In July my friend and I had a great couple of days Gel plate printing, cutting and gluing turning a babies board book into a sketchbook. We got the idea from a free online class by Drew Steinbrecher called “Build your creativity: board book basics”

The premise was quite simple- the board books create a smooth flat surface and sturdy backgrounds for creating collage work, and Drew’s class gives practical tips on how to prepare the books and make them easier to use for collage work.

Here is a video walkthrough of my board book:

In my book I used a mixture of found papers and gel printed papers, incorporating birds and nature which are common themes in my recent work. I decided to use the book to record some notes and phrases I’d captured whilst doing some research into the importance and impact of rituals. This YouTube video is where I originally heard a lot of the quotes that resonated with me.