Thursday, March 04, 2010

New Use for Discarded Books

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is highlighting law librarian Kathy Kelly, who works at Knox, McLaughlin, Cornall & Sennett, in an article in the February 28, 2010 edition. Kelly's firm discards many books every year. She uses them to create purses and laptop computer cases that she has dubbed BookBags. She says, "I started saving the books before I thought of making purses ... I just couldn't bear to throw them out. ..." Her work is on display in the Fayette County Law Library this month, and she is the artist of the month. Each bag is unique and Kelly has made nearly thirty so far. They can be custom made to the customer's specifications, and cost between $125 and $350 each. What a great idea!

2 comments:

Betsy McKenzie said...

This is so cool sounding. I wish I could see a picture of the purses. It's kind of hard to imagine what the books look like without the boards, and made into a purse. What a neat idea! I've seen law books re-purposed into lamps (drill a stack of them so the cord goes up through them, add the hard-ware and a lampshade and it looks pretty classy). I've seen them made into book-ends. I've seen them made into tables (again, a pile of books, drilled with a pole support and glued, then a table top!). I never thought to gut them and make them into purses or clothing. This is a new frontier!

James Milles said...

That's easy: http://www.bookbags.us.com/