This is a type of altered book I’m working on. It’s the covers of two hard-back books with their text blocks cut out. The two covers are joined to a cardboard spacer in the middle, and the whole business is covered with fabric on the outside and paper on the inside, factoring in where the folds are and the amount/thickness of stuff that’s going to be on the inside. Engineering the thing and getting the fabric corners folded correctly under the paper was a challenge.

So far, I’ve included (paper-clipped in) a handmade paper envelope with things inside like my photos, a piece of fabric, a key and button, dried flowers, a vintage French document and other bits and bobs — whatever I was drawn to in the moment. I glued in my Great Aunt Helen’s little savings account deposit book from the 1940s. I covered the pages of this small book with ephemera papers and elements, dried plants, images from a seed catalogue and words from Mary Oliver poems. I’m always on the lookout for street garbage like the rusty spiral on the cover.

I also glued in a book of decorative papers that I sewed together. And here came the first dilemma. I finally decided what I was going to do on all those blank pages (drawing, painting), and I belatedly realized it would have been a whole lot easier to work on if it wasn’t glued into the larger altered book. So it goes. To be continued….