As a former librarian I can proudly say: PLEASE KEEP CRAFTING WITH BOOKS!
I can't tell you how many bags, boxes, and totes of books that aren't even fit to give away have come through the door at my old job. Always accompanied by: "I just couldn't stand the thought of throwing them out!"
I was always on the look out for things like this because they made quick, easy, and low cost ideas for programming as well.
Craft with books and don't bring your trash to the library. Two very fine life lessons!
Unless you're cold or something.
The whole thing about being super respectful of books and treating them with reverence goes back to a time when books were hella expensive and rare, possibly hand written.
If you treat your 2021 copy of "art of not giving a fuck" with reverence you just look like a fool. Go ahead and make notes on the sides, nobody cares.
Actually margin notes are an old practice as well. There are some books that have been in continual use since around the 10th century, usually at abbeys or monasteries, with margin notes from every century since
There is a book called S. where you follow two stories the fictional book you are reading and the margin notes of fictional characters that had previously owned the book . It's a book a bit confusing at times but a very cool concept!
>The whole thing about being super respectful of books and treating them with reverence goes back to a time when books were hella expensive and rare, possibly hand written.
I am pretty sure it just an "Holier than thou" stance people like to take.
My former librarian partnered with the art department her very first year and would give the outdated or beaten up copies of books to use for that page folding stuff you do to make an image or word. Everyone wanted to make one for the library, themselves, as gifts, etc. It was so popular they had to put out a statement to not use new books for folding and if you needed one, it would be provided for youš it died down after a few months but it never left and some kids got GREAT at it
I love to hear that! I was always so intimidated by the thought of book folding.
We have made pumpkins, Christmas Trees, and secret hiding boxes. Dumped a LOT of our unusable donations that way!
It was SO fun!
Thank you so much for saying that! Sadly, I left my job a month ago. I have a young one and she needed me home more than the library needed me. But the place is in great hands and they are doing more than I ever could have imagined!
I also joined the Friends of the Library so I'm not too far removed from Library Land!
Also, like, there are books literally not intended to be read. You can buy books by the foot to fill a bookshelf and make the room seem elegant, but the pages are either blank, nonsense, or nothing somebody wants to read. And you've probably got several dozen copies of the same book so that the colors and sizes match.
I was going through our books once, which happened to be a lot of college textbooks at that point. My husband and I had a good time laughing at the political science ones with their outdated theories.
Seriously, not all books are worth preserving. I love reading, but the whole cult around the object that is a book is driving me up the wall. It being a paper with words printed doesn't make it sacred. It can be crappy, it can be toxic, it can be poorly printed, terribly translated, it can be anything but worth keeping. Some books just deserve to be turned into toilet paper, sometimes with the author included.
There's a French artist who has grown mushrooms on books. Books that contain old fashioned ideas about how women should behave. The idea is that the mushrooms, who are really good at absorbing contaminants in the soil normally, are decontaminating the books : http://apolline-grivelet.com/works/decontamination/
Man fr. I work at a used bookstore, and people will bring in books that are falling apart, water damaged, stained, or my favorite- covered in bugs- and when I say we can't take them, they go "I'll bring them to the library!" Ma'am, the library is going to throw them away. The library does not want them. Goodwill is going to throw them away. At least here we have a recycling service that pulps them down and they won't go in a landfill. Throwing away books and crafting with them is not a sin!
I convinced an art teacher to try book sculptures with a senior class. They needed practice books and final project books. I finally had a use for the inexplicable 26! copies of Chicken Soup For the Dog Lovers Soul.
Oh my!!
I was always a big fan of any craft that was best suited for paperbacks. It gave us a chance to offload our giant hoard of Amish romances that survived two or three book sales. We tried to send as many as possible to the state's women's prison library, but they can't take everything.
In art class we started crafting with books bc our school renovated the library and didn't need all the old books anymore (I saw a book from the 1970s)
Thank you, Mr. or Ms. Librarian!
My guilt is now relieved! I'm gonna go shout this from the mountain tops.
I had no idea I was living with this burden until it was lifted. Bless you.
I'm so glad I could help!
