I really love books. They’re nigh unto sacred in my house and the children are trained from birth to know that intentionally damaging one will get you disowned and thrown out. Steal and wreck my car? Fine. Hard drugs. We’ll deal. Crayon doodling in a paperback. UNACCEPTABLE. It doesn’t matter whose book it is, what shape it’s in, or what it’s about. We never ever damage books.
At least… not usually. But there is that one book. That awful, horrible book. That nightmarishly-offensive-in-nearly-every-way-possible book.
I’ve thought about just getting rid of the book. But once it leaves my hands, I can’t make sure nobody ever reads it again. I could burn it, but… okay, I can’t burn it. I want to. But I just can’t. So instead, I’m left with this terrible book stashed in a closet for years upon years, lurking with the internet router, the spare fish tank gravel, the boxes of Joann’s fabric that I never use. I want to get rid of it. But I can’t. I want to destroy it. But I can’t!
Until another bookish friend showed me an image not unlike the one at the start of this post, of tiny paper cranes with tiger-striped words across their wings. And with that newfound freedom, I took a deep breath, found some scissors, and got to work.
So I thought today, instead of showcasing my own art, it would be fun to highlight a few of the ways that you can use books that, for whatever reason, are an unfit abomination that should no longer exist and turn them into beautiful new art!
Origami of any kind
Blackout Poetry
Paper lanterns
Paintings
Here are a couple of links to pages with even more ideas!
Next Monday will be the first one in April, a new NaNo month, so expect low(er) standards and late(r) posts. I look foward to sharing my progress with you!
Until next week, happy writing (and crafting)!
Jill Marcotte 