shrinkage: noun

the amount lost when something is decreased or reduced, or when it shrinks

Altered Book Lover's class by Elizabeth

2. Create one double glued page using gesso. Document how it behaved when you worked with it.

Now I guess it might be considered cheating, but I knew the results I would get as I use vellum quite a bit and know that any wet glue will make the vellum curl and wrinkle. BUT I was planning an underwater scene so I used it to achieve that wavy watery feel.  So with confidence I applied my gesso and laid down the vellum sheet to be adhered.

Now one thing I didn't anticipate was the shrinkage. I very rarely want this wavy effect when using vellum so I didn't know about the waves and wrinkles pulling on the book's page. It actually pulled it in about 1/4". If you look closely you can see this and this picture also shows the wavy texture of the page better before I applied a technique that Elizabeth provided which was:

"If your pages warp and you can no longer place a weight over the closed book, simply cover the back side of your page with a thin layer of gesso. That may not eliminate the warp, but it will decrease it a great deal."

So I applied a thin coat of gesso to the next page, plus a piece of lace to the edge to hide the shrinkage and "glued" the next page to the back of the shrunk page. It did help to smooth it out some and I was again pleased with the results. Thanks Elizabeth for that tip!

So yes, I did learn a new technique when you have a real wrinkly page and you want to smooth it out a little. So, a smarty pants like me still learned something, even though going into this page I thought I knew what the results would be.

Old dogs, new tricks and all that.....:)