This week, students at Elizabethton High School experimented with the art of book making from recycled materials, taught by artist Bailey Earith on Wednesday and Thursday.
“Projects like this allow them to free their creativity and it’s really fun to see what they come up with,” said art teacher Lisa Malone.
The books were made from recycled manila folders assembled accordion-style to make a fold out visual and textual masterpiece. Students used materials from magazines, scraps from around their homes, leftover paint, strings, photos, ribbons, stickers and music sheets.
“Materials are completely recycled, so there is no cost to reproduce them,” said Earith. “They can use materials they would easily find at home. I like to bring projects that they could reproduce without being limited by finances or materials.
“I like this project because we get to do it exactly the way we want to,” said Kaylee Ingram.
Earith said they can leave white space to use the books as journals, autograph books and drawing or poetry portfolios.
“They were encouraged to use their own photos, drawings, and writing to fill the pages,” she said.
After assembling the paper for the book backing, the first step is putting small dots of paint on the pages and then using old hotel key cards to smear the colors from one end to the other, creating a color-washed background. Then, they snipped, tied, glued and layered a variety of materials to make their unique books.
The books displayed a variety of themes like holidays, strange celebrities, Chinese art or nature, but most had no theme at all.
“I’m just going with it,” said Joey Schell.
Slade Nakoff said, “I’m putting random things on paper–that’s my theme.”
However they approached the project, student response was very positive.
Aidan Taylor said this project gave him a creative space in which he could express himself, and Zoe Burrow said she felt that it allowed her to be adventurous.
Earith’s classes were funded through a grant that Malone received earlier this semester.