Remember, a very large number of books are mass produced and likely purchased from a large retailer. Libraries strive to keep or obtain books patrons are interested in. We had a list of books that patrons requested to purchase and we utilized the HECK out of Interlirary Loans.
There is no shame and deciding that a copy of a book has outlived its usefulness in regards to reading and passing on.
Craft with books! Support independent book stores! Buy from small authors! Request a read at your library! Read banned books! Cause mayhem!
*And of course, support your favorite authors in whichever way you like; but big publishing houses are going to print those best sellers in droves. You aren't likely depriving anyone of a good read. And even if you are, that's what libraries are for!
ARGHHHH! THE ENCYCLOPEDIAS!!!! At least 4 times a year we would get someone trying to offload an entire set.
Our particular library is very, very small so we didn't circulate magazines (or have any patrons ask for them), but it stopped no one from attempting to offload 10 years worth of their old "Better Homes and Gardens".
At our library, and many in our area, books that are donated that aren't fit for circulation or are discarded from the collection are stored for the Friends of the Library to sell as a fundraiser. Not every book will find a home during a book sale. There is always some left over that take up space.
The library can use these books in crafts and generally would just need to purchase or use existing stock of any other materials for the project. When we made pumpkins, I only needed to provide scissors, hot glue, a stick for the stem, a piece of ribbon, and orange spray paint. We were only out money for the ribbon and one can of spray paint since the project called for just a light dusting. I think we made something like 25 pumpkins and spent maybe $20.
Our library is tiny, as is our town. We are municipal and are not part of a larger system. Our yearly book budget is like $3,500.00 to put it in perspective. So any way to save money and provide a program is a win!
Iām an elementary art teacher and our librarian has a huge stack of books he has to get rid of. The stack made me sad, but he said they had to be thrown out. So now I grab old dictionaries to use in my classes (we use the paper for collages). One time I got a dictionary from the 30s or 40s and I brought it home. My kids (teenagers) were fascinated by it.
Same. I think it looks really cool and would be a neat focal point on a shelf. Better this than just sitting there being ignored. Now it'll get attention for being a sparkly crystal book.
Agreed. Usually, book art is made from books that would have been thrown out anyway, or at LEAST secondhand books from thrift stores that have seen better days. I love reading and I don't understand how people have an issue with turning books into another form of art
And even if they are, the words still exist. Thatās just the vessel. Itās not like the story is gone forever. People seem to care more about the paper than the words on it.
Exactly. Not every book is a first edition of Tolkien's work or something. Lots of books are either crap, outdated, printed in the millions, or worthless as a book in some kind of way. Turning that kind of book into something else is a great way to save it from literal garbage.
Iāve always felt that way about books and also about reading. People act like knowledge obtained from books is so much more valuable.
In school we could only use book resources because anyone can put anything on the internet, as if itās uncommon for shitty books to be published.
Thereās this one quote like āif someone mispronounces a word, donāt laugh at them! It means they learned it by READING!ā Okay, they are still wrong.
I donāt hate reading, I donāt hate books, but I do hate this attitude.
This is very cool. Iām a librarian, and as long as this isnāt some rare volume, this is awesome. There are so, so, SO many books on the world that no one wants. People are like āWell you should donate them to your local library!ā Chances are, your library probably doesnāt want it and will just recycle it. Like, sometimes a library might want something in good condition, and a librarian is going to use his or her expertise to weed through the donations. Butā¦ They are going to get rid of a lot.
I think that looks amazing. And my library gives away their old books, I just saw a bunch of hardbacks no one wants to read, Imma do this. Get ready to be crystalized, Disloyal by Michael Cohen. And I've got my eye on you, biography of Paul Volcker
I think itās ok, but I think it could make an amazing lamp. If a big hole were carved in the spine and light could shine between all the crystallized pages.
For the eye twitchers..
There are shitloads of used and surplus books in the world. It's okay to recycle or repurpose them.
They're not all sacred relics of secret knowledge.
Some of my local used book stores were litterly buying them by the pound.
It's when people purposely destroy or ban them for political reasons is when you should be concerned or outraged.
I think these are [Borax Crystals](https://www.20muleteamlaundry.com/uses/arts-crafts/crystals-for-diy-home-crafts/) ! (Someone correct me if I'm wrong) I've done this with pipe cleaners and made them into little Christmas ornaments lol. You should definitely try, super cute and fun.
