Project 5: Hollow Book

Click to enlarge

What do we have here? It appears to be an ordinary book:

A dirty, beat up book.


But wait!


Materials:

• Hardcover book
• Glue
• Acrylic paint
• Tea

It's one of those exciting secret hollowed-out book. Look at all my exotic contraband:


Yes, that is an Altoids tin, a package of candy cigarettes, an Exacto knife, a tube of peanut butter, and army men. Why do you ask? I am clearly a sexy and mysterious person.

After I hollowed out the book (following this tutorial) I painted the inner cavity to make it look more finished. It doesn't turn out well in photos, it just ends up looking like a black void:


After the hollowing and painting, I decided that a brand-new looking hollow book was not nearly as exciting as an old one. I used various methods to get the effect above, including sanding, filing, washes of acrylic paint, and tea staining.

Funny story about the tea staining (and a bit of a failure on my part): I like tea staining paper with loose tea leaves because once brushed off, they leave a cool speckled effect. However, I applied the leaves over the glued-together edges of the pages, and now they won't come off:


Oh well. It still looks kind of cool, ne?