I don't have issues. I have a subscription.

I have a good reason for the carnage below, but just looking at the picture, it occurs to me that someone might think I have anger issues.I do have to admit there's a twisted pleasure in cutting through plastic figurines. (Did you know the friction of the Dremel cutting wheel heats up the plastic? Keep this in mind when you're pulling off the scrap bits.)

The legs are now attached to a body, of sorts. I can't say much else, because The Husband reads my blog and it's a piece I'm making for him. He's probably figured out what I'm making, even now, 'cause he's one of those disturbingly smart people.

On to my other issues. No more carnage, I promise.

I thought I finished my artist book. But I couldn't keep my hands off the cover, so I gave in. I added Golden regular molding paste and acrylic paint, the last of my copper mesh pockets, and some scrapbook stencil letters. The paint mixture I just kind of eyeballed; I used eggshell white, plus Golden yellow oxide and nickel azo gold, with a drop of brown to make it earthier. I washed the edges with Michael de Meng's secret recipe grungy color.

The pocket was partly covered with a plastic lace doily and brushed with patina. You can still see a little of the scallop-y pattern, even though the copper is folded.

The stencil letters used to be shiny, but I let them sit in a paper bowl with patina solution until I got some corrosion. Ooh, you should've seen it -- the solution wasn't doing much of anything at first, but eventually the stencil surfaces started to bubble and fizz, and when I picked up the bowl, it was warm! Hoo boy. The reaction stopped when I popped the letters into clean water. Let's just call that my contribution to global warming.

Next, I cut down some bookmarks, then stamped and wrote the lyrics of "Someday" on them.
On the back, a favorite stamp of a sketch by da Vinci: it's Cleopatra. (You can see her just a little bit through the copper mesh, if you go back to the previous photo.)
And on the front, the lyrics. I decided to add Alice only because I thought to have her looking at the earth above and behind her. If she'd just been looking at the lyrics, that would've been a little too precious. I like the stamping because each figure is looking off and away to a world that no longer exists.

I finished off the inner covers with a mottled green paper, which worked especially well for the back cover and last page. It makes the letters and gate on the patina'd copper stand out better. The book is now sitting in a box a friend gave me. The box will make a convenient traveling case, since I'm going to bring it to Artfest and show the result to LK Ludwig, in whose class I began this project.

If you're going to Artfest, ask me to show you the book!