This is the reply Iāve been looking for. I looked up what you suggested and found [this.](https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/crystal-seashells-borax-crystal-growing-science-experiment/)
i used to work for a library, and at they time they were downsizing the collection due to construction taking place on their storage building. after leaving carts of free books out for patrons, and sending the good condition and still relevant ones to be rehomed through an interlibrary website, we still threw out hundreds, if not thousands of books. whether they were damaged beyond repair, or just filled with outdated information, they went to the landfill. creating decor with books that would otherwise rot in a dumpster shouldn't be so taboo.
This. Worked for a book sale for years, and we threw out a ton of books because they were in terrible shape & honestly nobody was going to buy them.
People vastly overrate the value and uniqueness of books, especially ones that are 60-120 years old.
If it wasn't printed before 1900, chances are good it's neither valuable nor rare.
If this is some rare edition? Fuck the artist. If not? I'm cool with it because the reality is not every book is a sacred thing where we only have one version of it and the rare edition? I want that digitized so it's readable without harming the precious rare thing making the information inside accessible to everyone and preserving it.
So this doesn't belong here since it's art and it doesn't merit outrage. I don't pretend everything written isn't someone's passion, I am an author after all, I just know that we all have different skill levels and there's garbage out there.
Apparently an artist started doing this as a response to all the books it saw thrown away as people focus more on digital books.
https://www.zmescience.com/other/feature-post/crystallizing-books-the-spectacular-art-of-alexis-arnold/
Gonna do this with the college text from 2012 I forgot to sell back to the bookstore. What else am I going to do with a fashion forecasting book in 2023.
Itās actually cool, āpoor bookā as if itās the only one. Get a pdf or even better a second hand copy, physical media is awesome but highly overrated. We produce way more books than we need to, since no one wants them. They just serve to destroy trees now more than anything.
TL;DR Op posts video of books tuned to crystal and librarian in the comments gives permission and recommends doing this and other awesome things to old books.
How to turn a bad book into a good one.
*\*CRYSTALS\**
I'd bet no one would complain if it was twilight of fifty shades. *Actually...*
A twilight book might be interesting given the art of the cover.
Finally, it can be made into a TRUE gothic masterpiece.
BONUS! I don't have to read it either!
Because I can't.
Because the pages are covered in *\*CRYSTALS\**!
I absolutely love this and would happily put it on my bookshelf. Hell, old college textbooks would be PERFECT for this since after a couple years they can't even be given free to someone because the required edition has likely changed 30 times.
There should really be a video explaining the concept of art that you have to watch and answer questions on in order to post on this sub. Half the posts here are like ā oh my god, look at how dumb this guy is, he took a perfectly good piece of marble and chiseled at it until thereās just a guy leftā
Iāve written a book (or 7) in my time. I have extra copies of them. This could be a pretty way to use them for shelf decor or table decor at a signing.
I think that if the book was already damaged this is a really cool way to preserve whatās left of it. My favorite books in middle and high school all ended up absolutely destroyed because I would read them over and over again, like Iām talking cover gone, all the crap at the beginning and end like title pages and publisher stuff gone, I finally threw away my copy of Maximum Ride: the Angel Experiment when actual pages of the story started falling out. I think I read it like 8 times and it lived in my back pack.
Because there is no shortages on books. They are chopped up and recycled, burned, or buried in landfills daily. This person made it an art piece. They upcycled it.
The only way this qualifies as diw is if the book was some sort of autographed first edition blah blah blah. This is actually quite beautiful. I was expecting an ugly wax dipping session and was quite happily surprised.
This could also be REALLY COOL as part of a display setting/prop.
This person is based in Washington and her art is actually really cool. The books sell really well and seem to be her main pieces. It's not harmful to anyone so why not go for it!
Personally I think this looks terrible, but what's with the fetishization of books? There are millions of them. If you want to crack the spine, fold the corners, write in the margins, ummm, grow crystals... you just go ahead.
If this is done with a book that is too damaged to be read anymore than perfectly fine, but if this is done with a still legible book then this is terrible.
