Handmade Spotlight Stallholders

Growing Books is an inspirational concept

Recycling Hardcover books and sharing succulent cuttings - viola!

HERE is an edited excerpt of an article on Growing Books, a niche stallholder at the markets, you can read more at findhandmade.com.au

Nestled in the shade of a Port Jackson fig, there’s a couple of paint dappled ladders with rows of aged hardcover books, tied up by twine, with little succulents peeking out – and a couple of lads sitting calmly behind. 

You can see Jeremy and Luke seated at rear, one rubbing his beard the other tilting a sideways glance from behind his dark sunglasses. 

A chalkboard sets the price and some social media details – as though the product speaks for itself – pairs or trios of books with a cutting from a succulent in a little pot cut into the book. As though the book is holding a little handful of nature.

It’s a curious concept – combining the architectural structure of succulents with the history and gravity of a yellowing old tome – the lasting resilience of the cactus with the fleeting moment of the written word.  

But it works – there is a stream of passers by stopping and pointing like an eddy in the current – some simply staring at the rows of books and the chunky cute cuttings poking proudly out.

This is Growing Books and this is upcycling and recycling and repurposing across genres – taking ancient tomes and bending them into plant pots – completely not what was intended and with a eyebrow raising quirkiness that really captures the zietgiest of handmade in 2014.