Folding Together

The twelve weeks of Saturday zoom folding are evolving. This has been a fun experiment for me, to get together for just thirty minutes once a week to go over some basic paper folding skills. People are showing up, and I get feedback that they are picking up and sharpening their skills.

This Saturday will be the last one before the interruption of the upcoming holidays that will be falling on December 25 and January 1. To keep the continuity, INSTEAD of Saturdays, during Christmas week I will do sessions on Monday December 27 and Thursday December 30 at 1:00. The earlier time is meant to accommodate time zones across the Atlantic. I know this time won’t be good for everyone, but it suits some overseas people whom I’ve been in touch with.

The zoom link will be the same as it’s been every week, which is

Paula Krieg is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/73281685909?pwd=SUgwZGc2R096VndpSXpraVRPdURVUT09

Meeting ID: 732 8168 5909
Passcode: XBFUX2

Now for some pictures from last meeting:

Pocket Accordion by Susan Joy Share

We created pocketed accordions this past week. My emphasis was on how to fold up the pocket evenly without using measuring tools. I wrote about this in detail in a 2014 post. After folding, we examined the possibilities of the form.

Susan Joy Share sent me the stunning example above of what she made. Taking advantage of the characteristics of these folds, she slipped design elements into the pockets, emphasized the pocket’s edge with strip, echoed that strip with another one above it, which has a number line feel to it. Then she took full advantage of the folds to create pop-ups, both on the pockets and on the space above. She lined the back of the accordion, too. I love the detail of the hot pink in the bottom edges, and all the lovely hand drawing that she included.

Jo Michalski’s Pocketed Accordion

Here’s one from Jo Michalski. She’s taken advantage of the pockets in two distinct ways. Like Susan, she included pop-ups on the pockets, which takes advantage of the fact that the back of the pop-up is lined by the lower layer, but then she went on to include this delightfully clever second color into the pockets, which offered another pop-up opportunity. Doing this makes the upper layer of the accordion be the background for the new set of protruding shapes. Then she glued fun little add-ons and made some interesting cuts to finish off.

What Jo and Susan both did was that they explored the different opportunities that the structure offered. Looking at what’s in front of them, they came up with a direction and followed it. For me, it’s this process of development that captivates me about others peoples work.

Pocketed Accordion by Paula Krieg

What my challenge was, after seeing Susan’s and Jo’s work, was to figure out some other ways of playing around with the same structure. What I chose to do was to add curves to the pocket and the the top of the page, sew in a couple of tiny pages in a couple of the valleys, make slinky little cuts in the pockets that show some gold beneath, glue in some geometric shapes, then include something like paper dolls into the pockets.

I made a little video of it. It occurs to me that this would make an interesting stage set.

Tomorrow, Saturday December 18, I’ll be doing another 4 pm EST session, using the same zoom link that I listed earlier in this post. We’ll be making a different sort of accordion (maybe I’m pushing to even call it that) which will result in a six-sided snowflake. I have all sorts of tips to share

Bring scissors, lightweight copy paper, and, if you have some, bring some paper napkins, doesn’t matter what size. Hope to see you.