A while back I posted about making paste papers, and as always with these lovely papers I wondered how I could use them. As we have an exhibition coming up in June I wanted to make some small items to sell alongside the main pieces. Making books seemed like the obvious answer. With a little trial and error I found a good design, and hopefully I’ll sell a few, though I won’t mind if I’m left with the odd one. I do have some favourites.
I ended up covering the spines as some of the paint cracked when I folded them, but I think it adds to them. The end papers are in complementary colours.
The purple book is using one of the first sheets I painted and is quite textured (a kind way of saying it’s lumpy and wrinkled). The pattern is fun though. Whereas the pink one, top left was when I was really getting into the swing of things, discovering all sorts of patterns.
The very dark book has some gold paint to lift it. The bottom right was done on red paper, which creates a different effect.
The top two here are two of my favourites, though it’s hard to choose. I was getting pretty inventive by the end, having a go at drawing bamboo. Of course, I’ve used the successes for the books, so there are some failures put away. Still, there are so many uses for painted papers from collage to jewellery, so I’m sure they won’t go to waste.
Diggely Doggely 