Rags to Riches is designed especially to share handmade books, journals and paper art. The objects on this blog are made totally of recycled materials or discared paper, and cardboard. Please feel free to comment on any of my postings. I would love to hear from you.
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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Books from Recycled Objects


I might not have mentioned before that all handmade books on this blog are made from recycled material. What inspired me to make handmade books was working in a library. In my workplace there are many recyclable materials such as paper, cardboard, discarded dust jackets and even discarded books. I am now teaching some of my colleagues how to create handmade books too. We meet every Wednesday during our lunch break. There are five of us, but as from tomorrow two more will join the group.


A book made from a Vita-Weat box. There are endless types of product boxes I can use for book making. For this book, I used recycled photocopy paper as signatures. I do not cut my paper, but tear them using a metal ruler instead. This is a simple book using long stitch binding method.

Everyone at my work knows that I recycle things. I often return to my desk to find various objects left for me by my colleagues. The green velvet coated paper I used to cover this book was given to me by my friend Sophia. She told me it was a wrapper from a bar of soap. She thought that I could use it for something. I made this book and gave it back to Sophia on her birthday. I used light green recycled paper for the signatures.


This is one of my earlier books. The cover came from a Japanese book box that was discarded. I rescued it from a card board trolley. The signatures were brown packing papers. When I finished it, I thought it needed something else to give it a lift. I had this old button lying around for ages and it was a perfect thing for this book.

4 comments:

Queen Of The Armchair aka Dzintra Stitcheries said...

Wow Natima how impressive is this...the Vita Weet cover...the gorgeous green one with that gold leaf bookmark...Good Job♥x

Anonymous said...

I love the soap covered book! Wow! I am proud of you for recycling so much. Every little bit makes a big difference.

Unknown said...

Hi I've been looking at all your great work , very creative .

Mescrap said...

Love the awesome 'Japan' book !!!!