Paper to Petal

I see a lot of craft books every year, but only a handful actually make it into my library, and even fewer remain there from year to year. But I had a feeling about this book, pre-ordering it back in March when it first showed up on Amazon (and eagerly awaiting its publication and the arrival of my UPS driver ever since).

Oh, was I right! Paper to Petal, by couple Rebecca Thuss and Patrick Farrell, is almost overwhelming in its abundance, a whopping 256 pages! It's not the kind of book you peruse in an evening, then set aside to gather dust. In fact, I flipped through it at least four times last night and something new caught my eye every time. But beyond the eye candy - and there's a lot of it - there's an amazing wealth of instruction and resources. The steps are all laid out visually, so you know exactly what you're striving for. The designs are not simplistic, but they feel achievable (the 264 templates in the back of the book help with that).

You would think with all that precision that the projects themselves could get a little stuffy, but nothing could be further from the truth. There's such a riot of color and playfulness contained within these pages. It goes beyond the mechanics of striving for reproduction of nature, introducing fesh, artistic expression, with painting techniques and the incorporation of glitter and metallics, printed papers, unexpected colors, and surprise.

If you have any interest in paper flowers, this is a must-have for your library. It's so beautifully designed and photographed that it's also a book you can keep on your coffee table with all of your other art books. I trust that you will find it endlessly inspiring. Personally, this book comes at exactly the right time in my creative life, as I find myself becoming more interested in artistic expression, not just "craft." This book is a beautiful marriage of both.