Hasta La Ideas

Every time I see a spy movie where a character removes an object hidden inside cut-out book pages, I think “I gotta get a scroll saw and try making one of those.” Artist Kara Witham is way ahead of me: She runs SecretSafeBooks out of Chicago, selling a variety of books with hidden storage through an Etsy account. (Check out our post earlier this week about BookBook, a “bookcover” for your MacBook.)

Witham, a former security guard at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Arts, talks about how she managed to ditch the flashlight and start up her own business in this Etsy feature article:

I was never comfortable with my art, which was figurative and based upon memories of people in my life. Recently it dawned upon me why I’ve always enjoyed drawing in a sketchbook so much. A sketchbook can be closed, which is much less terrifying to me. One night I was aimlessly wandering the corners of the Internet when I ran across some images of hollow books. It just clicked with me. A book. A safe. A secret spot. So I researched methods to do it myself, starting out with an X-Acto blade. Later, Santa brought me a scroll saw. Eventually I started making cutouts in books for flasks, which tickles my funny-bone.

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