Mixed Media Mini Book

Welcome to Wednesday post #16. Today's post serves two functions: first is for a mixed media contest at Mixed Media World;  second, is to share how I made this mixed media book as a sample for an upcoming workshop at Puget Sound Book Arts. We will be making Hedi Kyle's Pocket Book (step by step instructions are here), but I want to show some examples of other kinds of books that are bound using accordion folds. When I started this book I had a spine (another Hedi Kyle invention, the Crown Binding), but no content. I found a strip of paper that I painted a while ago and decided to stencil over the background with a Paris map by Artistcellar. I also made stencils of brown pelicans I photographed at the beach. I printed them out in black and white, cut out the silhouettes and used black ink to stencil them. On two pages I used writing in vertical and horizontal directions repeating a series of paired words.  I like the way the text becomes image when done this way. I folded the long strip of decorated paper into an accordion and inserted it into the Crown Binding spine. Finally, I dug through my folder of marble papers and found a pattern and colors that compliment the interior of the book and used it for the covers. I hope you enjoy the results.

Painted and stenciled page.

Paint and stencil background with writing in two directions. Note the white triangles at the top and bottom of the page. These are tabs that hold the pages together and bind the book.

My handmade marble paper in the Peacock design.

Books are hard to photograph, but here you can see the folded spine as well as glimpses of each page.

Pelican stencils I made from photographs.