I mentioned yesterday that I love checking out a lot of different art books from the library. I have also mentioned in the past that I’m really interested in altered art and collage. So it’s probably no surprise to anyone that I got a bunch of altered art books from the library recently.

3 books that I’d recommend from this bunch are:

• Altered Books Workshop by Bev Brazelton. This one covers over a dozen different techniques for doing altered book art. It’s pretty basic and good for beginners but could be helpful to established altered art artists too. Plus it has great pictures that I felt were inspiring to create my own art off of.
• Altered Art: Techniques for Creating Altered Books, Boxes, Cards & More by Terry Taylor. This one is great because it offers information about how to alter a lot of different types of objects so you can learn to repurpose many different things into art.
• Collage, Assemblage, and Altered Art: Creating Unique Images and Objects by Diane Maurer-Mathison. This emphasizes collage art which is something that I really enjoy. There are a lot of great gallery pictures here to look at for inspiration.

I’m a big fan of altered art books. Do you have any others to recommend to me?

Tags: altered art, altered art books, art books, book recommendation, book review, books, collage art, kathryn vercillo, reading

I love to check art books out of the library. They’re too pricey to buy most of the time but they’re also really inspiring so it’s great to get them for a few weeks to get a creative burst and then return them.

One of the creative books that I just checked out is called Fabric Art Workshop. It’s a really interesting book designed for people who are interested in doing art with fabric.

The book is set up in a cool style. It lists a type of fabric technique and describes what it is. Then it gives a few creative tips for how to use it. There are dozens of pages like this so you get a really good overview of all of the different techniques that you can use for creating fabric art.

Some of the techniques that are covered in this book include the use of paintstiks, monoprinting, adding sparkle with foiling, screenprinting and burning the edges of fabric. Some of the more creative techniques include “shaving cream marbling” and using unique fabrics like angelina fiber and gossamer silk.

This isn’t the easiest book to use if you’ve never worked with fabrics before (although it does have some good step-by-step tips for some of the techniques) but if you’ve done some fabric work (like quilting) in the past then it’s a great way to enhance what you already know.

Tags: art, art books, book recommendation, book review, books, creativity, kathryn vercillo, reading