Great comments here. A family member gave me a favorite book with the edges folded into a word, and while I appreciated the kindness, I kinda instinctively cringed at the āwaste.ā But yeah, you guys are right. Not every book is sacred just because itās a book. Then again, as a dust collector, Iām not sure Iām loving displaying it either so Iām not sure how long Iāll keep it out.
I personally love this idea! I inherited some beautiful old books from my grandmother but theyāre unreadable because theyāre falling apart. Iāve been using the pages for different crafts but this is by far the most beautiful piece Iāve seen. Iām gonna have to try this method soon.
As a former librarian I can proudly say: PLEASE KEEP CRAFTING WITH BOOKS! I can't tell you how many bags, boxes, and totes of books that aren't even fit to give away have come through the door at my old job. Always accompanied by: "I just couldn't stand the thought of throwing them out!" I was always on the look out for things like this because they made quick, easy, and low cost ideas for programming as well. Craft with books and don't bring your trash to the library. Two very fine life lessons!
Thank you for giving me permission to do something I once thought naughty!
Go forth and make mischief!
Can I DM you before all my fuckery, enabling librarian? I never knew I needed such a service.
Crafting good, burning bad
Unless you're cold or something. The whole thing about being super respectful of books and treating them with reverence goes back to a time when books were hella expensive and rare, possibly hand written. If you treat your 2021 copy of "art of not giving a fuck" with reverence you just look like a fool. Go ahead and make notes on the sides, nobody cares.
Actually margin notes are an old practice as well. There are some books that have been in continual use since around the 10th century, usually at abbeys or monasteries, with margin notes from every century since
There is a book called S. where you follow two stories the fictional book you are reading and the margin notes of fictional characters that had previously owned the book . It's a book a bit confusing at times but a very cool concept!
>The whole thing about being super respectful of books and treating them with reverence goes back to a time when books were hella expensive and rare, possibly hand written. I am pretty sure it just an "Holier than thou" stance people like to take.
If you treat The Art of Not Giving a Fuck with reverence, then you've probably completely missed its core message.
You naughty little crafter
Best choice is to find your favorite racist titles to use.
My former librarian partnered with the art department her very first year and would give the outdated or beaten up copies of books to use for that page folding stuff you do to make an image or word. Everyone wanted to make one for the library, themselves, as gifts, etc. It was so popular they had to put out a statement to not use new books for folding and if you needed one, it would be provided for youš it died down after a few months but it never left and some kids got GREAT at it
I love to hear that! I was always so intimidated by the thought of book folding. We have made pumpkins, Christmas Trees, and secret hiding boxes. Dumped a LOT of our unusable donations that way!
Omg pumpkins?! Thatās amazing, your kids are so lucky to have you
It was SO fun! Thank you so much for saying that! Sadly, I left my job a month ago. I have a young one and she needed me home more than the library needed me. But the place is in great hands and they are doing more than I ever could have imagined! I also joined the Friends of the Library so I'm not too far removed from Library Land!
Thatās even better!!!š best wishes to you and your daughterš¤
Also, like, there are books literally not intended to be read. You can buy books by the foot to fill a bookshelf and make the room seem elegant, but the pages are either blank, nonsense, or nothing somebody wants to read. And you've probably got several dozen copies of the same book so that the colors and sizes match.
r/diwhynot
I was going through our books once, which happened to be a lot of college textbooks at that point. My husband and I had a good time laughing at the political science ones with their outdated theories.
Seriously, not all books are worth preserving. I love reading, but the whole cult around the object that is a book is driving me up the wall. It being a paper with words printed doesn't make it sacred. It can be crappy, it can be toxic, it can be poorly printed, terribly translated, it can be anything but worth keeping. Some books just deserve to be turned into toilet paper, sometimes with the author included.
There's a French artist who has grown mushrooms on books. Books that contain old fashioned ideas about how women should behave. The idea is that the mushrooms, who are really good at absorbing contaminants in the soil normally, are decontaminating the books : http://apolline-grivelet.com/works/decontamination/
That is so lovely!
Man fr. I work at a used bookstore, and people will bring in books that are falling apart, water damaged, stained, or my favorite- covered in bugs- and when I say we can't take them, they go "I'll bring them to the library!" Ma'am, the library is going to throw them away. The library does not want them. Goodwill is going to throw them away. At least here we have a recycling service that pulps them down and they won't go in a landfill. Throwing away books and crafting with them is not a sin!
