compact note: Altered Book: March

I received the first book in my altered book round robin!

The book is a collection of essays regarding women and changing roles in society. The cover was altered along the theme of women and independence, and it seemed to make the most sense to continue along that theme. I debated the best way to go about it, I liked the idea of playing with fashion throughout history, but couldn't think of a great way to execute it. So, I decided to focus instead on influential women throughout history.

I bought translucent vellum and printed black and white portraits of some of my favorite powerful female characters.

I had randomly purchased this hardware-patterned scrapbooking paper, and I loved the idea of pairing this traditionally masculine pattern with the photos of these strong ladies.

I wanted the photos to be featured like portraits, so used a circular punch to create a "frame" from either the book page or the additional paper. I used the patterned transparency to embellish the frame.

Also, I am a huge nerd and overly obsessed with detail. For as many of the portraits as I could, I tried to pair the woman with an appropriate word in the text. On the left is Rosalind Franklin, the woman whose work in X-ray crystallography led to discovery of the double helix structure of DNA (although the credit went to Watson and Crick). Her portrait frames the word "scientific." Ella Fitzgerald frames "music" and Frida Kahlo "artistic."