You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘the tallest handmade book in the world’ tag.

i always feel like such an ass when i got extended periods of time without blogging or checking out other people’s blogs but the beginning of the school year is beyond insane and i’m not the courageous and omnipotent mult-tasker i used to be.  in short, home school kicks my arse.  and then it’s weeks later…

my arty to-do list is sooooo huge, but here is my plan (in response to email inquiries, some i’ve responded to and some i have not):

  1. catch up on the tallest book in the world project (two people did not include email addresses with their pages, by the way, so if you didn’t hear from me that’s probably why.)  MUST finish this soon!  this means: finish my pages, do the dedication/thank you/participants page.  make covers.  bind it.  post it up for auction (after emailing everyone whose contact info i have to announce that my head has now been removed from my bum and things are proceeding, like seven years late, or so…)
  2. catch up on the zine and get it published for all of us!  i didn’t forget or drop the ball, it just takes a bazillion hours and after the loss of my computer i lost my momentum.  promise i’ll get it done, just can’t promise when.
  3. create some of the arty tutorials i’ve been asked about.  more on this later… have to figure out where i’ll start.
  4. catch up on the 4.524 unread emails i have in my inbox (for some reason i initially typed “undead emails” and got a comical vision of zombie messages clawing their way out of my monitor — i think i need a nap!)
  5. initiate my next give-away — i already have a small pile of goodies, just haven’t gotten around to photographing or posting it (i wasn’t able to move my left arm for over a week, so that has something to do with it, but i’m fine now — it was just a pinched nerve, two misaligned vertebrae, a dislocated rib, a wrecked rotator cuff and a grumpy handful of tendons is all).

those are the main ones.  just a few, but they mostly all big and cumbersome and scary due to lack of time.  next item, post some of my most recent creations (that’s easy!)…

this one is the second in my keeper series, called the keeper of beach and bone.  i like bones and beachiness.

assemblage, frozen charlotte, taxidermy eye, animcal teeth, shells, coral, alicia caudle, keeper series, beach and bone

and some side shots (i’m clearly obsessed with frozen charlottes, victorian era doll parts, bones, teeth, taxidermy eyes, shells and other such things):

the keeper of beach and bone, assemblage, alicia caudle

and…  (i haven’t decided if i should leave the bottle of teeth as a removable element or a permanent aspect — it’s currently removable because i like interaction, but the husby says that’s a not-great idea…)

frozen charlotte assemblage, taxidermy, bones, animal teeth assemblage

the keep of beach and bone is now available in my shop: alicia’s art on the altered bits site >>

next, i’ve been obsessed with art dolls lately and have finished four (then started a fifth and sixth).  this one is flying off to the other side of the continent next week.  her name is…  actually, i don’t know what her name is yet.  i’ll let you know when she tells me… but she is the first of my waxen dolls.

waxen encaustic art doll, hand made doll, alicia caudle

(i’m still a horrible photographer!)  her head is from a victorian era doll and i made the rest with lace, fabric, embellishments, found objects, wax, acrylic, and all sorts of other goodness.

waxen, art doll, encaustic, alicia caudle

this little gal’s arms and legs move and i totally love her stripey lace-bottomed leggings… so very alicia!  her arms are tied on with little bows.

waxen art doll, encaustic doll, victorian era doll head, vintage doll head, crackle, stripey socks

i’ll post more of my dolls this week.

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i had an idea about six months ago but being the ever-so-busy girl that i am, coupled with my proclivity to procrastinate, and sprinkling a little bit of “frequently side-tracked” on top, i’m only just now sharing.  i kinda blame our dear friend seth apter for the inadvertent nudge — i have stacks on the brain as of late and this could be a HUGE stack…  introducing: the tallest handmade book in the world {project}.

the tallest handmade book in the world project, art journal
i really have no idea what the tallest handmade book in the world measures in at, but know it’s more than a foot.  probably more than even three feet but i’ll just pretend it’s not that tall ’cause i want ours to be the tallest.

