I have been working on these carved books as part of my homework for Level 3 Art & Design. Part of our homework was to study various artists that use “cut paper” in their work. I came across Guy Laramee and was inspired by his work. I bought several large reference books/dictionaries from the thrift store. I thought of it as saving them from the landfill. I have never done any “book art” before. So first I carved the books and then I added a variety of paint, acrylic mediums, oil paint sticks. I then further enhanced them with faux leather, burned with a wood burning tool and added free motion machine stitching.
This is the first one that I created. So many people told me that it looked like burned wood that I decided I should do my next one as a fallen tree trunk.
I needed some practice with the wood burning tool so I used the bottom book to try that out as a sample. It looked OK so I covered it with faux leather as well and will use it as a display for the top book.
Here’s my tree trunk book. These were definitely something that I hadn’t tried before and I really enjoyed embellishing them. The carving part, not so much. So these are probably the last carved books I will create. These are some of the photos that I took a couple of weeks ago. I finally got through most of them and edited etc. Nice to have that chore done 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Ruth Lane Art 
That’s a new one on us so we googled Guy’s work – it’s amazing isn’t it?
Your books look so good that it’s hard to believe it’s your first effort at this skill. The embellishment of both books is so fascinating that your photos were looked at many times.
Thanks Lyn! Guy’s work is awesome, isn’t it? I wish you could see the books in person, it is hard to really see them from a photo.
Your books are fabulously sculptural and totally different from Guy’s mountainous creations. I too saw charred wood, before reading your text, very realistic even if unintended. I love how you have bound your ‘tree trunk’ book, it really pushes the theme.
If you burned your faux leather what material did you use?
Thanks Antje! The bindings were fun and really added to the tree theme. The leather was made with paper and paint. The wood burning tool was used for the ‘gauffered’ edges – the line drawing of the mountains and the branches on the edge of the pages.
Ah ha, back to crushed paper for the leather. I have a pointed wood burning tool which I’ve never used on wood, fabric yes, wood no! Now I’ll have to try it on paper. Thanks Ruth
Antje, the edges of the book were coated with a couple of layers of matte medium before I burned the edges. Not sure what would have happened on plain paper.
These are terrific Ruth! So full of texture and depth. I can see why the carving part wouldn’t be too much fun.
Thanks Marilyn, I was pleased with how they turned out. But the carving was definitely not fun.
These are fabulous – really different and an imaginative way to interpret “cut paper”. How did you carve the books?
Thanks Kim! It was definitely different than my classmates interpretations. I used a power tool, an all purpose cutter that has different blades to use. Essentially, it vibrates a sharp blade and cuts through stuff. It was really hard on my hands and arms.