Crafting News + A 'Mermaids' Altered Book

‘Mermaids’ altered book cover

Hope you’re having a lovely Sunday wherever you are.

The temporary writing slump I mentioned in a recent blog post led me to focus more on craft projects.

Apart from filling a couple of journals I’d made – one to document this year and a second about me from babyhood to marriage, both of which are ongoing – and making a gatefold journal for my sister, I’ve been making more journals and I also want to get back to making altered books.

Not surprisingly, I now have quite a few journals I’m not using, decorating (ie: taking up) shelf space.

As my number of friends has shrunk over the last couple of years, I now don’t have as many people to give journals to.

So, after much dithering and thinking and rethinking job options, I’ve finally decided to start an Etsy shop.

The shop isn’t open yet as I want a little more than just a few products on there, and I’m still working on those.

In the meantime, I thought I’d give a little more attention to my neglected YouTube channel and share videos on some altered books and journals.

And I’ll also start posting about craft on Sundays.

The altered book I’m showing today isn’t the first one I made when I started way back in 2007.

It’s from a Time-Life series called ‘The Enchanted World’ and I have the whole collection.

When we moved house, I thought I’d lost a few and replaced them. Only to find the supposed ‘missing’ ones much later. Typical!

The first one I made of this size was ‘Faeries’; I used mainly papers on that one and some fabric.

When I started on ‘Mermaids’, I was feeling more adventurous and decided to move out of my comfort zone, using paints and more fabric.

Here are some photographs of the book, with the video at the end.

Inside cover of the ‘Mermaids’ altered book; the painting is ‘A Mermaid’ by John William Waterhouse.

Layout of ‘The Little Mermaid’

Layout of mermaids and sunken treasure, including unfortunate sailors; the image on the left, ‘Behind Neptune’s Throne’ is by Mike Kaluta.

My favourite layout, featuring Ulysses and the sirens. The text printed on vellum is about this encounter…

… open the vellum sheets to reveal the painting of ‘Ulysses and the Sirens’ by Herbert James Draper

Layout of Norse mythology and sea goddess, Ran, ensnaring ship with her net; I used net-like fabric for that effect.

I apologise in advance for the quiet parts of the video as I am really not used to speaking in this manner, which also explains my weirdly stilted manner, especially at the beginning.

Next week, I’ll share another altered book, which focusses on a character from one of my favourite films, and hopefully I’ll sound more relaxed.