I had to substitute many of the supplies for what I had on hand: gessoed canvas on a roll for artists instead of regular canvas for covering with, instead of plaster of Paris or Venetian plaster I used marble dust mixed with gesso and flexible modeling paste, covered inside covers with scrapbooking paper, used cotton instead of heavy French linen for the spine, regular hard novel covers instead of vintage heavy book covers, grommets instead of eyelets, and a heavier wire that I found. The wire was a bit difficult to work with, but it worked out okay!
A few of the supplies: Covers from an old Anne Rice novel, cotton fabric, scrapbooking paper, and 3 signatures made from unstretched artist canvas measured, cut, and folded, and gessoed on one side...
Scrapbooking paper glued with gel medium to the inside covers and when that dried I glued the cotton spine to the covers...
I didn't like the plain spine, so I tried adding some burnt umber acrylic ink and water, and I began plastering the pages and adding pictures/words and/or marks into the wet plaster...
Some pages with acrylic paint and words added into the wet plaster; the top and side pages are gesso mixed with marble dust and the bottom blessed pages are coated with flexible modeling paste...
Some pages after the signatures have been attached to the cover; there are 3 signatures adding up to 36 pages. The wild turkey feather was imbedded into the wet "plaster" before assembling.
A bit of color was added to the plaster before assemblage and I scraped the word, faith, into the wet plaster also.
The plain cover and the dry pages all plastered and folded into 3 signatures...
I didn't like the spine with the burnt umber acrylic ink at all, so I found a piece of cotton that I had dyed with rust in a previous project, cut the umber piece out, and glued in the rust cloth. I like it much better! Here, I have also attached the first signature to the spine with wire, which was a little bit too large and stiff, but it worked, and I have also attached some grommets from another project, because the eyelets I had were too tiny. The blue striped piece is from a small poetry book. I love the cover and wanted to use just that for the cover, but it was a bit too small for a journal, so I glued one cover to the front , and I like it a lot.
The inside front cover with upholstery tack embellishment and the first signature attached...
The inside back cover waiting to have the next two signatures attached...
I only had enough wire to attach two, so I used it on the first and third signatures, and hubby found a large heavy covered wire from something and peeled the coating off of one of the inside wires for the wire for the middle one. There is a bit of a difference in the color, but I think they work well together.
I like the look of the rusty cloth, the patina on the wire, the brass grommets, and the leather tie together!
I originally wanted an aged metal piece to go on the cover, but couldn't find what I wanted. I did find this artist trading card that I made years ago, which is an original linocut print, and I liked the look of it, so glued it down and let dry while I looked for something to finish the cover off.
I added a leather strip tie and called it done, but then I noticed a box of spiral metal paper clips sitting nearby, which happened to have some pewter colored ones, and
I think they finished the cover off rather nicely. I had a word that I wanted to use on the cover, but couldn't get it to look right, so I left it off, for now. So, this is the front cover for now. The back is still plain black. I may, or may not, add something to it later.
The finished journal, full of 36 luscious, textured, plaster covered pages just waiting for me to play on them. I loved the process, and I love my new journal!
I usually watch online class videos, then try to follow the instructions by memory, instead of following along with the teacher as she does them. My memory is not that great anymore, so I may, or may not, have followed her instructions as on the video. Anyway, I'm pleased with the journal, I enjoyed making it, and it makes me happy!
I hope you enjoyed my photo journey, and I hope you are staying well, safe, healthy, and creative during this confusing and scary period of time!
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