Designer Makes Literary Jewelry from Old Books

In this time of video games, interactive websites and the Amazon Kindle, it’s hard to believe that just a few short decades ago people actually relied on books for their entertainment and education.

Books, like most paper-and-ink products, can be broken down and recycled into to new products, but it can sometimes be sad to think about destroying the pages that have brought us so much pleasure through the years.

That’s why designer Jeremy May came up with a creative way to keep these cherished tomes close to your heart — literally.

May, the founder of Littlefly Jewelry, has captured the beauty of paper via a unique laminating process. The one-of-a-kind rings, earrings, bracelets, pendants and necklaces that May creates are made by cutting through stacks of pages and then laminating hundreds sheets of paper together.

The block of pages is then carefully finished to a high gloss and shaped into a new piece of jewelry. The paper is selected and carefully removed from a book, and the jewelry is reinserted in the ready-made display case left by the excavated space.

“Each piece is impossible to replicate, and is unique to the wearer,” May says on his website. “The beauty of the jewels extends within the piece: text and images pass all the way though the object, only exposed at the surfaces — giving a tantalizing glimpse of the book within.”

May sources his vintage books from all over the globe, and takes the time to thumb through each work looking for a distinct quote to provide form and inspiration for his final creation. Because each piece is impossible to replicate, each includes a serial number to show that it is part of a unique collection.