Wishes

Wandering through Little Tokyo the other day we stumbled upon a wish tree.

It was absolutely bursting with wishes.

I wanted to read them all. They were so good! So strange and sweet and weirdly specific!

Here are a few I saw and liked:

"I wish I wish with all my heart to last forever with the love of my life!" - Erick <3 Zaida

"I wish for a dog."

"I wish for all the art supplies and people I love to be happy :) and to see all the bands eva. And for my grandma to get better. And for all the sad peeps to cheer up. And for an A on my finals."

"I wish to live a life of genuine passion and never regret things not pursued."

"I wish to meet Cody Martin"

"I wish it rained pizza. By Max."

"I wish for everybody to be okay. Not just for me. For everyone."

"I wish for a horse."

I didn't leave my own, partly because I am superstitious, partly because it cost a dollar and cash is so last century.

I do sometimes wish it rained pizza though. And for everybody to be okay.

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

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.

Hamburger Wrapping Paper

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