Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Book of Dreams {Q&A}

I've been having fun chatting via email with Cassondra, our muse for the Book of Dreams project. Here is a little Q &A with her to find out more about her process:

AM: Please tell us a little bit about your book of dreams.
CF: It was actually the first one I made. I moved to our new home in January of 2005, and became a full time stay at home mom. It was a hard move for me since I had to close my store and leave my best friends. I loved altered books, and had gotten several books (the Colors round robin book is my favorite) and magazines and poured over them time and time again. I was just to afraid to get started, didn't know where to begin, afraid it wouldn't turn out, and had sooooo many ideas floating around in my head I just
overwhelmed myself into not doing anything. Finally late in the summer I just couldn't stand it anymore :>) and took a book that I loved called the Persistence of Yellow, quotes that I loved, and images that I had been saving forever and just started.

AM: How long did it take you to complete?
CF: Well I think it only took me about 4 or 5 days to complete the book... I have to admit that the children and housework were a bit neglected those couple of days. I had so many ideas that by the time I had completed one page, there were 2 or 3 more ideas that were sitting in waiting.

AM: How did you decide on your theme?
CF: I think what really helped was having the quotes to keep me focused on what my "theme" was, but I never started the book with any real idea of a theme. Some of the pages were just inspired by the picture. I am a huge collector of "stuff" so I pulled out my favorite things and just made myself use them. I am always afraid that later on I will think of something better to do with it and then it just sits in my boxes. I had seen the saying Book of Dreams somewhere before, I think on one of Tracy Moores books and always wanted to use it on something. It seemed like a good title when I was all done with the inside, since it was all things that had been floating around in my head for months and months.

AM: Please tell us a little bit about how you bound the book.
CF: I used an old book, took out the pages and put eyelets
alongthe spine of the book. The pages are 9X12 (I think) watercolor paper folded in half, some making pockets, others folded at angles, so actually there are only 8 or so pages, but folded down the middle and using front and back of each you get a lot more to work on. When all the pages were done I stacked them together and then sewed them into the book doing the stichingthru the eyelets and tying them off on the outside and hanging things off the ribbon. I wish actually that I had done them individually and put eyelets in each page and thru the spine. I did this on some of my other books and liked it better. Having the pages folded I think makes the book not lay quite as flat as it could.

AM: Do you have any advice for us?
CF: If I had any real "advice" it would be to just say don't be afraid to start, that was literally the hardest thing about it. Since you have seen my Flickr account you can see that once I got started I literally can't and don't want to stop. Also starting out with things that had a lot of meaning to me helped for my first try since they inspired me and brought their own ideas.

AM: What artists work are you most influenced by?
CF: Most of the artists that I have been inspired by are in the Colors book, I have also come across some great artists just by searching altered books out on the web. Celine Navarro does beautiful work, Lauren Mumford also has some beautiful 3D work that she does. Also ARTchix is where I get alot of my goods from and they have a great gallery with tons and tons of ideas.

I invited her to join us for this project. She said she'd keep an eye on our progress and be posting on her flickr web site. Speaking of which, I added all the links to the Book of Dreams participants so far. It's to the right, on the sidebar. If you're not listed, just let me know and I'll add you:) I'm also going to be posting links to inspiring altered book artists with web sites. Let me know if you have any you'd like me to add. It's always fun to have places to go for inspiration. If you need anything, just let me know!

3 comments:

Lilli in Vancouver said...

Thanks for doing the interview. It's nice to connect with Cassondra, her inspiration and process.

If anyone's interested a source for collage-type supplies, I get many of mine from

http://collagejoy.com

It's a fab treasure-trove of a store in Vancouver, and they have a website. The owner is great fun. She was telling me about the True Colors book last week, and I should have a copy in my hot little hands in 2 weeks.

I wonder if her prices would be good for Americans because of the exchange rate. Maybe worth checking out?

Anonymous said...

Hi all, got a chance to look at a few of the blogs of the gals participating. What a bunch of talented gals. I am SO SO SO excited to see what you will all create!!! I am thinking of a new Dream Journal and joining you all. I have these great collage sheets from www.papayalicious.com the papers are so increadible, but different from what I normally work with... but I think I am going to give it a try and join your group. I am always so weird about my work, I literally used to lock myself in my room when I was little (9-10 yrs. old)and work on my projects (mostly sewing dolls and animals). My family could not understand, I just wanted to wait so they could see the "finished" product. But I will try to be good about posting the pictures on my flickr account. Good luck and have fun everyone, can't wait to see the end results!!!!

Anonymous said...

What a great interview! It's exciting that Cassondra will be joining us...can't wait to get started