Roots-Beneath the layers

Page 1. This page is joined to the back of the last page Lisa did. You can see all of Lisa's fantastic work in this book here. You really don't want to miss it! Her cover has the word 'Roots' and the next page said ' beneath the layers' so I made them part of a sentence by adding ' I see beauty.' Lisa's words are ofcourse the books theme. My first page is a collage of 2nd hand beads, my handmade beads, mutton cloth (thicker than cheese cloth) bits of cut up doily and threads. I still don't know what the red disc thing is! I hope what ever it was from still works without it!

Page 2. One of Lisa's pages features a vintage photo of her Grandmother. This page reflects the era I imagine she came from. A time when things were re-used and re-purposed and no-one thought anything of it because it was the way of life at the time.  Lisa also said her Grandmother didn't get to travel, now we can say she's been to New Zealand! I really love this page, it appeals to the romantic in me!

Page 3. This is stitched to the back of page 2. The white book (formerly the scroll) is able to be full removed from the page and then opened to reveal...a 2 and a half page fabric book! All the shades of brown have been made by dying the fabric with coffee, tea or onions skins. The string around the nest was dyed with real nest dye (sorry, it's a little hard to see that here.)

Page 4 reveals another removable book and that seriously cool rusted bottle cap. A nice little piece of Kiwiana! I have 4 caps sitting in cups on my window sill as I type and I am doing an intentional rust experiment using eco-friendly source. Watch this space if you want to know how that goes!

The book is removed to reveal a pocket and a quote and then opened to reveal another page. This page (as you may remember) was created in collaboration with a bird! I used the non-organic parts of a nest that the kids and I found. The nest was beautiful but when its layers were revealed the true makings of this nest were actually a sad reflection on the environment it was made in. It revealed that although we see rubbish a bird sees as good nest making materials...and I eventually came to see it as good collage making material!

I worked on quite a literal interpretation of Lisa's theme and now my part is done. Soon another artist will be having their turn and the journey will continue. Thanks for being part of chapter 2 with me!

Pulp Redux Update

I've been busy in my little corner of the globe with Lisa J's book. Mostly it's been 'fine tuning' things that I have already done, tidying a scruffy corner and adding an extra detail here and there. Stuff that can't really be seen but makes the whole thing better. Small is big.

I found a Tui beer bottle cap on the footpath in Opunake. Originally the caps are bright red but this one was wonderfully squashed and rusted. I knew as soon as I found it that it was perfect for Lisa's book!

The biggest change I made was to the layout. My scroll is no longer a scroll, I opened it flat, made a fabric cover for it and turned it into a book that can be removed. Unfortunately I didn't photograph the cover(!) of it but you can see the opened book below. The brown book sits on top and is removed to reveal a 2nd removable book. The scroll is now the page. I did this to make my final page less bulky but I think it looks better too. The white fabric it all sits on is now stitched to the red fabric and the cover.

Since I took these pics I've also made most of the back cover/page and started stitching it all down. The spread is now 2 double sided pages joined in the middle with a fabric spine. I've never used fabric before but now I can't imagine not using it! We're all aiming for Feb 22nd to have our books ready to post and then the next round can begin. The next time I post my book pages here they'll be finished so watch this space!
To keep updated with Pulpy Happenings please visit the Pulp Redux blog.