Artist Excavates Discarded Books to Transform Their Pages into Stunning Jewelry

London-based artist Jeremy May gives discarded books a new lease on life with his wearable sculptures. Images and text are harvested from these publications and formed into modern rings, bracelets, necklaces, and more. Their colorfully layered and patterned designs hardly resemble books at all–instead, they appear as lustrous, stylish accessories that mesmerize us with their beautiful curves and shapes.

May goes through the same meticulous process to create each piece of jewelry. It begins with a trip to the thrift store to select books that he finds inspiring. He then carefully removes their pages–hundreds of them–and laminates them together. After forming the paper into the small wearables, May applies a high-gloss finish to make them shine. The final step is to reinsert the jewelry back into the space from which it was excavated.

May sells his work through his website and at a few select stockists around the world. From now until April 24, he has jewelry on display at the RR Gallery in New York City.

Above photo source: RR Gallery


Photo source: RR Gallery


Photo source: RR Gallery

Jeremy May: Website
via [Lustik]

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled 'Embroidered Life' that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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