Altered Silver

Oh, I just had to do this. Between Jan 22 and Apr 14, I altered 168 (3.25"x5.25") cards for my gluebooking, two cards each day. I made some time recently to photograph one deck at a time, then montaged the three pics together for this overview.

My yes, that's a lot of cards!

Technorati Tags: collage, gluebooks,altered cards

Well, there they are, the last cards of the third deck, and my final gluecards.

As much as I've enjoyed the "daily glue" for eight months, I need to set the gluestick to the side and pick up some pencils, pens and brushes. And who knows, maybe there'll be a gluestick in there, too. After all, I love the mix of mixed media. :)

Technorati Tags: art journals, collage, gluebooks,altered cards

I've added a new link, a very cool quote and some additional explanation about media to my "What is a Gluebook?" article. I also rewrote some of the other stuff for clarity. Aside from potential link modifications in the future, I think the article is in its final form now.



Technorati Tags: art journals, collage, gluebooks

What's this crazy thing? Some new kind of altered product box? Sure, but what it is really is a very helpful Special Tool.

Toward the latter part of January, my gluebook was full, and I switched to altering cards for my daily gluing. I had 3 of the Go Fish! decks to work with. Each deck has 52 main cards, and I started gluing on two cards each day. I really like using the cards, knowing the backs are all identical. There was just one drawback: the glossy faces of the cards need to be sanded first to ensure that the glue will be able to hold.

Through the first 26 days, I sanded two cards by hand each day. I told myself it didn't take very much time (10-15 minutes for each pair of cards) and was fairly simple to do, but as the days passed, it became more and more just an aggravating chore. I'd either have to give up using the cards or else find some better way of doing the sanding. As I completed gluing the first deck and was ready to start on the second, the time was right for changing the routine.

Enter the Special Tool, a wonderful conception of my life partner (who was tired of listening to me gripe about having to sand each day.) ;)


The base for the Special Tool is a chipboard product box (Hamburger Helper, in this case). After expanding the box to its flat state, I cut out two card-sized openings in it as a template. The openings were crossed by low tack painter's tape from the backside, and the low tack tape was reinforced along the sides with regular masking tape (to keep the low tack tape in place).

Once the Special Tool was prepared, the magic could begin.

I laid the Special Tool down on a workbench and filled the template with two of the cards, glossy face up. The cards are held in place by the low tack tape behind them.

The power tool, a palm sander, outfitted with Fine sandpaper, is switched on and applied to the faces of the cards until all the gloss (and ink) is sanded away. These cards are then removed from the Special Tool and replaced with fresh cards from the deck.

In very little time, the stack of sanded cards piles high while the stack of unsanded cards diminishes. With the help of the palm sander and the Special Tool, I completed sanding an entire deck of cards in about 30 minutes!

The Special Tool held up quite well, but the rigors of its duties took their toll. When it comes time to prepare the third deck, the Special Tool will be recreated with a new chipboard box.



Technorati Tags: altered cards, collage, mixed media, sanding

Today, I begin a new daily glue-project. It's destined to be pretty much the same as a gluebook, but for the next couple months, I'll be glueing onto cards instead of into a book.

The cards I've selected are a School Zone game deck. Here's a look at the Go Fish! package. The deck has 56 cards which are 3-1/4"x5-1/4" cardstock, and I plan to collage two each day. The faces are glossy and need a light sanding first to ensure the glued bits will adhere properly. I'll be rounding the corners with a corner-punch. Media will be mainly found printed elements (snipped from magazines, books, newspapers, etc.) and markers; potentially there could be paints and other...

I picked this deck because the cards have actual backs, a simple rectangle containing repeated "Go Fish!" text. Not very exciting perhaps, but better (for my purposes) than other flash-card type decks which have varying illustrations or text for the backs. I think I may want to use the completed cards as a sort of Tarot, so the backs matter to me. Ultimately, I might end up painting or covering the backs with something, but if so, that would be done simply for the fun of doing it. As it is, the first card I collaged ended up being done upside-down (such that the text of the back is upside-down). I don't know yet if that matters or not, heh!



