Paste Paper Book

This was my paste paper book that I made in a recent workshop with Rosie Kelley. I absolutely love workshops that encompass lots of art! I have only posted my favorite pages from my book "Circles".....a poem written by Mary Oliver.

The paper is Arches Text Wove with Rosie's special formula of paste and paint. She also taught a lot of secret touches that make her books so unique....but they are no longer big secrets!

I sewed an antique button as the closure for my book. It seemed appropriate for my theme.





I love the dry embossing to enhance design elements for a page. The title and the window are surrounded by embossing. I added a narrow strip of paste paper to balance the window frame.
















Rosie has a "bounce" to her lettering that I am crazy about. I especially like the energy that it gives to her pieces. She makes it look so natural but it takes a lot of planning to give it that particular feeling. This is my first attempt....I needs a whole lot more practice for sure!

I do love the different size letters as well. I do not enjoy lettering made using lines and perfect spacing!

The other element that Rosie does is to write over text or between lines using another color ink and hand. That technique needs planning and I did not take the time to do that.








I punched circles in the paper to continue my theme. I also added sewing with my Featherweight machine before assembling my book.

I love the scribbling that overlaps from the paste paper onto the white pages.










The square marks were made using a credit card cut to the right size and shape while the paint was still wet.

The blue paint lines were drizzled on top of the pages.














Rosie suggests making the pages different sizes and shapes to add lots of interest. I love that about my book!

Mary Oliver writes about the blue heron in her poem "Circles". I could hardly believe it when I saw this mark which looks like a bird in flight! I love it when that happens!!!

"The First Words" were written separately and then attached using French knots.

I also attached the page sewing by hand with gold metallic thread.



This is the backside of the previous page. The window is open and additional rectangle shaped pieces of paste paper were added to strengthen the window element.

















I was amazed at how much of my paste paper pages worked so well with Mary's poem. "A bundle of light" was the perfect text for this snippet of paste paper.

There isn't any way one could plan out the poem during a painting process. In fact, I had no idea that I would select this poem. I only found it after I spent time with my dried painted pages when I decided that this particular poem would be perfect!







When we had time to share our finished pages with the class as a group...someone said "Oh, they look like birthday candles". And I think they are correct. But my intention was to make an interesting entrance for the next page and I really like how I was able to separate the text.

The other element that I like in my book are the tiny little circles that were added.










The Colophon is such an important page to add when making an artist book.....and then I spelled the word wrong! So I added the "o" on a separate square and glued on top of the "a"! I find that when I make mistakes....I come up with the "fix" that really enhances my work.

If I had spelled Colophon correctly the first time, I would never have been so clever.

I still have left over paste from the class. Yikes....I need to make more painted pages for a new book before it spoils!

Being house bound from the blizzard is perfect timing.....so off I go to my studio now.