Rating: 
Summary: amazing inspiration for experienced artists
Review: This book goes far beyond "eye candy". It's a visual delight with page after page of juicy and intriguing examples of book ideas and altered books. If you're a beginner, you may be frustrated by "how'd they DO that?" questions that could never be answered in just one book. Instead, the author has filled this book with vivid, rich and dazzlingly innovative examples of what you can do with an altered book. Intermediate and especially experienced paper artists will leap from one inspiring page to the next, saying, "Ooooh, what if I mixed this idea with that one and...," in lightning-fast brainstorming that this book can spark. I highly, highly recommend it if you want raw inspiration by artists with originality that soars. (Holly, we want MORE of this!)
Rating:
Summary: Serious Eye Candy
Review: This book is filled with lovely pictures of altered artwork. Although it's not a how-to book, it does include some brief descriptions of various techniques used in altered art, including one by Melissa McCobb Hubbell on digital artwork. It's about time someone thought to include this in a technique listing, since most of us are now using our computers for some aspect of our art. If you're looking for a book on basics, this probably isn't for you. If you want something that gives you lots of visuals to spin off into your own ideas, it's well worth the cover price.
Rating:
Summary: Not quite like the other AB books.
Review: This is more of a tastefully done showcase for a few of the better-known AB artists as well as for some artists' work we don't always get to see. The emphasis is not heavy in the how-to department though the text and limited examples could very solidly start a less seasoned book alterer/art journaler in many different directions, provided one possesses the initiative to try to ride without training wheels.What I appreciate most about this book is the diversity of featured artists, placing the rubberstamp and ephemera-focused art alongside the "artier" or more painterly collage and traditional book art. I also enjoy seeing book altering and art journaling represented as inter-related, as the mediums are for myself personally, though I can certainly understand why artists who maintain more of a boundary between the two mediums might object to precisely that as being too inclusive. Books like this make me welcome the publishing market's newfound determination to "cash in" on the altered books craze, as it increases their ready availability without always having to seek out the harder to find and less commerical though certainly no more or less valid sources of inspiration to be found in the zines and independently published works that originally founded (or at least crystalized and helped popularize) the current movement. I wouldn't mind seeing something like this turn into a series of books featuring not only newer, different artists but also tracking the continued development of the ones featured here. I may be contributing to the selling-out of the altered book, but I can't help liking this book because I don't neccessarily need more how-to information or another Yahoo group or to feel that I'm part of a book altering community--I just want more access to more artists' work, and that's what this book provided.
Rating:
Summary: Not quite like the other AB books.
Review: This is more of a tastefully done showcase for a few of the better-known AB artists as well as for some artists' work we don't always get to see. The emphasis is not heavy in the how-to department though the text and limited examples could very solidly start a less seasoned book alterer/art journaler in many different directions, provided one possesses the initiative to try to ride without training wheels. What I appreciate most about this book is the diversity of featured artists, placing the rubberstamp and ephemera-focused art alongside the "artier" or more painterly collage and traditional book art. I also enjoy seeing book altering and art journaling represented as inter-related, as the mediums are for myself personally, though I can certainly understand why artists who maintain more of a boundary between the two mediums might object to precisely that as being too inclusive. Books like this make me welcome the publishing market's newfound determination to "cash in" on the altered books craze, as it increases their ready availability without always having to seek out the harder to find and less commerical though certainly no more or less valid sources of inspiration to be found in the zines and independently published works that originally founded (or at least crystalized and helped popularize) the current movement. I wouldn't mind seeing something like this turn into a series of books featuring not only newer, different artists but also tracking the continued development of the ones featured here. I may be contributing to the selling-out of the altered book, but I can't help liking this book because I don't neccessarily need more how-to information or another Yahoo group or to feel that I'm part of a book altering community--I just want more access to more artists' work, and that's what this book provided.
Rating:
Summary: Some books are for more than reading...
Review: While the art of altering books has been around for awhile, it is just now becoming a creative trend, and deservedly so. This is an art where you can release your innermost creative desires to express whatever you feel onto the pages of a book. ALTERED BOOKS, COLLABORATIVE JOURNALS, AND OTHER ADVENTURES IN BOOKMAKING will help to make your journey a little easier if you are beginning and give you inspiration if you're more advanced. The full-color photographs are beautiful and give you a little taste of the variety of things that you can do with this medium. Chapters include ideas for type of books to work with, things you can do in your book (collages, niches, transfers, ink, etc.), and goes on to more involved projects like rebinding your own books and joining round robins. All in all, you will gean a wealth of information from this book from both it's gorgeous pictures and fantastic ideas.
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