The Album from Judy's workshop

The main thing we got done in Judy Wilkenfeld's workshop was construction of the entire album and getting that finished.  That took two of the three days in the workshop.  We did the cover first, then the inside pages.  While glue dried, and others caught up, we learned many techniques on how to age photos, fabric, paper, brass findings, etc.  Judy is full of ideas and techniques for putting together an album that is truly a work of art -- a family keepsake, if you wish.

On Friday, we did the album cover, start to finish.  This is the finished album cover.  We constructed it from scratch, the entire album from book board, book cloth, mull, foam, (I used) dark brown velvet, special papers and lots of glue.  Judy taught us how to age the brass findings that you see on the cover here.

We constructed the signatures (2) that went inside the book using the special papers, book cloth and book board.  The signatures were then bound to the large spine of the book using waxed linen and a simple pamphlet stitch.  Lots of space was left for the addition of pictures, fabrics, metal pieces, etc.

Here you can see the special papers from my stash that I used to cover the pages and the inside of the covers.  We aged them, scruffed the edges and did some stitching, too, to make the page look old.

Here you can see the aging of photos.  It is possible to use inks to age the photo leaving the faces highlighted.  Wonderful technique!  The edges of the photos are bound with copper tape that has been aged using Novacan.  Great stuff for aging metals.  The piece of fabric on the right was aged using walnut ink sprayed on it then quick-dried with a heat gun which melted the edges of the fabric containing the polyester fibers.

As you can see, I am not done.  I wanted to gather more items I had here at home to finish the inside pages.  You just can't take it all with you when you do a workshop.  Pity!!