"Treasures Recovered"

I've been creating more recycled art for the show beginning this weekend at Hand in Hand. This groups are journals which are in my Treasures Recovered series, where I take evocative covers from old books which have been thrown away or tossed aside and reinvent them as journals.

Putting All the Pieces Together recycles a beautiful vintage photo album cover boasting a mosaic of intricate, colored wood inlay. I estimate this cover was created in the early 1900s.

Green leather reinforces the journal spine. The inside end papers remind me of the trees that form the basis of this book.

Writing pages are from another vintage photo album, cut to size. Eleven signatures of four pages each offer 88 pages (front and back) for writing. Scraps from the leaf end paper keep the signatures stable since there is no stitching used in the binding (the perforation of the pages is too delicate to sew through).

The Storyteller journal utilizes a cover from a book series written about the Old Testament. While it looks like a prophet on the cover, I have entitled this “The Storyteller”, because that’s what they were. And we have more storytellers today than prophets.

I added a new red leather spine to complement the old leather on the covers. To me, the red symbolizes the passion with which storytellers tell their tales. The end papers are wonderful, fibrous papers from around the world. Seven signatures of seven pages each create 196 pages (front and back).

The Secret of the Old Clock (originally published in 1959) was the first book written in the legendary Nancy Drew mystery series. How many of us young girls of the 60's dreamed of being Nancy Drew? Her bravery, her cleverness and intelligence… her perfect hair, her freedom!

Today, how many of us wonder about the secrets of time? Where did it go? What is the secret of time, and how do we best enjoy it?

I have embedded in the cover a vintage paper-covered pocket watch face with unusual “hands”, covered and protected by a misty vintage pocket watch crystal. The end papers inside are fabric scraps recycled into paper. Six signatures of six pages each offer 144 pages (front and back) for someone to tell of their life and times.

I'm on a roll! But I've got to get these to the gallery this afternoon, so I'll have to postpone making more Treasures Recovered until later (but all the ideas are just chattering at me in my head -- uh-oh... there go those voices again! -- I prefer to think of them as the Muses whispering...)

I hope you are having a creative day.

Peace,

Kate