ALICE - A Collaboration of a Different Kind

Hello to you all, Virginia here with a post about Alice on what hopefully will be quite a big day for me (my birthday the big (gulp) four zero - but we won't mention that). 

Alice has always been my favourite children's story, it was the first story I ever read with no pictures in, at the age of 7, it was only years later that I found all the beautifully illustrated versions.  This project has been twelve months in the making, and it has taken a huge effort to finally complete it, but complete it I have. 

This is the final article.  

It started out as a children's board book, in fact this goes beyond upcycling, this little delight was actually saved from landfill.  Why? well this particular board book was of the 'jigsaw' variety, you know the ones that have mini jigsaws on each page, the problem is often the pieces get lost or don't go back in the book as securely as they did when first bought.  This particular 'donation' was given to a charity shop minus every single jigsaw, so there was no chance a parent would purchase it for their child.  However my Mum (who works in the charity shop) had a feeling I could probably do something with it and so this story starts.

Now I am a Mum who adores spending time with my 11 year old son and in the summer I'm fortunate enough to be able to spend less time at work (I work less hours in the school holidays) and more time at home.  Each summer we have grand ideas (or maybe I have grand ideas and he just rolls his eyes) that we are going to be really creative during our time off together.  However, one thing often stops us, his idea of creative and my idea of creative are extremely different (he wants to build lego and I want to paint in a book) so this was going to be a challenge for both of us.

We set too trying to find a middle ground and we came up with making an Alice themed altered book complete with our own characters and a new story. 

We sanded the book, then painted the same with gesso followed by a blue colour wash to provide a base, then we painted some water colour paper and stamped paint and ink over it, none of this was precise, it was fun and it was messy and this we both 'got'. 

Then said 11 year old sat down with the original story book (complete with illustrations) and tried to use it as inspiration for some new drawings, we talked about the film, the original story and the general ideas that came somewhere in the middle and then he was off, creating absolute gems in a large pad of paper. 

He got frustrated with the 'people' drawings and so I was left with the task of creating Alice and the Red Queen - that'll be me that can't draw at all.  But hey I'd encouraged him so he enouraged me.  After we'd completed our drawings, I scanned them into the computer using a black and white text image setting (rather than a photo setting) so I didn't get any colour issues from the paper and then I had some blank images to tackle the book with. 

Here are two of the characters he created I think you should be able to guess who they are

All absolutely unique and perfect in their own right, I printed them onto cardstock, cut them out and coloured them (one of his least favourite tasks), I mounted them on card and painted paper and then it sat on my desk gathering dust for almost a year.  Until this summer holiday where we decided to complete what we had started.  We both chatted about how the story could unfold, using the characters we'd produced and with the inspiration of the Olympics we were off.  Having a fabulous time creating the finished project.  And here it is finally finished

We had such good fun completing this together it will be something that we both cherish for a very long time.  So the next time you fancy being 'partners in crime' with an arty project and having a go at something collaborative, why not ask your children or grandchildren to get involved, you'll be amazed at their imagination, what they can draw and how fabulous it can look with a project like this. 

Comments

[Carmen]

Oh Virginia what a special project. And so gorgeous too - what a little artist you have there!

Am cursing myself too - if you only knew how many of those books have gone in the recycle bin in this house!

[Mandy]

I loved hearing about you and your son working together and the finished project is fab.

[Joanna]

WONDERFUL Virginia! Fantastic collaboration and I really love your son's version of the characters :) Clever you to use one of those jigsaw-less books, they've already got an integral frame. Great idea.

This will always be a very precious memento of time spent together.

x

[Leanne]

Gorgeous!
What a touching idea xx

[Eleanor]

Fabulous, a priceless result for special hours in the best company.
E
xx

[Lynne]

Wonderful and what a treasure of memories you have.