Old book, new art.


This was a lady bird book. A 'well loved Tale 'from Series 606d Written and Illustrated by Vera Southgate, as was most of this series in the 60's and 70's.


It came from my Mr's childhood home with a whole lot of other kids books late last year. This one had only a back cover, also there were quite a few pages missing and was a bit ripped on others. I was charmed with these illustrations they are so expressive with a touch of whimsy and humour. Mr was reluctant to let it go despite the damage and I suggested we frame some as artworks. He said Ok.


Today I finally did it. After a huge Spring Clean of the reading room/study I got to work creating a new artwork for the room. I had this big box frame out in the shed it is designed to hold two 12 x12 inch Layouts. I carefully removed the rest of the pages from the book and selected the ones that best told the story, then I trimmed them down to 10 1/2 cm wide which was shaving about 1cm from each. I mounted them with a small piece of score tape in each corner, adhering them to the backing matt board. 


This is not what I originally had in mind but I'm so happy with how it turned out and it didn't cost anything! Yay. Though now it is hanging I think that it need a brightly coloured frame instead of this white washed look. It was very hard to photograph front on with lots of reflection but I hope you can get a good idea from these side on images. While I was researching who the illustrator was I did find that you can buy copies of these pages as prints from Ladybird UK if you are interested.

Comments

  1. this is awesome Tammy. I love the idea of something with a memory being repurposed. this is gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Gorgeous! I am so happy with how it turned out, though with such beautiful illustration as a basis to work with it would be hard to make it look bad. :)

      Delete
  2. Lovely. What a great way of preserving the beautiful illustrations.
    A bright red frame would look good. x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Zara, I was thinking red or orange :) I'm not sure what colour that wall it is hanging on will end up being either. :)

      Delete
  3. What an interesting talking point this piece will make ... personally I like the way it's framed, as one's eye is drawn immediately to the pictures and not the frame.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Sandi! Thats actually a good point as we will probably end up injecting some bolder colour into the room when the wall gets painted, the white would pop against that too.

      Delete
  4. It looks great T!!
    I love it with the white frame and mat, your eye goes straight to the beautiful illustrations with no distractions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thanks sweet. Hopefully you will get to see it IRL one day! x

      Delete
  5. Looks so fantastic. A great way to keep hold of some those memories. The illustrations in the Ladybird books were just superb.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Tanya. There was definitely some great artists working on kids books through the 60's and 70's and they do hold a certain charm. Maybe its just my nostalgia making them look so sweet. :)

      Delete
  6. What a fabulous idea! Adding it to the ever increasing list of crafty things to do! :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks so much for stopping by and letting me know you were here. x
Have a happy Day.