Insane Book Art!!!

I don't know if anyone has noticed yet, but I'm kind of a bookish person. I feel they are a better medium than most people realize. There are many things you can do with a computer, but a book has personality!

You sit there reading from a computer no matter how shiny and high-tech and people assume you're addicted to video games, have the personality of a kumquat, or on the other end of the scale, assume you're trying too hard to look high-tech and in the in-crowd. Whereas with a book people assume you're intelligent, sophisticated and possibly weird. But on the other hand they could also assume you're too poor for a high-tech gadget, which would be wrong because books are sometimes pretty expensive.

You also get bothered by people wondering if you could settle a dispute by telling the exact and correct spelling of a certain word. And, of course, it's a word you have never used before and therefore you don't know how to spell it. The computer would be helpful in that exact situation, because then you could look up the Oxford English Dictionary and then you would say, "You're both wrong, it's Latin. Why don't you idiots get a Kindle like a real person!"

But anyway, I wanted to show this amazing artwork by Brian Dettmer! Using "knives, tweezers and surgical tools" he creates sculptural beauties out of old and out-dated resource books. Check it out:


If I had even a tenth of the patience needed to carve out these wonderful pieces.....

The "Modern Painters" one is my favorite! It's just beautiful!

To read the whole article go here:
http://karanarora.posterous.com/insane-art-formed-by-carving-books-with-surgi

I first noticed this on the blog of the wonderful Mister Neil Gaiman, which you can view here:
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2012/02/one-morning-with-nebula-nominations.html

Fixing and New Stance on Eco Crafting

I fixed some things recently. This poor hummingbird was in pieces when I found it. Good as new now! (Just a note: I won it at a bowling competition. Why exactly they thought bowling and delicate things went together is a bit lopsided, but what do I know!) I also fixed this wreath for my mom. It now decorates our beautiful bathroom! I could make similiar projects and probably will in the near future. If you want one, just let me know. I've got plenty of shells so no worries!

I've also decided to start crafting with a bent towards being green and recycling and being kinder to the planet. Especially as new reports keep coming out about new planets that could be like ours, a.k.a. liveable with air and water and plant life. But they're billions of miles away, so getting to them is a bit problematic.

So more and more of my crafts will be made from reused products and more things will be salvaged and given new life through me. My purple treasure box from my last post is like this. Not everything that makes it up is recycled. But the box itself was originally used to hold my business cards and instead of throwing it away, I painted it, and gussied it up with ribbon and gold painted seashells, and made it presentable (and perhaps purchasable *fingers crossed*) for a new person out there in the wide world. I'm very proud of this small contribution to keeping our planet beautiful.

I strongly encourage other crafters to do the same thing. It might seem weird to people at first because we like our new stuff, but just imagine the new life you could breathe into old things. And not for nothing, it's much easier and cheaper to gussy up an old thing and make it sparkle. And there's such a large market for it now!!!

My new mantra, to myself and others: "You can do it, make it beautiful!"

Until later, Kara!