Fantastic Book Sculptures

I mentioned Heather's book sculptures to an email loop I'm part of. Then I took another look at her blog and her Etsy store and marveled all over again at the sheer amount of creativity and originality it took to create these things. Then I decided that perhaps the American Library Association would be interested in highlighting her work to show what could be made of  "de-selected" library books.

Here is the letter I sent to ALA:

I wanted ALA to know about my friend Heather, who is both a skilled librarian and fantastic book artist. By “book artist” I mean that she uses discarded library books and transforms them into the most amazing sculptures.

I first met Heather in 2001 when I had been hired at the reference department at Stanislaus County Library in Modesto, California. She was then a library assistant and part-time MLIS student at San Jose State University. Since she completed her MLIS, she became a branch manager at one of the Stanislaus County branch libraries, then eventually married and moved to Bakersfield, where she is now a librarian with Kern County Library.

Frankly, between her full-time job and full-time family responsibilities, I have no idea how she has either the time or energy to devote to her craft. Her book sculptures are decidedly entrancing. And as if that weren't enough, she also developed the idea of making beads out of strips of paper and then creating jewelry from those beads. I was astounded the day I opened a package from her that contained a pair of earrings made from those beads. One earring had beads that said “Book Slut.” The other said “I'll Read Anything.” I was so touched that she remembered me saying that about myself and was thoughtful enough to send me this gift.

I thought that since Heather is a librarian and her craft involves a clever way to re-purpose something that would otherwise probably just end up in the recycling bin, ALA might possibly consider doing a story on her.

Heather's magnificent book sculptures may be viewed at her blog:

http://rhymeswithmagicart.blogspot.com/

and her paper bead jewelry here:

http://rhymeswithmagic.etsy.com/

Thank you very much for your consideration.