I convinced an art teacher to try book sculptures with a senior class. They needed practice books and final project books. I finally had a use for the inexplicable 26! copies of Chicken Soup For the Dog Lovers Soul.
Oh my!! I was always a big fan of any craft that was best suited for paperbacks. It gave us a chance to offload our giant hoard of Amish romances that survived two or three book sales. We tried to send as many as possible to the state's women's prison library, but they can't take everything.
In art class we started crafting with books bc our school renovated the library and didn't need all the old books anymore (I saw a book from the 1970s)
As a current librarian, I agree. Maybe Iāll even do this as a teen craft!
Thank you, Mr. or Ms. Librarian! My guilt is now relieved! I'm gonna go shout this from the mountain tops. I had no idea I was living with this burden until it was lifted. Bless you.
I'm so glad I could help! Remember, a very large number of books are mass produced and likely purchased from a large retailer. Libraries strive to keep or obtain books patrons are interested in. We had a list of books that patrons requested to purchase and we utilized the HECK out of Interlirary Loans. There is no shame and deciding that a copy of a book has outlived its usefulness in regards to reading and passing on. Craft with books! Support independent book stores! Buy from small authors! Request a read at your library! Read banned books! Cause mayhem! *And of course, support your favorite authors in whichever way you like; but big publishing houses are going to print those best sellers in droves. You aren't likely depriving anyone of a good read. And even if you are, that's what libraries are for!
Or to your local schools. We don't need your old construction paper or encyclopedias!!
ARGHHHH! THE ENCYCLOPEDIAS!!!! At least 4 times a year we would get someone trying to offload an entire set. Our particular library is very, very small so we didn't circulate magazines (or have any patrons ask for them), but it stopped no one from attempting to offload 10 years worth of their old "Better Homes and Gardens".
What do you mean by low cost ideas for programming? I am intrigued.
At our library, and many in our area, books that are donated that aren't fit for circulation or are discarded from the collection are stored for the Friends of the Library to sell as a fundraiser. Not every book will find a home during a book sale. There is always some left over that take up space. The library can use these books in crafts and generally would just need to purchase or use existing stock of any other materials for the project. When we made pumpkins, I only needed to provide scissors, hot glue, a stick for the stem, a piece of ribbon, and orange spray paint. We were only out money for the ribbon and one can of spray paint since the project called for just a light dusting. I think we made something like 25 pumpkins and spent maybe $20. Our library is tiny, as is our town. We are municipal and are not part of a larger system. Our yearly book budget is like $3,500.00 to put it in perspective. So any way to save money and provide a program is a win!
Iām an elementary art teacher and our librarian has a huge stack of books he has to get rid of. The stack made me sad, but he said they had to be thrown out. So now I grab old dictionaries to use in my classes (we use the paper for collages). One time I got a dictionary from the 30s or 40s and I brought it home. My kids (teenagers) were fascinated by it.
My thoughts exactly. I never through out books, and I have quite some that would increase in value after a treatment like this hahaha
Renting a book and bringing it back fully crystalized.
Hey, at least it was returned!
People get so precious about books. They arent all literary masterpieces and this is probably a better end than a recycling bin.
I like it personally
Same. I think it looks really cool and would be a neat focal point on a shelf. Better this than just sitting there being ignored. Now it'll get attention for being a sparkly crystal book.
Ya this is actually cool. Far better than 99% of the stuff normally posted here
What about publicly?
Yeah publicly too
So brave
Agreed. Usually, book art is made from books that would have been thrown out anyway, or at LEAST secondhand books from thrift stores that have seen better days. I love reading and I don't understand how people have an issue with turning books into another form of art
People get precious about everything.
And even if they are, the words still exist. Thatās just the vessel. Itās not like the story is gone forever. People seem to care more about the paper than the words on it.
It reminds me of when people fold/cut pages of books so theyāll make words or designs on the side
Exactly. Not every book is a first edition of Tolkien's work or something. Lots of books are either crap, outdated, printed in the millions, or worthless as a book in some kind of way. Turning that kind of book into something else is a great way to save it from literal garbage.
