Why Book Making And Cheap Canvas Should Be Illegal.....(well, one is...)

There's a reason for that grinning skull in bright red.....read on....

Minor Rant Alert dear readers!

This falls under the heading of *Stupid Things Anne Does With Little Thought Attached*.

I apologize for bad pun in the post title, but dang it, it was just sooooo tempting! Without further ado, my experiences this week with:

1. The making of a small sketchbook

~~and~~

2. Cheap canvas.

While finishing up my ArtLab #1 class, I was also trying my hand at a self made sketch journal, and I had instructions (take note here) for an EASY, TEN MINUTE JOURNAL.

Um hmmmm. Why go for EASY??? 

The fact I had absolutely no experience in putting a book together did not slow me down one bit. I wanted a nice book, with covers made from canvas panels, collaged from papers we exchanged during our class, and the panels were sort of mirror images of each other and reflected the course I was just finishing. Then whenever I used it, I would have fond memories of putting the last touches on it, the last day of class.

HA.

It fought me all the way. I happened to take it out of the vise where it was drying, for some reason, only to discover that the canvas panels were way too close together and I could not open the book. Okay, about 2 inches, but that doesn't allow sketching or journaling or collage, does it? So I hurriedly grabbed a palette knife and got the heavy watercolor paper OFF the covers as best I could and was left with something that looked like this:

All the papers used in the collage were from our paper swap during the Art Lab Class...even the ones that repaired the insides.....

I decided to let it sit a day or two before retackling the issue. Now I have a nice book with a book marker and little dangly things that will no doubt get in the way, but it OPENS and LOOKS GOOD.

Finished book.....whew..

 

And the dangly bits.....  :-)

End of horror story one.

Story two; cheap canvas.

Occasionally I succumb to purchasing a pack of *bargain canvas* because I want a particular size, can't find the good stuff locally and don't want to wait on an order. Now, I am not so thick in the skull that I expect perfection, but here was the label:

....Soooooooo, I did not exactly expect THIS:

That thing at the bottom? That is the archival back stapled canvas....in some universe, just not mine. The top canvas is the one I reworked into something, well, canvas-like.

I ended up with a full morning spent pulling staples (cuss), restretching canvas (cuss), adding a canvas tightener to the LIMP fabric (cuss cuss), adding gesso to whatever slicker-than-you-know-what paint was on there and finally going to town and getting the soothing combo of crunchy Cheetos and a diet Pepsi.

Am I the only one this happens to???

There is no moral to this story. Just read and laugh. Oh how I love being an artist........SOME days!

Now go make art! (on good canvas!)

Pax....