If you’ve visited here before you’ll have to noticed two of my favourite things are words and colors.
So dying a dictionary seemed the obvious thing for me to do.
30 years ago this month I began high school.
30 years ago? Lordy!
Equipped with the essentials dictated by the school, I now owned a Pocket Oxford Dictionary.
(At over 1000 pages and a good 2 inches thick, the average pocket size of an eleven year old child negated its title.)
Nonetheless this book has travelled with me through the decades.
Battered, dog-eared, with scribbled notes in the margins here n there…
… the spine went first but now it’s cover has separated totally from its papery wordfilled heart.
In it’s new incarnation – a colorful version of the former – it will one day become collage ingredients.
As an aside, I sometimes catch a glance of myself in my art room, as if from an outsiders perspective. I’m ironing torn, stained scraps of paper. Phrases like ‘not doing anyone any harm’ in bemused but sympathetic tones echo in my head. I smile. They just don’t understand. Anyway, I do it cos I have to and it makes me happy. Nuff said.
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Mixy's Art Blog 
I envy you that drive. I get too distracted by too many things. Oooh look a shiny….oooh, a chicken…ohhh pretty yarn….
(she says sitting in front of the computer, in her gardening clothes, while staring at the mess from rearranging (again!) the craft space….
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lol that sounds like me too!! these things I post are spread over days/weeks in real life. Interspersed with hours of sitting, pondering, procrastination & wonder! (think life’s more rewarding this way than by being efficient…. though I’ll probly never find out for sure!)
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Yes – doing art because it makes you happy is reason enough … what a great way to upcycle, even give homage to, a book from your childhood! Very appropriate for you given that you love words and colour … =D
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Brilliant use of a discarded book – I have played around in similar ways with Telephone Directories and Yellow Pages, both of which are almost obsolete now…
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oh how fabulous! My parents were real hoarders (growing up in the war, conditioned not to throw out anything that could have a use…) I vividly remember a huge pile of phone directories from my childhood, almost up to the ceiling. Sadly when mum moved house last time they went to the recycling along with loads of other stuff I’d now see as art materials!
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Ooooh I just love what you’ve explored here! Just did a project exploring painting on old pages from books, magazines, etc. I even saw some lovely ones framed in the change room of a shop recently. Yours would look wonderful framed!
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Big thanks for the lovely comment – like the framing idea too. With so many pages I’m def give that a go!
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What a fantastic project, you are soooo playful and inspirational.
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thank you my friend! 🙂
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oh, i love it! so i dyed the dictionary ….OF COURSE! what else would a reasonable person do 😉 i hereby award you audacious artist of the day!
ps i iron paper too, to dry the brusho faster and flatten handmade paper and my clothes will perish before they feel the heat…i also have a flat iron my husband made into an anvil, far better use 😉
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lol yeh – of course!!! 😀 love that you understand!
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