Joy Bathie’s Little Fat Books

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This article is written by Joy Bathie

I have always loved books and my interest was expanded after attending a workshop at the State Library of NSW in Sydney some years ago, where I learned how to construct a basic hard cover codex book.  Since then I have experimented further and my repertoire now covers “handmade artist’s books” of various types and sizes, filled with colour and texture.  I’m now creating smaller books and enjoy making ‘LFB’s” (Little Fat Books) which are generally 10.5cm x 10.5cm (4” x 4”) square; I love this size, which sits so nicely in the hand.

making Little Fat Books

This page from an LFB looks through the central circular  cut-out to the following page

making Little Fat Books

Here is a the page beneath

making Little Fat Books

and the close-up view.

Altogether there are five layers of colour and texture, plus clear and printed acrylic windows. Amongst other recycled materials these pages incorporate painted curtain rings and other circular metallic pieces, soft drink bottle caps cut, rusted, and patinaed, and also pulcinella (sequin waste).

making Little Fat Books

Here is another LFB, called “Twigs”, with two of its pages.  Again, each page in this book has a central cut-out section to view adjacent pages.

making Little Fat Books

making Little Fat Books

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Joy Bathie lives in Port Stephens, NSW, Australia. You can see what Joy is up to over on her Facebook page.

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Little Fat Books

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Joy Bathie continues to share her passion for handmade books, with these stunning Little Fat Books (LFB).

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I have always loved books and my interest was expanded after attending a workshop at the State Library of NSW in Sydney some years ago, where I learned how to construct a basic hard cover codex book.  Since then I have experimented further and my repertoire now covers “handmade artist’s books” of various types and sizes, filled with colour and texture.  I’m now creating smaller books and enjoy making ‘LFB’s” (Little Fat Books) which are generally 10.5cm x 10.5cm (4” x 4”) square; I love this size, which sits so nicely in the hand.

LFB in greens

This page from an LFB looks through the central circular  cut-out to the following page

Little Fat Books in greens

Here is a the page beneath

LFB in greens with found objects featured

and the close-up view.

Altogether there are five layers of colour and texture, plus clear and printed acrylic windows. Amongst other recycled materials these pages incorporate painted curtain rings and other circular metallic pieces, soft drink bottle caps cut, rusted, and patinaed, and also pulcinella (sequin waste).

This lovely Little Fat Book has a textured cover with nature elements

Here is another LFB, called “Twigs”, with two of its pages.  Again, each page in this book has a central cut-out section to view adjacent pages. 

This lovely Little Fat Book has a textured cover with nature elements

This lovely Little Fat Book in greens and blues

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 Joy Bathie lives in Port Stephens, NSW, Australia. You can see what Joy is up to over on her Facebook page.

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Mixed Media Artist: Joy Bathie

Our Mixed Media Art community is a diverse bunch; from all around the world, with different interests and reasons why we create and a wide range of skills. This week Joy Bathie shares her passion for mixed media painting and handmade books.

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I live in Australia, on the northern headland of beautiful Port Stephens, north of Sydney. From childhood I have always loved arts and crafts of all descriptions, and over the years have worked with papers and fabrics, machine and hand embroidery, stained glasswork, metalwork, sculpting, painting – you name it!

For many years I painted in both oils and acrylics, mainly abstracts and contemporary art, which I enjoyed enormously.  Then for a while I was absorbed with scrapbooking techniques with an online group in the United States, long before the craft became known in Australia or even mainline in America.  There were no scrapbook stores back then, so we used to gather and recycle scraps of anything and everything.  I guess this was my first real introduction to “mixed media” as an art form. I later continued gathering, altering, and recycling materials to use in collage and altered books for a number of years.

Upcycling crafts is easy as Joy Bathie shows with her ATC

This ATC (Artist Trading Card) uses recycled corrugated cardboard, and a piece of clear acrylic from a chocolate box.

Apart from recycling what used to be considered as ‘junque’ I like to use handmade paper to create texture, along with beads and scraps of lace etc. I also love to stencil texture with impasto medium, and tend to use gesso quite a lot too.  Over the years it’s been great fun to share my experiences with different techniques at workshops around the country.

Over the past few months my interest has moved back and forth between making textured covers for notebooks etc. and also miniature books – the latter being something I never thought I would be able to create. A recent miniature medieval-style book of quotations, measuring 18mmH x 18mmW x 12mm deep (¾” x ¾” x ½”) and safely protected in its little box is to be included in a new publication by North Light Books, titled “Incite: The Best of Mixed Media – Dreams Realized”, which is being released later this year.

This lovely notebook has a textured cover

This lovely notebook has a textured cover with nature elements

This lovely cover was inspired from medieval texts

One of the pages originally created for a Little Fat Book, but I was so happy with the result that I re-created the entire book in miniature, as mentioned above. But for the foreseeable future I am sure I will be creating and decorating books, books, and more books!

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Joy Bathie lives in Port Stephens, NSW, Australia. You can see what Joy is up to over on her Facebook page.

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