Book Folding: Heartbeat

A few weeks ago, I went out and got a whole bunch of old Reader’s Digest, Condensed Books collections for $2 a pop at Savers so I could explore the art of book folding some more. These books are a lot better for folding than the last one I used. For one thing, they’re hardcover. For another, they’re all really old with thick, stiff pages that make folding a lot easier and make the results of folding more noticeable. And, finally, they have these really pretty covers that have absolutely nothing to do with the five-ish abridged books inside.

I actually had a little bit of a moral conflict going into this project as to whether it was right to buy a book with the express purpose of completely ignoring the story inside so the book can be turned into a very different kind of art. I actually went to Savers looking for old dictionaries and/or thesauruses that I could use, since those are basically just reference material that is easily replaced by the internet. The reasons I ultimately went with the Reader’s Digest books were

1. Pretty covers. Kinda shallow, I know, but this is a visual medium.
2. The way I see it, if anyone really wants to read Jane’s House, China: Alive in the Bitter Sea, Promises, or Outrage, all books that were apparently popular in 1982 when this volume of Reader’s Digest was published, then they’re probably going to be better served finding an unabridged copy. (I’ve linked to Amazon listings for all of these, in case you’re curious. There are super cheap used copies and/or Kindle editions for all of these.)

So, with that out of the way, let’s talk about the actual craft I did.

I wanted to start with a pattern that was very simple, and I found this really pretty one on Etsy that makes a heart with a heartbeat inside it. (Normally, this is where I would link to the place I got the pattern, but the entire Etsy shop seems to have dropped off the face of the internet since I got the pattern so…sorry.) It’s a very pretty image, and I really like the way it turned out.

A couple extra notes about the experience:

1. This was a really meditative experience, and I was able to complete the entire thing in an afternoon, which was really refreshing. I love it when I can zone out during a craft and just experience it as the act of doing something. It’s really peaceful.
2. The pattern I used expects you to be using a book that’s a couple inches taller than the one I was using. Ultimately that didn’t turn out to be an issue, but there are a few folds that are really close to the bottom of the book, and no folds that are close to the top of the book. If I’d caught it earlier, I would have moved all the folds up a few centimeters so the heart would be more centered, but it’s not, like, a horrible problem.
3. Turns out, I assume partly because the book is so old, the pages tear really easily, so I’ve got a few messy folds. I caught on to this pretty quick, and I did my best to make sure most of the tears were on the bottom of the book, so again, not really an issue, but something I wasn’t expecting.
4. I don’t have a lot of places in my apartment to put something like this, so it’s just been looming over my living room from on top of my yarn shelf, and I kind of love it.

So yeah. Look out for more posts like this in the future. I have four more volumes of Reader’s Digest, so at least four more of these are going to be made. I don’t know about you, but I’m excited.