Nify little books

I made this nifty little book out of one large sheet of painted paper, cut into strips. The painting was done with acrylic inks with both wet and dry brush techniques. The book pattern (as well as the painting inspiration) came from this delicious book:

I wish I'd taken a picture of the painting before I cut and folded it. The strips are accordion folded and taped together into one big circle. I wasn't very happy with the big painting, but once I cut it up it looked so much better. I'm finding this over and over. When in doubt, cut it into little pieces! Now what will I do with it? Write in it? Give it to someone? I love to make stuff for the sake of making stuff. For the thrill or challenge of a new technique. For the simple process of making a mark on paper. But then what? There's really only so much stuff I can cram in my studio. Maybe it will turn into mail art.

I also made this cool little book after taking the 21 Secrets class "Paint Writing".

I really love it, but it's pretty much exactly like the model provided in the tutorial. This kind of thing can really bog me down. I don't like to copy. I feel a pressure to make it my own, add my own style. But I don't feel like I'm there yet as an artist. I'm trying all kinds of things all the time but don't feel I have a unique take on anything. If I do it exactly like the teacher does it I feel like I'm cheating. I also set myself up for disappointment because mine might not be as good. (welcome to elementary school art in a nut shell! is this why it's taken me 43 years to feel good about the stuff I make?). BUT, I'm not sure how to adapt the tutorial until I've followed the steps. So I'm giving myself permission to copy, and to give full credit for where/how/who I learned it from. And sure enough, as soon as this project was done I started finding all kinds of ways to incorporate pieces of what I learned into other projects. And I still like this little book even if it's not original or unique. So thanks to 21 Secrets teacher Silky Hart for this cool project lesson. You can find her work here: http://expressivehart.wordpress.com/