Wild Women, Steampunk and Flying Free! - Altered Book Round Robin

by Leslie Brier, Brier Design Studio

Last week, my altered book group met to share our latest creations for the Altered Book Round Robin. I am so excited about the artwork made by Terry Pitzel for my steampunk-themed book. The doll was a part of the pages that Terry worked on. I took a quick picture of her before I tucked her into the book and sent her on her way with the next artist.

Here she is as part of the spread that Terry did. Isn't it wonderful?  

Linda Madden created this work for (below)  Jennifer Gorman's book. The book's theme is "fly free". The flower centers on the left are textured metal, and Angelina fibers make up some of the foliage. The heart and wings are fabric and embroidery.  I hope you can click on it to see some of the detail. I think I had my camera on a lower resolution setting than usual.

I worked in Terry Pitzel's book. Her theme is "notorious women" . I decided to go with Josephine Baker. I learned so much about her. She spent a lot of time in Paris. When she died more than 20,000 people attended her funeral. She was also an actively involved in the civil rights movement.

 Of course, I had to include an image of her in the banana skirt!
 The writing around her is quoted from Josephine herself.

 I made a Josephine Baker doll for the paper doll section as well. I had some tiny banana-shaped beads that worked perfectly for her skirt.

This month I'll be working in the "fly free" book. I have an image in mind - I just have to figure out how I'm going to use it.

Altered Book Round Robin

By Leslie Brier, Brier Design Studio

Back in December, I joined an altered book round robin group. I kept thinking that it wasn't a good time to start a new art commitment, but luckily my heart overruled my head. This is an amazing group of talented women, and I'm so happy that I've got standing date with them every month.

The premise of the project is simple. Everyone found a book to alter and chose a theme. They started the artwork, and then passed it along to another artist to do a spread in the book. This month I got to work in Barbara Deal's book. Her theme was "celtic". The words "A Story As Night Falls" were already on the page, so I decided to do something with a dark background.

 I was surprised at how many items I already had in my studio that fit the theme. (Another good reason to keep it clean!) I zentangled the large celtic piece during the Super Bowl. Here is a closeup:

The theme for my book is "steampunk". Jennifer at Crafty Dayeseye did the first spread in my book. She wasn't familiar with the idea of steampunk, but she hit it out of the park!

I was astounded and amazed. It has movement! And light bulbs! and hot air balloons! And gears and watches! I couldn't wait to get it home and admire it. And then I remembered that the book had to move on to the next person in the swap. Jennifer kindly sent me some of her photos. I need to talk to her about photography. See how she captures the light? (no pun intended!)

My challenge this month is to work on Terry Pitzel's "notorious women" book. There's already a fabulous spread on Mata Hari in there, and some paper dolls to play with. I'm leaning toward Josephine Baker at the moment... I'll let you know what I come up with.

Here's one more picture of Crafty Dayesye's work. Love it!