Monday, February 07, 2011

Making Books

Recently I have been in book making mode. I have several upcoming artist retreats and exhibitions, and I have been creating handmade books to use as journals, guest books, and exhibition entries. The photo above is my original cover design for a book that I will use as a journal on a retreat.

I liked the design, but I wanted to incorporate a tree image. I printed several tree images on transparencies, so I could see which image I liked the best and how to position it. Then came the decision on how to transfer the image from the transparency to the book. I am not very successful at gel medium transfers, and I didn't really want to burn a thermofax screen and print it on the cover. Then came the "aha" moment. I positioned the transparency image where I wanted it and cut it to the size of the cover. I now have a tree overlay and a protective cover for my book!

3 comments:

Cynthia Schelzig said...

This looks fabulous! The color is stunning too. I have painted trees onto bookcovers before but this is a great idea.

Robbie said...

Very cool..and great idea on just using the transparency..that would be a 'duh' moment!

Carol Blackburn said...

Looks great Karen...and what a fabulous idea.