Altered Book Cover | Finnabair Creative Team

Hello wonderful creatives! 

I know many people - even artists - balk at cutting up a book. To them, books are sacred. But as a person who haunts yard sales, flea markets, old book stores, library sales, and the like, I can tell you: there are a lot of old books out there looking for homes, and the majority are going nowhere fast.

I feel it is better to keep a book forever on the shelf (or in a box), unread and unnoticed, or give it new life by using its components to make a book that's a work of art.

At the very outset, its a good idea to prep your hard book cover with gesso.

If you have a cloth bound book like the one I've used here, you will probably not want to prep your book cover using gesso or paint. Also, if you want to use the title of your book, you may not want to gesso it - it's all up to your creative intuition. I have embellished across it to create an altered look.

I started with putting the metal embellishments, Art Pebbles, some findings & lace trims that seemed to match the composition in my mind. I created some mould designs using air dry clay.

Once I was happy with the composition, I decided to colour all the metal bits and pieces using White Heavy Gesso. I really like its consistency and the way it gave a full coverage on the metals and added a bit of texture with just 1/2 coatings.

Once done, I glued down the entire composition using Heavy Body Gel as an adhesive.

Also, I mixed some glue with the Art Stones in different sizes and generously added in all the creases of my design to blend it. The Heavy Body Gel helps create dimensional texture holding very high peaks.

Once it was dried completely, the next step was to add colours! My idea was to produce a rich rust patina look that would give it a weathered & aged appearance.

I added coffee stains at varying concentration as my first layer, followed by some Red Rust Paste and Fire RubyArt Alchemy Metallique Wax.

There's no wrong way to use it! Beautiful, metallic, beeswax-based paste which will turn your artwork into a real treasure while adding amazing, rich, metal-like finish to most surfaces.

I wanted to highlight the details of the mould designs so I wipe off quickly all the excess of the waxes with a baby wipe. It stays permanent once dried completely.

Finally, I added some Blue Patina Paste in the creases and details, following by some splatters.

I also tied the book using coffee stained and stamped fabric piece.

I have prepared a video for you demonstrating the entire process to show you how spectacular effect can be achieved in no-time with the fabulous Finnabair products!

I hope I inspired you feel adventurous with some book art. Don't feel too shy to give old forgotten books a brand new art life!

Keep creating!

Warm hugs,

Bipasha