When we moved to Europe a few years ago, we used these big-ass sheets of wrapping paper to pack up our books, mostly art and photography stuff, and keep them safe during the months-long haul across the ocean. Since I’m always knee-deep in art and craft projects, I held onto the paper. It’s super handy for all sorts of things. Most often, I’d throw it on my desk as a layer of protection while I was drawing or painting.
Over time, that paper got wrecked, stained,, ripped, wrinkled, you name it. But weirdly, it looked kind of amazing. So yeah, I saved it again. No clue what for at that point, but it felt like it still had some life in it.
Eventually, I started actually drawing on those beat-up sheets. They became part of the art, the backdrop for my subjects. Then this idea hit me: what if I tried printing on them? The problem was, the paper was too delicate for anything involving liquids. So I chopped it into smaller, more manageable sizes, flattened it in my press, and stashed it to the side.
At some point, I returned to it and printed on them. Ended up with a bunch of prints just sitting in a box. I’d flip through them once in a while and thought this should be a book. But all I had were single sheets, and no spreads, no real way to bind them properly.
But honestly, the whole project was rough and kind of chaotic from the start, so I figured, why switch up the vibe now? I didn’t want some clean, perfectly bound book anyway. So I grabbed an old sketchbook and started gluing the sheets in, front and back. For the covers, I layered and glued more of that same wrapping paper, pressed it, and slapped it on. Trimmed the edges and boom, done!
It turned out exactly how it was supposed to. This book came from paper that served it’s purpose more than once and could’ve been abandoned ages ago. Instead, it turned into something kind of magical. Like a butterfly.
