Paper Wasp Designs
Jewelry, Bookbinding, and Paper Arts
Lyn Brown adores paper. Starting as a paper artist and then teaching herself to bind books, Brown began her business, Paper Wasp Designs, in 1990. “My process, and my inspiration, always start with the paper itself: meticulous Japanese silkscreens, gorgeous hand-marbled papers from master marblers, and so much more,” she explains. “Each kind of paper has its own particular qualities like weight, color, light permeability, texture, and tensile strength. Few things please me more than using a cool new paper in a way that showcases its best qualities.” Brown learned bookbinding by taking books apart to figure out how they were made and then making her own. “The elements of bookbinding really appeal to me,” she says. “The precision required, the paper itself, the process, and the end result―a useful and beautiful object―are all deeply satisfying.” Highly inventive, the artist makes paper-covered items that include light-switch plates, magnetic photo frames, photo albums, playing-card boxes, wine journals and blank books. She buys wire lampshade frames, covers them with various papers, and adds beaded trim; she enjoys working with customers to make custom lampshades.
She has expanded her artistic work, creating unique jewelry which incorporates antique elements as in watches, and various beads that evoke a sense of times passed.