Technorati Tags: art journals, collage, gluebooks,altered cards

Today, I close the cover on the old stamp collecting book that became my gluebook. Each of its 5-1/4"x 8" pages holds a collage (approximately 4"x6") that I made every day between August 28, 2005 to January 21, 2006. And now, alas, it can hold no more.

I've enjoyed very much having Gluebook Time in my daily routine but have no desire at this time to begin a new book for that purpose. My current plan is to continue gluebooking, but without the "book" part. Can't collage without some kind of support, of course. so after examining available options and materials, I'm turning to cards for my next glueing phase which begins tomorrow.


Technorati Tags: altered books, art journals, collage, gluebooks

I was embarking on a new project, to make a quick, daily collage in the spirit of a "gesture drawing." I wanted to keep all these collages together in the same spot, but after putting the first collage into a composition book, I discovered that the composition book just wasn't going to work out for me. Others seem to be having good results with them, but I simply couldn't accept the too-thin paper as a support for glue and pencil and paint and whatever else might be needed.

I looked around and selected an old hardback book I'd recently acquired in a book exhange. It's about collecting postage stamps as an investment practice and was published in the early 50's, so it's quite old and out-of-date. The previous owner had generously marked most of the pages with some kind of black pencil or crayon, to highlight certain paragraphs and statements. I decided to leave those be and just accept them as "lovemarks." The cover and pages still seemed to be in pretty decent shape, however. Very carefully, I removed my paper bits from my first collage in the composition book. I'd used glue stick for adhering them, so they came up relatively easily.

I transferred the bits into the stamp-collecting book, retaining the same arrangement, but needing to compress their positions somewhat to adjust for the smaller dimensions of the page. I had used watercolor over the initial glueing, so the pieces had some strange colors on them. I didn't want to attempt using watercolor in the stamp-collecting book, so I used colored pencil as a substitute. And voilà, my first "gluebook" collage was in its new home.

What can one actually do with a composition book? I've got three of them now, and it seems like they should be good for something, right?

I decided to paint this one. The cover, that is.


I sponged on individual layers of sienna, yellow ochre and dioxazine purple. Finally, I sponged on clear iridescent medium to give portions a bit of shine (if I followed these steps again, I'd apply the iridescent medium with a brush to keep it more consistent, although it is less metallic-like than it looks in this photo). Then I added a paper bit on one side so that it would be obvious which end was "front." The uninspired scrap I grabbed for this purpose is a multicolored happy-face that says, "There's always something new."

I must say, this composition book looks very enticing now, less utilitarian and more inviting, like it's just asking to play a role in "something special."

But currently, I'm only using its pages as undersheets (to catch stray glue streaks) when glueing my daily bits.




Technorati Tags: altered books, art journals, collage, mixed media, gluebooks, composition books

Why are so many people using composition books for their gluebook support?

In USA, composition books are a familiar item most of us have grown up with. They're about 7.5" x 9.75" and usually contain 50 sheets of paper folded in half (for 100 pages), with center-sewn binding and a foldover chipboard cover (typically with a black/white mottled pattern). That seems all well and good for writing on with a ballpoint pen, but the (wide-lined) paper in a composition book is only 14-16# weight. That's extremely thin paper to be expecting it to hold up to the rigors of daily collages.

And yet, there are many people out there using composition books for daily collage and journaling, even applying watercolors, acrylics and a wide assortment of markers and pens. Here's one, and here's one, and here's another, and another and yet another. I tell ya, they seem to be everywhere! (And each one of these links is definitely worth visiting!)

Since so many are doing it, I figured it must be possible, and I acquired three composition books to get myself started.