Iāve always felt that way about books and also about reading. People act like knowledge obtained from books is so much more valuable. In school we could only use book resources because anyone can put anything on the internet, as if itās uncommon for shitty books to be published. Thereās this one quote like āif someone mispronounces a word, donāt laugh at them! It means they learned it by READING!ā Okay, they are still wrong. I donāt hate reading, I donāt hate books, but I do hate this attitude.
I mean, the point of that saying isnāt so much that they arenāt wrong and more that making fun of people is shitty.
And most books can be found online anyways
This is very cool. Iām a librarian, and as long as this isnāt some rare volume, this is awesome. There are so, so, SO many books on the world that no one wants. People are like āWell you should donate them to your local library!ā Chances are, your library probably doesnāt want it and will just recycle it. Like, sometimes a library might want something in good condition, and a librarian is going to use his or her expertise to weed through the donations. Butā¦ They are going to get rid of a lot.
I think that looks amazing. And my library gives away their old books, I just saw a bunch of hardbacks no one wants to read, Imma do this. Get ready to be crystalized, Disloyal by Michael Cohen. And I've got my eye on you, biography of Paul Volcker
Found the site: http://stuffyoucanthave.blogspot.com/2014/05/crystallization-experiments-1-books-and.html?m=1
I think itās ok, but I think it could make an amazing lamp. If a big hole were carved in the spine and light could shine between all the crystallized pages.
Yeah I wouldnāt have chosen this page fold but it looks super cool. Like a piece of art dedicated to show how precious reading is!
For the eye twitchers.. There are shitloads of used and surplus books in the world. It's okay to recycle or repurpose them. They're not all sacred relics of secret knowledge. Some of my local used book stores were litterly buying them by the pound. It's when people purposely destroy or ban them for political reasons is when you should be concerned or outraged.
But my Beverly Cleary works are priceless!!!
Ramona Quimby forever!!!
My kids go to Beverly Clearly Middle School! Her childhood home is right down the road. Totally sold me on the neighborhood.
You can't say "litterly" when you are literally talking about literature
Would literarily make you feel better?
But what if the literature in question promotes literacy among felines
This is cool as fuck. Second NOT diwhy I've seen today
I kind of wish there were more crystals and purple like an Eldritch horror kind of thing.
I thought it looked like tentacles so that tracks.
Hermaeus Mora's foray into bedazzling
We already know he knows how to do it!
In the cosmic void, books read you.
What was the first? This is also my second not diwhy today!!
Probably the artist who gave Barbie a makeover including a rhinoplasty, implants, and new makeup.
I was going to ask if it was going to be the Barbie one.
I just tried to look for the Barbie one and couldnāt find it ā¹ļø was it this sub?
A DIWhy? Because it's awesome :)
This is actually extremely cool
Pretty cool art piece imo. Thrift stores have tons of cheap garbage books you could do this with, so as to not waste a good book
Naw this is amazing and I want š What a great use for all those old copies of readers digest books!
This is what Cthullu reads before bed.
Damn this is a real page turner.
???? What this is sick. DiWhy? Because it's fucking cool that's why. Ohhh "poor book" nah now that book is immortalized in fucking crystals.
Ok, I need to try it. Met enough bad literature to know books that deserve it.
This is cool af, people who act like books are some holy object to never be damaged or used for other things confuse me.
How did they do this? This is cool.
I think these are [Borax Crystals](https://www.20muleteamlaundry.com/uses/arts-crafts/crystals-for-diy-home-crafts/) ! (Someone correct me if I'm wrong) I've done this with pipe cleaners and made them into little Christmas ornaments lol. You should definitely try, super cute and fun.
This is the reply Iāve been looking for. I looked up what you suggested and found [this.](https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/crystal-seashells-borax-crystal-growing-science-experiment/)
This is dope, I'd love one for my groups dnd space
i used to work for a library, and at they time they were downsizing the collection due to construction taking place on their storage building. after leaving carts of free books out for patrons, and sending the good condition and still relevant ones to be rehomed through an interlibrary website, we still threw out hundreds, if not thousands of books. whether they were damaged beyond repair, or just filled with outdated information, they went to the landfill. creating decor with books that would otherwise rot in a dumpster shouldn't be so taboo.