overview: if you want to play, create one or more page and send it to me (see address below).  i will bind the whole thing together as the pages come in.  once it’s completed, i will arrange an exhibition under all of our names.  how fun that will be!  i will also create a little zine-type publication in case anyone wants to see all of the amazing work that went into it with all artist names and contact information (this will be desperate from the altered bits zine).  my goal is 2 to 3 feet tall, but i’d LOVE for it to be as tall as me (i’m short — only 5’2″ or a tad less, shhh!).

the point: once the book is complete and it has been exhibited, i would like to auction it off somehow and have all proceeds go to a non-profit group of our choosing.  i’m all about “art for a cause”!  my personal thoughts on this are something having to do with children, art, aspergers/autism as these are things i live with on a daily basis in my life as a artist mama to a super cool boy… but i’m open to ALL suggestions and we can vote on it.  in my dreamiest dream of all, i would like to start a FREE or donation only, non-profit, weekly art group for children with special needs who could express themselves via the arts.  all i would need is a free or cheap space (which i may have found this week) and kid-friendly arty supplies.

specs: size-wise, the book pages will be 4×6″.  this means you’ll take a piece of 8″ x 6″ paper or fabric or whatever (preferably thick enough to be sturdy and not floppy but something that can be bound with needle and binding thread easily) and fold it in half to be four sides measuring 4×6″.  like this:

handmade book page setup guidelines
this may be the difficult part of many of us, but pages should be fairly unthick, at least at the binding seam.  some embellishments and things are okay but it shouldn’t have an super thick or heavy parts to make the binding easier.  you can paint, collage, stamp, do anything you want out of fabric or paper or unsharp metal or or whatever you wish as long as i can get binding holes in it.  this can be in any style or topic you desire — treat it like an art journal, draw or paint a portrait, doodle, print out some of your photography on thick paper, do a collage, write a poem on a colorful background, make a miniature quilt — this is totally your thing and all submissions will be accepted as long as they are not cruel or inappropriate.

this is how the binding holes will likely be placed:

where i will put the binding holes
if you would like to play, please just make sure all four sides are used on your paper (i’m using watercolor paper) so that there aren’t blank spots.  you can team up with someone if you think four sides is too much for you, or you can send more pages if you desire.  let’s see how tall we can get this baby!

i will take donations of binding thread, too.  i only have black but maybe it would be cool to use multiple colors?  if you have a spare foot or a couple yards of your favorite color(s) and want to pop it into your envelope, i would be SOOO very grateful!

if you want to play, let me know either by leaving a comment here or emailing me (hi at altered bits dot com).  feel free to share this with any of your friends that you think may be interested in giving something back to an organization through doing the art that we all love… or trying to achieve a guiness world record height of a handmade book (doubt that really exists).  feel free to use the image above (if interested, remind me to make a smaller side-bar iteration for your blog/website).  children submissions welcome too if you have arty kiddos who want to play.  my little dude wants to draw four monsters.  here is some of his art (i’ve posted this before — it was actually a mum and finn collaboration we did when he was 6 that he calls “two birds”):

two birds by mum and finn, children's art, collaboration
as for the covers, i can do those or if anyone is interested, let me know and we can see what we can work out.

i hope you’ll like to play!  and if you like this idea, pass it on!

UPDATE:

here is a small sidebar image if you want to use it to link to this post.  i’ll update with my PO Box address tomorrow (just reserved and paid for it):

the tallest handmade book in the world collaboration project

right-mouse click to save and upload to your blog if you’d like to use this.

also, to clarify (regarding a few emails i’ve received) it doesn’t have to be totally flat, just not super bumpy/chunky.  the page i started today, for example, is on super thick watercolor paper and the front side has a vintage book cover on it.  i only have to sew through the watercolor paper to bind it.  i think the other side will have glass on it and be a door.  so it doesn’t have to be just flat work the paper/fabric/page if you want to add to it — i just need to be able to bind it.  🙂  i’ll post photos one of these days once i’m done so you can see.

mailing address:

alicia
altered bits
PO Box 83928
Portland, OR  97283
USA

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