It was August 28. I only remember because that was the date recorded for my first gluebook entry. I'd decided I'd seen enough and read enough, and now I had my composition book, so I might as well just jump in to glueing: i.e. making a quick daily collage. I paged through a couple magazines, pulling out what seemed right for the time, then I glued those pieces onto the first page, along with the title/price sheet from the new composition book pack. When all the pieces were in place, I looked at the expanse of empty lined paper showing between the bits and decided to add a watercolor wash.

The ultra-thin paper, already feeling cranky after having paper bits glued onto it, became downright ornery with the addition of watercolor.

I looked through a couple more online galleries of composition book journals, elegantly covered with paints and glued bits and markers and just about anything. I turned back to my cantankerous composition book and decided to seal a few page-pairs together with acrylic medium (much as I'd done with the F&W pages) to give the paper added strength. I made three page-pairs and hoped they might settle themselves when dry.

They didn't.

I added pale watercolors using very little water and hoped the touch of color might perk the pages up.

It didn't.

I liked my initial composition, my first "gluebook" collage.
I didn't like the composition book I'd put it in.

This tale will continue in tomorrow's entry.



Technorati Tags: altered books, art journals, collage, mixed media, gluebooks, composition books

When I first started seeing things called "gluebooks" in web galleries, I didn't have a very high opinion of them. I saw standard composition books used as a place to glue daily ephemera. Got some junk mail that day? Glue it into the composition book. Went shopping? Glue your receipt. Emptied an office product? Glue down the box cover. Snacked on a candy bar? Glue the wrapper. Prepared ground beef for dinner? Glue down the meat weight label. Etcetera ad infinitum ho hum...

What's the point of that???

I decided I wasn't interested in them, yet it seemed that once gluebooks had entered the realm of my awareness, I began to see more and more of them without looking for them. And although most were of the glue-down-the-daily-ephemera variety, there were some standouts, collages being called "gluebooks" that actually approached a level worthy of being called "art" (such as nearly all of this entire website). I started being more intrigued, but still didn't "get" what gluebooks are about. If it's just about gluing down daily ephemera...uh, why do that? And if it's about building art collages in composition books, why not call them "art collage books"?

I began searching "gluebooks" on Google, viewing as many galleries as I could find. I also began seeing less of the glue-down-the-daily-ephemera type and growing more intrigued. At last, I came upon Lisa Vollrath's Gluebooks and Journals gallery and that led me to her Discovering Gluebooks article, her Throw-Away Collage article and Throw-Away Collage gallery. One of Lisa's links led me further on to Jane Dickinson's Throw-Away Collage-A-Day Journal page, which also provided me with the answer to my most pressing question: "Treat this as a gesture 'drawing'," Jane had written on her website, "knowing every one won't be a masterpiece, but it's a great way to loosen up."  Eureka! Jane's statement spoke to me in the art terminology I was familiar with. Gluebooks then, were a paper arts version of a gesture drawing! All that clicking you hear is the gluebook imagery puzzles I'd seen falling into place for me at last.

With this resonating definition, the urge to join in followed quickly. To simply make a quick "gesture drawing" (albeit in collage) without trying to "make art" as such, and to do it daily, a "gluebook" becomes an exercise in familiarizing oneself with one's tools and methods as well as assisting in building a (relatively quick) body of work. As I've recently been slowing down on my F&W work, unsure of what I want to "immortalize" on all those book pages, the "gluebook" or quick daily collage, seemed an ideal way for me to attain more finished bookwork without agonizing over what it should become or how to get there.

My initial gluebook pages can be viewed in this August 2005 BlogSpirit album. I tried to also make albums for September and October, but BlogSpirit is bogging down too much with photos. However, all the gluebook entries can be found by selecting the "Gluebook/DailyCollage" category on the left column.

[edit 10/9/05]: BlogSpirit is feeling well enough again that I was able to upload both September and October gluebooks to photo albums (found in the righthand column). If the albums stop working for any reason, the tip for using the Categories works well regardless.




Technorati Tags: altered books, art journals, collage, mixed media, gluebooks