BRB

I am deep in the writing vortex at the moment, trying to finish this draft of my book that is due SO SOON. I probably won't be blogging very much in the next two weeks, but I want you to be able to enjoy some cool art, so check out these awesome pieces by Stacey Page and Neil Dawson why dontcha?

Then come back and tell me what you think!

Obliteration Room!

The results of this installation, where children were given thousands of colorful stickers and let loose in a white room, are both wonderful and sort of terrifying...

It was made by Yayoi Kusama, and you can read more about it here.

My Kind of Igloo

Sure your color-coded bookshelves are neat, but can they do this?

That's right, it's a self-supporting igloo made out of books. Colombian artist Miler Lagos made it and it just about kills me dead. Can you imagine how comforting it must smell in there? I would pile cushions all over the bottom of it and then just curl up reading ALL DAY LONG.

Heaven.

Spotted on Colossal

Pretty Much The Coolest Stop Motion Post-it Note Music Video You'll Ever See

Justin Webb and friends made this. It took four months and 25,000 post-it notes. It is amazing.

Check out his awesome band The Family Bones, and tell 'em I sent you.

People of Awesome

Episode One:

Rawaan Alkhatib

You know those friends you have that just sort of excel at everything and you really want to hate them for it but they also happen to be all sweet and lovely and gracious so you are forced to end up admiring them instead?


I've ended up with enough of these people in my life to leave me in a constant state of either insecurity or inspiration, depending on the weather.


I am lucky this way.

Rawaan Alkhatib is one of them.

I mean, she's just your standard Brooklyn-based poet-baker-painter-chef-printmaker-silk scarf designer from Dubai. Big whoop, right?

Seriously, though: Would you please go look at these scarves she just made?

my fave!

Ugh. She's so cool. A little group of us in Iowa used to have epic feasts together and she was always contributing things like pork belly simmered for two days in duck fat, and homemade pistachio and rose petal ice cream...

She even baked us the most delicious wedding cake which I still dream about eating.

Basically just go look at her website right this moment. There you can check out a bunch of other stuff like the chapbooks she's designed and the illustrations she's done and the postcards she's made etc.

Sadly you won't be able to taste the food she creates, or read her writing (Rawaan, where are your poems, girl?) or like, hang out with her over the internet, but that's probably for the best. You don't want to start feeling, I dunno, inadequate.

Rawaan, you are a Person of Awesome.

Top photos by: Eric Felipe-Barkin. Models: Bettina Huang, Kathryn Egelhofer.
Cake Photo by Jagger Photography 

Evolution of a brother in law

I broke out my grandmother's old travel watercolor set this past week to make little portraits of my sister Olivia and her soon-to-be husband Tristan for their wedding invitations.

I'm not really a painter, but I had a lot of fun messing around. I think I hadn't opened the set in something like seven or eight years?

Here's the evolution of Tristan:

And here's the lovely Olivia:

There will be flowers and words and things eventually.

Yes to love!

ALL PAPER ALL THE TIME

The reason this blog is called Paper Buttons is that a very long time ago I used to make (and sell) tiny little cut-paper collages of animals that I pressed into wearable buttons with my hand-held Badge-A-Minit button maker.

It was a silly little hobby that just happened to coincide with the launching of a brand-new site called Etsy, perhaps you've heard of it? In fact, and now I don't mean to be all I-liked-it before-it-was-cool or anything, but I ended being one of their first members. #HUMBLEBRAG

I think I sold a total of eleven buttons.

(I like to think this may have been because I had to dip out of the burgeoning Handmade Button business and move sort of abruptly to Zurich, Switzerland, but that's a story for another day.)

Anyway, MY POINT is that I happen to think that paper art is basically the highest form of art, and to that end I am going to show you some really cool stuff.

Exhibit A)

Artist Chris Gilmour makes these incredible life-size cardboard sculptures, like this Fiat and this super-detailed bicycle and this set of globes that I would just DIE to have in either my living room or my "study."

Find plenty more of his cardboard brilliance here.

Exhibit B)

Do you know about quilling? It's this crazy and time consuming process of curling hundreds of tiny strips of paper and Lisa Nilsson (unfortunately no relation) makes these slightly creepy yet ultimately badass anatomical cross sections with it, like this:

and this:

Wowie, right? Check out more of her intricate work here.

And how about Exhibit C) my ultimate favorite, basically the godmother of paper cutting: Mary Delany (that's Mrs. Delany to you.) 

She was an 18th century paper rockstar who at age 72 began messing around with cut-out flowers, and then went on to create over 1,000 of these exquisitely detailed botanical collages. 

I mean take a look at these and tell me they are not paintings...

THE SHADING!

Bananas, right? And this was in the 1770s, when scissors were really big and unwieldy, and Paper Source hadn't even been invented yet. The mind boggles.

My mom bought me this book last year which I highly, highly recommend. Mrs Delany was charming and sassy, and had an incredible life beyond her paper-stardom. Do yourself a favor and check her out.

And, you know, if you ever wanna buy a tiny paper animal collage in wearable button form, you know who to call.

How About A Mary Oliver Poem?

Wild Geese


You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting–

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

Artwork above is You Are Not Alone by the incredible April Deacon. Go see more of her work here and be thrilled.

And get yourself a Mary Oliver collection why don't you? She makes me swoon.

Here You Will Find A Mural Made Out Of A Half Million Staples

It was made by French artist Baptiste Debombourg, who would probably get along well with this guy.

Tree Line

I am basically just stealing this post from The Jealous Curator, but just look!

Look at what Zander Olsen made!

Are these not fantastic?

I love and I love.

btw, I also love The Jealous Curator, check her out if you wanna get jealous too.

What to Do With 100,000 Toothpicks

Well, if you've got 34 years, here's an idea:

There's something to be said for obsession.

Hamburger Wrapping Paper

Great idea. Though I would hate to get a gift wrapped only in the "meat patty" sheet. It's glistening.

The coolest thing that I didn't even know existed but now own two of

Take a look at this little guy. 

Why, it's a little ceramic squirrel, holding an acorn-full of strike-anywhere matches.  And he seems to have a textured base upon which to strike said matches!

Do you die? I die.

It's called, well, a match strike, and it's totally a real thing that people used to have in days of yore. 

Darling Jonathan Adler has resurrected the idea and oh how I adore him. 

Form, function, etc. We still don't even have things like bedside tables at our new place but we have a match strike. 

Er. Or should I say, we have multiple match strikes.

Don't judge.

After I learned about the concept, I immediately went hunting for more, and then I accidentally bought this amazing little bronze kangaroo off Etsy.

That face! That pouch! 

Do I actually need to say anything to justify this purchase? 

I didn't really think so.