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Isabell Buenz

@isabellbuenz

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Join me in my book & paper art workshops, discover a new passion, have fun learning new skills and create beautiful art from discarded materials.

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I'm in Lecce, Puglia and have visited some of the cartapesta (papermâché) workshops here in town.

Cartapesta is a tradition going back to the 17th & 18th century. The demand for religious statues for the many baroque churches coupled with the lack of money and other resources led to the creation of straw and paper based figures.

One of the first famous paper figures was over 5 and 1/2 m tall and the ceiling of the Church of Santa Chiara in Lecce is entirely made of cartapesta and can still be seen today.

One of my photos shows how the figures are made: wire or wood for the inner structure, straw tied around it to give the shape, then the paper, followed - once dried out - by some plaster and paint. The heads, hands and feet (or shoes) are typically made from terracotta clay.

Today, there are still master cartapestai creating new church sculptures, repairing and maintaining damaged ones and producing everyday and nativity figures and dioramas for the tourist market. There is even a museum in the castle, all dedicated to this craft.

#lecce #cartapestaleccese #paperart #papermâché #travelpuglia by @isabellbuenz

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5 days ago

I'm working my way through boxes of old work, mostly things I made for exhibitions years ago.

I found this 🐚'sea shell'🐚artist's book which is unfortunately a bit worse for wear. When I made it, it was very precise but after several moves it's not at its best any longer..

Still thought I'll post it: 250 folded pages, each 1 mm cut smaller than the previous one, sewn onto 2 bits of ribbon. That was a real labour of love! 💖💖💖

#bookart #artistbook #bookbinding #paperart #bookartist by @isabellbuenz

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a month ago

Yesssss, I did it and so did many others: we reached day 100 of
@100daysprojectscotland

I struggled with my project but kept going and am so happy that I did. The last 10 days have been the fun part: I bound my 90 collages into 3 books, using Coptic stitch. I even managed to make a case for the books. All my cover papers were put together from my favourite daily collages. 😊

Was great to see other people's work and @isla_creative 's pop ups, counting the days.
Thank you Isla for organising this and sending daily encouragement through your numbers.
Thanks also to the likes and lovely comments I got.

#100daysprojectscotland2026
#100daysprojectscotland
#my100magazinecollages
#bookart #bookbinding by @isabellbuenz

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a month ago

I thought I'll post some of my favourite collages from one magazine page for @100daysprojectscotland

I've done 90 collages and am in the process of binding them into 3 books. Hopefully, I'll get them done by the last day of the project! 😊 I managed to createvthe covers over the last 3 days: so far, so good! 😜
💖

#100daysprojectscotland2026
#100daysprojectscotland
#my100magazinecollages
#paperart #collage by @isabellbuenz

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2 months ago

My last group of 6 collages from one magazine page for @100daysprojectscotland

As in previous years, I wanted to do something that eventually wouldn't take up much space, a mistake I made the fist year I took part in the project.

The plan is to bind 3 books with 30 collages each. The front and back will be covered in collages and I will use Coptic stitch.

This year I have spent very little time on Instagram and - as a result - missed a lot of other people's posts for this project. Good to know though that I am part of an amazing community, brought together by @isla_creative
💖💖💖

#100daysprojectscotland2026
#100daysprojectscotland
#my100magazinecollages
#paperart #collage by @isabellbuenz

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2 months ago

Here are days 79 - 84 of #my100magazinecollages of the @100daysprojectscotland

I'm glad I'm still doing this but also looking forward to collage 90 when I will start binding all collages into 3 books!

It'll be much easier for me to make the books. The collages are still challenging me every day:
- working with randomly picked magazine pages out of my pile, often with images, colours and subjects I wouldn't naturally go for
- working each collage in A5 while ideally I'd go bigger
- and leaving negative space. So much negative space! 🥴

While I don't always enjoy every day's contribution I'm just pretty chuffed that I haven't given up! 😊

Thank you - again - to @isla_creative for counting the days with her brilliant pop up numbers. 💖💖💖 by @isabellbuenz

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2 months ago

Days 73-78 of #my100magazinecollages as part of @100daysprojectscotland

I have to confess that I cheated a bit by preparing these 6 collages in advance. With friends visiting, I just knew that I would want to spend as much time with them as possible.

Anyway, the most important thing is that I'm still going, I'm just over 3/4s through the challenge and haven't given up yet. Definitely reason for celebration. 💖💖💖

#100daysprojectscotland2026
#100daysprojectscotland
#paperart #collage by @isabellbuenz

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2 months ago

I can hardly believe I'm still managing to keep up with @100daysprojectscotland
After my fantastic trip to Germany and so much amazing art it's been hard to get back into the swing of things... Here are days 67 - 72 of magazine page collages.

Thank you to @isla_creative for counting the days with the brilliant pop up numbers. 💖💖💖

#100daysprojectscotland2026
#100daysprojectscotland
#my100magazinecollages
#paperart #collage by @isabellbuenz

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2 months ago

It's great when making my collages works out really well: I like the magazine page: it's contents and colours, I can work quickly and I like the result.
I'm just very happy this lot - days 61-66 of @100daysprojectscotland - worked so well. Having travelled most days I really wanted to keep up but not spend too much time creating each image.

I've been in temperatures between 30° and 35° and am amazed my glue did not melt completely! 😬🤣

#100daysprojectscotland2026
#100daysprojectscotland
#my100magazinecollages
#paperart #collage by @isabellbuenz

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2 months ago

I have been in Duesseldorf for a few days before flying home.
Here are a few things I liked: public sculpture, exhibitions, buildings. If it hadn't been 35° I would have been a lot happier!!!

#exhibition #installation #sculpture #diegrosse #duesseldorf by @isabellbuenz

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2 months ago

I spent a few days in the north of Germany and managed to visit @nord_art This is a yearly art exhibition in old steelworks and I love, love, love it.

Here are some pics of sculpture I had not seen or noticed before and some of my all-time favourites.

#exhibition #installation #sculpture #art #nordartbüdelsdorf by @isabellbuenz

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3 months ago

Travelling has made the 100 days project quite a bit more challenging, so I fitted in more than one day's collages in when I could. I know: what a cheat!!!😜😂
Anyway, here are days 55-60 of @100daysprojectscotland
I'm so happy I got this far. I'd like to make my collages into 3 books and now have enough to create book no 2! YEAH.

A big thank you goes to @isla_creative for organising and 'counting down' the project with her amazing pop-up numbers.

#100daysprojectscotland2026
#100daysprojectscotland
#my100magazinecollages
#paperart #collage by @isabellbuenz

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3 months ago