Art Journal, cover decorated, mostly

14/11/2020 by UKMA 1 Comment

I have finished MOST of the decoration of my art journal cover.

Not the best photos today, but the weather is miserable and the light is rubbish. It is just the usual conglomeration of stamps, stencils and mark-making that you will see on pretty much every art journal LOL! I am very happy with my Rubbermoon stamps, however (most notably the large yellow flowers and the turquoise spirals) and I am sure they will appear a lot. The inside is maybe even better. I was a little more restrained and limited the blue on the spine to a smaller area.

The signatures are sewn in, and I was limited by the number of sheets of watercolour paper I had to create them. Because the holes for the sewn signatures are slightly farther apart than ideal, I think I will be able to fit two or maybe even three more signatures in if I am careful with my hole-punching. It would have to be a simple pierced hole rather than a punched one, lest it compromise the structural integrity of the spine. See the gap? But then, do I actually WANT more pages?

The closure is a simple one, just a bit of elastic and a button.

I punched a couple more holes in the spine and threaded the ends of the elastic to the inside then knotted them securely.

Oh, and I did use my deckle edge blade to cut the pages. Thanks for the reminder Shaz!

So now the dilemma…do I give it a title? ART JOURNAL yet AGAIN?? Title it with a quote, that might feel like it limits me? Just Art Journal #(whatever) or AJ 2020? BAH!

Here’s a weird thing. I like the making of the journals, a lot. So I am pretty OK with making ones that are not huge, with 60 pages to fill. This one (and the little one from the offcuts) have four signatures of two folded sheets each, or 8 single pages each, for 32 pages (which can be done as double-page spreads if wanted) and that suits me fine. So deciding on a theme or a technique maybe, or even a colour, might be a fun way to do it. At least I will know there are only that limited number of pages to do and not 60+ pages!

I already have a couple others that appeal – a twine binding, that allows for slipping pages in so they could be worked flat before adding them, and one from Roben-Marie that has an odd tape binding, also for small, loose, multi-texture and varied paper type sheets, that fits within a small gutted cook cover. There is a workshop for that – I’ll find the link and add it when I start. I’ll ponder the title a bit longer….