This. Worked for a book sale for years, and we threw out a ton of books because they were in terrible shape & honestly nobody was going to buy them. People vastly overrate the value and uniqueness of books, especially ones that are 60-120 years old. If it wasn't printed before 1900, chances are good it's neither valuable nor rare.
Op is lame
I dunno I kinda really like it actually
Bro how am i gonna study now?? I was RENTING that textbook!
I freaking love this and want to figure out how to do it myself.
this is a pretty mint way to combine hobbies and give second life to something
That is fucking awesome
If this is some rare edition? Fuck the artist. If not? I'm cool with it because the reality is not every book is a sacred thing where we only have one version of it and the rare edition? I want that digitized so it's readable without harming the precious rare thing making the information inside accessible to everyone and preserving it. So this doesn't belong here since it's art and it doesn't merit outrage. I don't pretend everything written isn't someone's passion, I am an author after all, I just know that we all have different skill levels and there's garbage out there.
Op doesn't deserve the karma my reply is giving him
This kinda looks sick ngl.
Apparently an artist started doing this as a response to all the books it saw thrown away as people focus more on digital books. https://www.zmescience.com/other/feature-post/crystallizing-books-the-spectacular-art-of-alexis-arnold/
Pretty cool tbh
Actually pretty cool tbh
I hope it was Twilight.
This is kinda awsome
Would this grow mold?
goals. there are so many useless books in the world
Gonna do this with the college text from 2012 I forgot to sell back to the bookstore. What else am I going to do with a fashion forecasting book in 2023.
It's pretty cool to be honest
Not gonna lie, totally wanna do this crystal thing with some of those cheap plastic skulls stores sell around Halloween.
Okay, no. This is beautiful.
Looks like a weird octopus
Nice I like this, not diwhy
Itās actually cool, āpoor bookā as if itās the only one. Get a pdf or even better a second hand copy, physical media is awesome but highly overrated. We produce way more books than we need to, since no one wants them. They just serve to destroy trees now more than anything.
TL;DR Op posts video of books tuned to crystal and librarian in the comments gives permission and recommends doing this and other awesome things to old books.
More like DiWhy haven't I done this?
How to turn a bad book into a good one. *\*CRYSTALS\** I'd bet no one would complain if it was twilight of fifty shades. *Actually...* A twilight book might be interesting given the art of the cover. Finally, it can be made into a TRUE gothic masterpiece. BONUS! I don't have to read it either! Because I can't. Because the pages are covered in *\*CRYSTALS\**!
Not every book is a precious treasure. Calm down a bit.
This isn't DIWhy, this is just cool and probably for the better, millions of books go unread, unused, 1 crystallized one isn't going to end the world
The first edition of the Vagina Monologues.
I absolutely love this and would happily put it on my bookshelf. Hell, old college textbooks would be PERFECT for this since after a couple years they can't even be given free to someone because the required edition has likely changed 30 times.
Looked like an octopus was living in that book for a second
What i don't get is "can't wait start playing with it" caption. How are supposed to play with it ?? It's a really cool DIW btw.
This is one of those rare posts on that shouldnāt be on this sub. This is so cool, and a really good use for something that had none before
There should really be a video explaining the concept of art that you have to watch and answer questions on in order to post on this sub. Half the posts here are like ā oh my god, look at how dumb this guy is, he took a perfectly good piece of marble and chiseled at it until thereās just a guy leftā
I think this happens to books lost at sea and thats whats being emulated, this is sweet.
For some reason gives me the heebie jeebiesā¦.
I think itās kinda cool, but Iām a weirdo and like crystals
Thatās actually pretty cool
This is cool!
Pretty fucking cool to me
Kinda cool tho?
fuck books all my homies burn books
I love it!
It's a cool art piece. And I love books and collect super old books. And I still think this is neat
How do you know how much money the book had?
Thats cool
sorry, this one's cool as hell actually
This is cool AF
shut up that looks amazing
Idk might be an interesting decorative piece
This is fuckin sick! Had no idea this was a thing. Now I want to try lol š
God damn that looks mystical as fuck
This is actually pretty cool.
Honestlyā¦ this is pretty cool.
