Paper Only by The Papered Parlour includes 20 varied and beautifully written tutorials teaching you how to make everything from delicate paper roses and wreaths, to printed wrapping paper and origami bows.
Since being founded in 2009, The Papered Parlour has hosted experimental workshops, critically acclaimed masterclasses and mini festivals, welcoming thousands of participants to their craft-centric events. Their passion for crafting, and adoration for paper and its versatility, shines through on each page of Paper Only.
With this, their debut book, The Papered Parlour endeavoured to create more than just a craft book – they wanted to create a book about creativity, pushing the boundaries of paper-craft whilst simultaneously encouraging creativity. Below is a list of five reasons which make Paper Only much more than your average craft book:
1. Personality
Unlike some books, the goal is not to create exactly what is on the page but rather to adopt The Papered Parlour’s messy, carefree way of working; take some artistic risks, experiment, let your artistic flare go wild and see what happens! This experimental approach injects excitement into each challenge and means that 20 tasks can in fact create an endless amount of unique, personality-filled crafted items.
2. Transferable Skills
During the course of the book, a plethora of skills including screen and block printing, origami and repeat pattern planning are taught, tried, tested and compared, resulting in an invaluable skill set which is not only essential for the tasks at hand but will without a doubt come in handy after you are finished working your way through the book, and go on to bigger and better craft projects.
3. Lifestyle Guide
As any crafter will know, creativity has a habit of seeping into every aspect of life, making it hard to cram all your creative ideas into what seems like far too short a day. Luckily, Paper Only has you covered, as it is as much a creative lifestyle guide as it is a craft book. Helpful hints and tips cover everything including setting up a studio in any sized space, documenting your ideas in a sketchbook and going on an inspirational typography walk.
4. Beauty
The skills outlined in Paper Only are invaluable. That said, strip away all the informative guides and pearls of wisdom and you are still left with a thing of absolute beauty. The pages are filled with stunning photography documenting each stage in the creative journey, the sense of fun and excitement it can create, and of course displaying the final products of the creative craft challenges and showing how they can be implemented to brighten up any space.
5. Wow Factor
As if all this wasn’t enough, The Paper Parlour have one last trick left up their sleeve. As you flick through the books pages, an endless array of craft ideas already sparking in your mind, you will be delighted to find that in the middle of the book there is a double-page spread which pulls out to unveil a charming scene, with the members of The Papered Parlour crafting away in their old studio in London. There is not much that can sum up the joy of crafting better than a large image of a group of avid crafters beavering away in a communal space, surrounded by beautiful paper creations and like-minded creatives.
You can pick up a copy of Paper Only here.
