Two new books on paper craft offer a wealth of inspiration for crafty thinkers. Some of these projects are suitable for older children who want to make their own gifts or lend a hand with Christmas decorating.

Paper Made! shows how to work with everything from candy wrappers to ticket stubs.

Small pieces of folded graph paper are pasted onto a round Chinese paper lantern. Light shining through this fixture makes a complex interplay of shadow and texture.

Old maps are snipped into birds with lacy wings and tails and assembled into a charming mobile. Maps also wrap the mats of framed travel photos.

What to do with a partial deck? Leftover playing cards are sewn together with zigzag stitch and attached to wire rings to create an imaginative lampshade.

Frank Gehry built iconic furniture from cardboard. Now, it’s your turn. Transform used cardboard into an end table, picture frame or curio shelf.

Book Art offers some fabulous projects which include clever Christmas decorations. The winter village scene which you see pictured on the cover has a fairytale quality when displayed with candles or cut crystal.

From an old book come curvy, sculptural ornaments. The spine of the book forms the core of the ornament with the cut pages fanning out from the central spine.

Strips of thicker paper are shaped into delicate, tasseled baubles. Circles cut from the colourful pages of a brochure create a spiky decoration. Silver leaf is rubbed onto the pages of a book from which oak leaves and acorns are formed. They can be tied with pretty ribbon to wrap a gift or dangle from a tree.

-Jane

During October, fiber artist, Susan Kristoferson, has an exhibition of collages of floral bouquets on the main floor of the Central library. They are composed of the beautiful papers that she makes in her home studio. Her collages reminded me of the wonderful biography of Mary Delany whose work is now housed in the British Museum.

Susan specializes in itajime paper made by a fold-and-dye technique traditional to Japan and painted paste papers. These are contemporary versions of papers used by 17^th Century European bookbinders. Last month, she led the altered book workshop at Central. If you missed it here, you still have time to catch it at the branches.

Our collection contains a wide selection of books on paper making and paper crafts and I am blown away by the many lovely and inventive things that can be created with paper.

I first met Susan several years ago when she was a featured artist on the Triangle Gallery’s (now MOCA) House + Studio Tour and bought a pair of her earrings.

If you want to try your hand at creating paper jewelry, here are two books to inspire you.

Handmade Paper Jewelry includes a locket covered in fancy gift-wrap paper which encloses tiny photos. Glass beads and a decorative toggle closure enhance the necklace (p. 38).

Creative Paper Jewelry demonstrates the creation of pulp paper beads that are combined with cords, chains and ribbons to make charming and fanciful pieces.

- Jane

If you’re looking for quick ways to add a little pizzazz to your palace, check out the new title from Sunset: Make it Your Own Paint & Color: 50 easy weekend projects. For the most part, they mine familiar DIY veins; but some of their projects are eye catchers. All of them are well illustrated with step-by-step instructions. These are some of the things I liked the best:

• A painted stair runner pops some colour to the climb and coordinates with the area rug at the foot of the stairs.
• A pretty, girlie room has a floor painted with broad pink, rose and mauve stripes.
• The blackboard wall is a staple that is more or less attractive depending on what has been chalked onto the surface. Here they offer a formula for creating a chalkboard with any colour of paint and show a lively chalkboard wall in soft green-gray.
• A simple leafy branch is stenciled onto a plain white roller blind.
• Maps cover a wall like wallpaper in a patchwork pattern. (I’m always attracted to projects featuring maps.)

I’ve said it before and I still believe it: happiness is a can of paint and a brush.

- Jane

Today's blog comes from Candace Weir, Central Library staff:

There are many reasons to love UPPERCASE, one of our newest magazine additions. Let’s name two for starters. The magazine is Calgary based with its head office two blocks away from the Central Library in Arts Central. It’s great to support local initiative while celebrating creativity on a global level which for me is reason number two. Contributors to UPPERCASE come from all parts of the globe.

Its mission statement calls it “a magazine for the creative and curious”. What a mission! They have produced 13 editions and to judge from the issue that I have in hand, it is mission accomplished.

I am reading issue 12 where the theme is the love of paper. The articles tend to be quick reads with web links so that you can further explore anything that catches your fancy. You may find, like me, that a great deal of the content does.

The layout is very catchy, with loads of pictures interspersed with text set with various types, from standard computer font to old fashioned typewriter font. Much of the content pays homage to the fast-vanishing world of print.

While it may surprise some people, I find that paper appears to be going nowhere fast. A world of paper worshippers exists. Institutions discard their print and artists make igloos, home decorations and sculpture out of it. Take a look at this link for a smattering of possibilities.

Pages 54 – 56 have a great little article by an urban-sketcher, Sigrid Albert, who lives in Vancouver. Interested? See my last blog on the Art of Urban Sketching for a great new book and website.

An ever-so-short article on the NYC Library is full of images and an impressionist snippet that ends, “Although we didn’t leave with any borrowed books, we left with an excess of inspiration.” I always feel this way about libraries. They have been a source of inspiration since I was a kid and that was a while ago.

This is not a magazine that circulates (yet), so have a look, make notes or get your own subscription. I probably will. While you decide, grab a chair and immerse yourself in a world of ideas.

-Candace

Jane's Two Cents: Don't you just love that fabulous pigeon on the cover? The UPPERCASE website makes a visit to the studio of the artist, Anne Smith, who drew the illustration.