Layered Houses

  

I finally finished my collage house concertina style book. 

It opens up showcasing houses patched together 

with bits and pieces of my decorated paper. 

It can be displayed completely open so you can see its whole story,

or so you can see each two page spread. 

I am still not sure what the stories are of these little houses, 

but I am sure that they were inspired by my recent trip to Cuba

where I loved the aged beauty of the buildings.

 They seemed to have layers and layers of stories.  

 I started the layering of this piece by tea staining the watercolour paper 

and then drawing patterned lines on it.  

I added acrylic paint to the background, and the lines almost disappeared.  

I made the houses and moved them around many times before they found their final resting place.  

In the end the torn tear drop shapes were not part of the inside pages.

The covers are made of book board covered with painted black paper. 

The front cover has this little house.....

while the back is decorated with the torn tear drop shapes.

And to give you the scale of this piece - here I am holding the finished book.