Sarah Banbery’s fantastical stationery

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In Mozart’s 1787 opera Don Giovanni, the eponymous libertine’s servant Leporello delights in reading from his little black book: the pages unfold like an accordion to reveal a vast list of his master’s conquests. The term leporello has since been used to refer to a folded book that can be read page by page, or displayed in concertina form.

Collage artist Sarah Banbery specialises in bespoke leporello, which she handcrafts as invitations, gifts and baby announcements. “I love the compact size and the challenge of creating miniature, paper bon mots,” she says. “I see them as visual rhymes – romantic, compelling, beautiful and witty.” She was recently commissioned to make a leporello as a gift for designer Christian Louboutin – shoe-themed, of course – and a dozen others as thank-yous for guests at a dinner at the Cannes Film Festival: the leporello had a burnt umber colour theme to reflect the Côte d’Azur in high summer, and the golden logo of the production company that had ordered them.

I see them as visual rhymes – romantic, compelling, beautiful and witty

After a career spanning film, television, food styling and working on events at Kettle’s Yard, where she worked with clients such as Frédéric Malle and Antony Gormley, Banbery decided to set up her own enterprise from her home in Kent. In 2023 she launched Alchemy Papers, its name inspired by a Marcel Duchamp quote: “Alchemy is a kind of philosophy: a kind of thinking that leads to a way of understanding.” Banbery explains: “You understand the paper in one way and, through the process of collage, it has become something else that you perceive and understand differently.” She also draws inspiration from artists Joseph Cornell, a pioneer of assemblage, and Hannah Höch, one of the first to develop photomontage.

When sourcing materials, the collagist hunts for monographs, magazines, prints and second-hand books. “I like the colours and matte texture of older paper, I think it adds charm. Modern paper has too much sheen.”

The artist works on two large tables strewn with small scissors, scalpels and tiny brushes. It’s there that she begins assembling her findings. “I don’t start with a plan, I go where the images take me,” she says. “Often the source material brings its own history and inspiration, and might suggest a series.” 

Banbery creates paper collage pictures (from £100) that can be made into cards, notebooks and other stationery, as well as prints. Her latest series of six works, titled Beasts & Beauties, combines snippets of animal and human parts to form beguiling creatures – in one, an Indian prince is transformed into a bird-headed Nawab ruler. 

As for her individual and limited-edition leporello (from £500), she works with a range of specialist suppliers: Philippa East at Seagull Bindery in Rye, East Sussex, provides ready-folded paper, end boards, enclosures and slipcovers, while binding paper is sourced from Shepherds London, The Paper Place or Jemma Lewis Marbling & Design, among others. For invitations and other multi-copy series (from £60 each for 200 copies), she works with calligrapher Kate Ridyard and Identity Print – a printer whose clients include Victoria Beckham and Stella McCartney. 

The latest offering is a Christmas card (£20 for eight) inspired by an 8th-century fresco of the Coptic Archangel Gabriel from Faras Cathedral in Sudan. Dressed in robes and wings studded with eyes “because he sees God constantly”, her angel is the perfect image to usher in the festive season.