Hex Tech Tuesday - 60s Retro Pop Art by Kim

  My idea for this design came from the angular shapes of the hexagons and the abstract art of the 1960s - particularly Piet Mondrian pop art.

I arranged the hexs and hex frames on the front cover in an attractive manner, and when happy with the placement I glued them on. I painted the background, outside the hexs, with DecoArt Americana True Red. 

When it was dry I applied DecoArt Media Crackle Paste thickly to the area painted red. My pot of crackle paste is quite old and I wasn’t sure if it would ‘crackle’ but it did, rather well. I left it overnight to ensure the  crackle process was complete and the paste had dried, and showed the red background through the cracks.

The background inside the hex frames I painted with DecoArt Americana Lamp Black. It was at this stage I had the idea of the chopstick ‘piercing’ the cover. I cut the chopstick at an angle to match the hexagon then shaved the cut ends so that they give the impression of disappearing through the cover. It is not glued in place yet.

To add to the 3D effect I cut a large hex into pieces but retained the angles of the hexagon and glued them on to the original set.

As the theme is 60s retro I went for a simple block design with bold colours - Titanium White, True Red, Lamp Black, with a touch of Bright Yellow to set it off. See the pictures for placement of colours. (Tip: Bright Yellow works better with either a white or Primary Yellow base coat as it is quite transparent)

I glued on the chopstick and, to enhance the 3D effect, I added shading with Lamp Black where it ‘enters and exits’ the cover.

The back cover is simply base coated with Titanium White and stamped with a model motif (by  Daniel Torrente) and sentiment suitable for the theme (by Limited Edition). I used black archival ink directly on the painted surface.

The covers and spine were joined with a hessian strip glued outside on the back cover and spine, and inside the front cover so as not to interfere with the design.

I haven't made book signatures to go inside this cover, but these would be made and sewn to the spine before adding the hessian, which would cover and hide the stitching.

Thanks for visiting … far out, man!

Products:

Tando Creative Book Binding cover (A5) (new)

Tando Creative Hexagons

DecoArt Crackle Paste

DecoArt Americana Colours

Hessian 

Found chopstick