache with the image of a pocket watch behind him. The frame around the image is actually something I found on the beach. There is a layer of rusted paper towel over the pages. I still have some watch parts I want to add to the page opposite the photograph that will fit into the image opening when the book is closed. The title of this piece is "The Key to Success is Having a Well Groomed Mustache".

Below are some images of Lorraine Reynolds books that were on display during the workshop