Binding Books?

One of the things I never expected to do in my life was to bind a book. And I still haven't, but in the Art Journaling world, people go on about making their own journals. There is a bunch of reasons for doing it, and I found myself having a couple of them. What I made was a simple pamphlet, or rather two of them with a third in the wings. Let me show you.


One reason to make a pamphlet is that you've got all of these papers you have painted, or made on the Gelli Plate, and now what are you supposed to do with them.

 This is a classic answer. You make a journal out of them.

A second reason is that you need a place to experiment where the materials are cheap, not precious. And my two "real" art journals are made out of good paper. So I've got a second classic answer.

The journal with the yellow cover is out of paper I painted very early in my journey and that was always intended for a hand made journal. There are a total of 4 sheets, or 8 pages, or 16 surfaces in that one. Some are painted, some have just gesso on them, and some are actually bare paper.

The red and blue one is just binder clipped together right now. I have not sewn it yet.

I've done two pages in the Gelli Printed journal. I wanted to see what would happen if you used a stencil and just painted in either white or in black on backgrounds that were just a Hot Mess. That is also an Art Journaling term, but it is self evident. The papers were pretty, but almost unusable. I think the white worked better, but it is possible that with a different stencil the black would have worked well too.

This is also an experiment. Two totally different kinds of backgrounds. I tied them together with some light blue paint and then just went with it. I'm happy with the result.

I also tried my new Inktense pencils. They are the dark black lines. And pulled out my GelSticks and got a wash out of them with water after I colored. So I've successfully used two new media that I have bought and not used much yet. Havi9ng a place to experiment works.


I'm not sure what will go into the Yellow Journal, but I'll figure it out.

Take care all.