Tuesday, January 6, 2009

A Friend in Need!


Altered art is also one of my passions. I work on altered books as the base and as a rabid-reader I found a huge resistance to mangling books, even old books, even stupid romance books, even books that had millions of copies printed and no one would ever, ever read twice…it took months to get over it. Finally I found an old book, not old as in antique, but old as in used. It was a book with three stories by the same author under one cover, I had read all the stories, cheesy romances, and knew that reading them the first time had been a waste of time, reading them a second time was out of the question. Besides, it cost a quarter at the second-hand store.

So screwing up my courage, I altered the cover first. It is so gorgeous with bronzed ribbon and a Van Gogh postcard. Then I find that it is more practical to do the cover last – ah well. The theme of that first book is "Girlfriends" and I have everything in it from a small bottle of Bailey’s Creme to a Fairy Godmother. When I made it I had in mind sending it to a friend when I found a friend that needed cheering up…and when that friend was cheered up and moving along well, she too would send the book along to a friend that was down. Well Good idea – right? The book has been sitting here, waiting for the final letter explaining how to pass it on, for about two years now. I have decided to get it in the mail this week. I have a friend in need and this will help in my New Year Decluttering Plan.

Now that I think of it, these altered books also are a kind of journaling. The one above includes poems, songs, grandmothers, cats, and a winter’s worth of warming thoughts. The final letter that needs to go in will have an explanation of the use of the book as well as a place to write in the name of the sender and recipient, with a date. There are places where the recipient could add some art, wish I had left more room for that…maybe I can glue in another pocket…hmm see it never ends!
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