One Handmade Book & One Book Sculpture

Here is a book sculpture I created from this book on butterflies that I found in a used book store. I liked the large butterfly image on the cover of the book as well as the colorful illustrations of the butterflies inside of the book.

First step, I tore out all the pages containing the butterfly illustrations so I could use them later. Next I glued all the edges of the pages so they would form a "block". After the glue was dried, I cut out the inside of the book by cutting through all of the pages (as neatly as I could) with a sharp utility knife.

At this point I spent many hours cutting out all the butterflies with small scissors. I would do this in the evenings while watching TV to make the task more fun .... I started by inserting and gluing the edges of butterfly wings between pages of the book starting at the back and working forward. Butterflies in the center were glued to bits of paper to make them stand out. Finally my husband looked at the book and said "stop! you have enough butterflies in there." I was just having so much fun inserting more butterflies!

My final step was to create butterflies that would pop out when the book opened but would fold up when it was closed. I glued backing paper to folded butterflies in order to give them additional support and to allow me to glue a few together.

It takes patience and time to cut and glue. I had the idea when I started but the book just evolved as I began working on it!

This second creation is a handmade book in which the idea had been in my head for a long time. I was taking a handmade book making class at the Providence Art Club. We created several small handmade books and in the last few classes we created a box in which to hold our books.

I took the project one step further and decided to use my box in which to hold a handmade accordion book of my own and make it into a sculptural piece of art. I chose the theme of local birds partly because I had a beautiful nest I could add to the top of the box.

I drew the birds on tan toned drawing paper using only black and white watercolor pencils both dry and wet using a brush. I chose to create a variety of drawings of local birds, feathers and parts of nests.

The box I created is with book board and book cloth that I made myself. I spray painted parts of the birds nest on top with black and added the feather. The box opens and the accordion drawings of the birds fits inside when closed.

I am working toward my art exhibit featuring my handmade and upcycled book sculptures at the Providence Art Club opening Sunday, June 2, 2019.