Sea Glass - Altered Book Swap

For the final book swap of 2012 i worked in my friend L's book entitled Sea Glass.  Early in 2012 she moved away from the Bay area to Port Townsend in Washington State.  But we continued to swap books every month.

 I created this spread in her book by removing the two pages from the spine and taping them to the edges of other pages to create an "open sesame" kind of doors to what's underneath.  I found the vintage picture of her new home town in an on line search.

 Flash?  No flash?  there a benefits to both.  Daylight is best!

 The added pages create a long spread of 4 pages.  I found various pictures of the Washington coastline, featuring stones and rocks and driftwood and full on tree trunks - is sun washed grey tones. I spliced them altogether to create a collaged landscape.   I added the glitter and sequins to create a magical treasure trove of sea glass along the shore.

 Continuing up the page you follow a meandering path up the steep hill to where L's new house is situated.

The cashmere goats are an inside joke.  I don't believe they actually have goats roaming the slopes of the hills around Port Townsend, but they might....!

Altered Calendar - Sea Glass

 This month i worked on L's lovely book entitled Sea Glass. it is filled with soft blues and greens and all things reminiscent of the beach. For my first spread i wanted to capture the essence of tidal pools - looking through the shallow water to the soft sandy bottom, perhaps to catch a glimpse of some interesting sea life. It turned into a giant glittery mess - but sometimes spreads just don't achieve the beauty and greatness you have in your head! amirite?!

 The base is a blue/green hand painted deli paper with some gold glitter infused gel medium which represents sand. On top is a blue swirly die cut paper to represent the water. I added some blue glass glitter and some silver glitter glue to accent the swirls. I added some stickers under the swirls - a fish, lobster and sea horse. It would have been nice to add some shells - but L. requested that we keep the book as flat as possible for easy mailing.

My second spread was much more successful! The multi talented L. recently was a finalist in a fabric design competition. Her whimsical Sea Garden collection was perfect to use in her Sea Glass book. I envisioned a spread with young girls frolicking on the beach, wearing outfits made from her fabrics. I printed her fabrics and had fun selecting what to use. A wiggly stripe became a summer sky. I added a paper scallop border to evoke clouds.


The beach and shore are a scrap of painted deli paper that was conveniently blue green on one side and a sandy orange on the other.

The girls are taken from the covers of vintage sewing patterns I printed them out and cut away the background. Then carefully traced their dresses and cut them out of three different Sea Garden fabrics. My college fashion illustration classes came in handy to outline the bodice and add a few gathers to the full skirts.

Finally a few green and blue gel stickers were cut into "shards" and added to the beach.

I almost forgot to turn the page to see that i had to complete a "half spread" before sending the book back to L. The girl is from an Anthroplogie catalog, the beach is from a travel magazine.

 Here is the sign in page - a sheer bag of paint chips to decorate. 
You can see Lucie's fabric collection HERE.