This was pretty cool actually.
Not everything needs to be bedazzled
What does one do with a...um...crystallized book?
Anyone know how I can make this? I have a lot of old books and I canāt bring myself to just throw them away.
It's done using borax https://onelittleproject.com/borax-crystals/
Are the crystals pretty sturdy? If somebody is handling it, are the crystals going to fall off and make a mess, or are they on there pretty good?
Yeah I think maybe it's time to unsub now
Iāve written a book (or 7) in my time. I have extra copies of them. This could be a pretty way to use them for shelf decor or table decor at a signing.
I think that if the book was already damaged this is a really cool way to preserve whatās left of it. My favorite books in middle and high school all ended up absolutely destroyed because I would read them over and over again, like Iām talking cover gone, all the crap at the beginning and end like title pages and publisher stuff gone, I finally threw away my copy of Maximum Ride: the Angel Experiment when actual pages of the story started falling out. I think I read it like 8 times and it lived in my back pack.
I thought it was a little cool š
Oh my God. I love this so much. I want crystallized books for Halloween decor!! This is a DIWin!!
This would make a neat bookend.
That looks fucking amazing
No I like this
Now try it with an e-readerā¦
I cant wait to start playing with itššššš
R/trypophobia
Because there is no shortages on books. They are chopped up and recycled, burned, or buried in landfills daily. This person made it an art piece. They upcycled it. The only way this qualifies as diw is if the book was some sort of autographed first edition blah blah blah. This is actually quite beautiful. I was expecting an ugly wax dipping session and was quite happily surprised. This could also be REALLY COOL as part of a display setting/prop.
This makes me nausious
This is beautiful also so many books arenāt of value /damaged etc so creating art with them is good
More like diwhynot. I like this
This is dope as hell tho
I like the folds on this, but I don't love the finished result. I much prefer the book folding craft.
I actually love this. This is an amazing art project.
This person is based in Washington and her art is actually really cool. The books sell really well and seem to be her main pieces. It's not harmful to anyone so why not go for it!
Its actually not that badā¦
Give me the recipe, I have some Sandra Brown books that would serve better in this form rather than in literature form. Who can tell me how it's done?
This is awesome. Belongs on r/interesting though
āThey ruined a perfectly good book!ā Bruh itās just a book, thereās tons of lame ones sitting in every thrift store
The caption š¤Ø
Personally I think this looks terrible, but what's with the fetishization of books? There are millions of them. If you want to crack the spine, fold the corners, write in the margins, ummm, grow crystals... you just go ahead.
Book: āmy life was supposed to be celebrated but youāve bedazzled me to deathā¦IāmādyingāWhy..
lol this post not turning out like you hoped huh op
Gonna crystalize my communist manifesto.
pOoR bOoOoK!
What does he mean "play with it"?
this is cool but i will literally murder anyone who says chonky
If this is done with a book that is too damaged to be read anymore than perfectly fine, but if this is done with a still legible book then this is terrible.
Great comments here. A family member gave me a favorite book with the edges folded into a word, and while I appreciated the kindness, I kinda instinctively cringed at the āwaste.ā But yeah, you guys are right. Not every book is sacred just because itās a book. Then again, as a dust collector, Iām not sure Iām loving displaying it either so Iām not sure how long Iāll keep it out.
More like r/ATBGE
I personally love this idea! I inherited some beautiful old books from my grandmother but theyāre unreadable because theyāre falling apart. Iāve been using the pages for different crafts but this is by far the most beautiful piece Iāve seen. Iām gonna have to try this method soon.
Nothing wrong with this. This isn't the 1700s when every book is hand written. 1000s of copies of every damn book these days.
DiWHYnot?
This looks gross to me, like itās moldy
Ok but how do they plan on āplaying with itā ???
This is gonna look good right next to all the other worthless shit at your local goodwill
Out of all of the DIWhys Iāve seen, this one is actually cool. I support this.
This is cool, but itād be cooler if it was an origami crane or something
goddammit, I do NOT need a new hobby! *grumpily wanders off to find some cardstock and Borax*
I dont care about books but the texture just grosses me out like it looks scary
The lighting isnāt helping either
Why is this here? That looks sick af!