Book Alterations

                                            Altered Book Sample by Marjorie DeQuincy

A few weeks ago Marjorie DeQuincy and I lead an Altered Books workshop at Castro Valley Library.  The turnout was wonderful with parents and children of all ages.  The Children's Librarian, Denise Baker had boxes of materials for us to use as we went full speed ahead to create a variety of altered books.  It is always exciting to see young people embracing art making in whatever form.  Individual interests and personalities came forth with a variety of  altered constructions.

Some parent/child teams came with a vision and understanding of altering books. The student artist wore her favorite color  pink and continued the color theme in her altered book where she used papers, fabrics and ribbons.

What girl wouldn't love to have her choice of cool sun glasses to remember summer and wonderful weather.

 
GOT PINK?

Just a bit of beauty combined with beautiful flowers helped to fill out the interior.

We can appreciate the Egyptian Prince or Princess combined with holiday flair.

This student expressed his passion for sports with his altered book.

 

 His cloth cover used surfboards, so very California.  But he also seemed in tune our local team the San Francisco Giants.  I bet he was glued to the television during the World Series.  Way to go Giants!

We can imagine he is very proud to have this Giants information in a Championship season in his own very special altered art.

This prolific family team of artists stand proudly with their names adorning the covers of their books.  Marjorie made sure that name covers were made for any student who wanted one.

This extra firm book celebrates animals with each sheet having colorful papers.

We can see the large sea creature and the large Hippo who also loves to stay in the water.

This book is in anticipation of Christmas, sugar cookies and presents of course.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Marjorie with an active team of family artists enjoying their Saturday making their art..

There is music in his heart.

 

Students working hard to get all the pages altered until I mentioned they could take some of the pages out.  They gave them a sense of freedom to remove as many as they wanted while still keeping the theme and spirit of the book.

Proud siblings sharing their art with the world.

This young artist shared information about her other art projects at school and home.  She had the wonderful idea to tie her book with ribbons.  Her younger sister worked very hard on her own book and both appeared to thoroughly enjoy themselves.

She is pleased with her results.

Marjorie and I have found that students come to the workshop until the very end.  We often have to set a closing time just so we can clean up before the library closes.  No matter the time constraints students still manage to use their imaginations to create a variety of works that bring joy to our hearts when we see them.

I love this altered gingerbread house.  It was very clever to add the lace to the roof.

 This team of artists came to the workshop about 15 minutes before closing and got right to it.

These young artists were all smiles and extremely proud of their work.  Don't you just love our next generation of artists.  Pass it on!

I have to add a special thanks to Marjorie DeQuincy, friend and fellow artist , who continues to generously offer her time to help me with these local workshops.  The Friends of the Castro Valley Library provided a wide assortment of materials for us to use to change, embellish, cover and alter books.  As always Librarian, Denise Baker made us welcome, took photographs and provided books, magazines and other stuff for us to work with.

Until next time.