For it’s birthday, I’ve made this nine-year old blog a pop-up card, inspired byArno Célérier, whose work I saw on David A. Carter’s facebook page. I generally don’t spend much time making pop-ups, but I do like cutting paper. Sometimes, while sitting having morning coffee with my husband, I cut silly little shapes from any paper that near me, just because I like the activity of cutting. Then I throw the shapes away.
Seeing Arno Célérier’s work has made me think about assembling these little paper doodles into pop-up cards.
Paper Doodle Pop-up Card
The assemblages above is to celebrate nine years of blogging.
On this same date, in 2014, four years ago, I started engaging on twitter, so it’s a four-year old birthday for @paulakrieg. Here’s my birthday card to my twitter handle.
Doodling in Dimensions
A sweet little close up detail:
Detail
I’m liking having been inspired to play in this way.
Right now I’m preparing materials for three short workshops that will be happening at the Community Center in Waverly, Pennsylvania. this Saturday, October 11. There will be many presenters during the grand weekend long celebration of the 50th year of the E. Lammot Belin Arts Scholarship. I’ve taken a look at the line-up, which was published as part of an article, in the local Times-Tribune, and it looks like I will be missing many great workshops while I am teaching my own.
If you happen to be in the Scranton area, do come. These workshops are all free to the participants.
I’ll be busy with three different groups. For adults, at 1:15 I will be teaching the Card Carrying Blizzard Book, a diminutive structure which can be modified in many ways, and which is created through a sequence of cleverly arranged folds.
Card Carrying Blizzard Book, a book structure designed by Hedi Kyle
The organizers of this event pretty much left it up to me what to teach, and they let me decide on what ages I wanted to work with. Well, I like just about every age group, so I asked to do three workshops, each focusing on a different group. I’m looking forward to showing adults how to make this little card-carrying book, as it’s not something that I often have an opportunity to teach.
At noon,just before the adult workshop, I’ll be working with 8 to 12 years, making pop-ups.
Many Layered Pop-up
I plan to show some basic pop-up concepts to these children, then give them time to let loose with their own creativity.
The morning workshop, the first of the three, is one of my favorites to teach.I nearly never have the right venue in which to present it. Here’s the description that I wrote up:
11:00 – 11:50 Impromptu Paper and Book Arts for Parents and their Pre-school Children
Here’s a workshop that stretches how creative Moms and Dads can be while tending young children. During this open studio time caretakers, who are invited to bring their infants and toddlers along with them, will learn how to transform regular pieces of paper into whimsical and wondrous playthings.
So, did you get that? Infants and toddlers are invited to come to this workshop, along with their caretakers. There’s no guarantee about what will get done, as each child/adult pair have their own unpredictable dynamics. I will be bringing written directions for the projects so that people can work at their own paces. I think I will have some helpers with me, too.
Small Paper Stage
I dreamt up the concept for this workshop in waiting rooms when my children were small. I would scrounge up a piece of paper, sometimes an expired flyer hanging on the wall, sometimes one of those cards that all always falling out of magazines, and I would entertain my children with a little pop-up or an impromptu book. It really came in handy, knowing how to transform bits of paper into playthings. This workshop lets me share these little treasures.
At various times I’ve already posted directions for the simple little structures that I will be teaching in the toddlers’ class. But, if you are interested, I’ve put together a 6 page, 4MB PDF file that I can send via email to anyone who asks for it. It won’t go out automatically so be patient, though chances are you will get it within about half a day. You’ll wait longer, though, if you ask on Saturday: or. if you are impatient, you will just have to come to Waverly, Pennsylvania and sit in on one of the workshops.. See you there!
Since I have devoted my last few posts to pop-ups, I’ve decided to put together a brief introduction to this magical bit of paper engineering. There are many fabulous in-depth resources to making pop-ups: this post is not one of those. Instead, I offer here a couple of introductory type of handouts.
For in-depth looks at pop-ups visit
http://www.popularkinetics.com/making_page.html This is Carol Barton’s site. Back in the late 1980’s I took my first class in pop-ups with Carol at The Center for Book Arts. Since that time she has taught pop-ups world-wide and has written a couple of fun, colorful books on the subject.
http://www.robertsabuda.com/popmakesimple.asp A discussion of pop-ups just can not be had without mentioning Robert Sabuda. The first book I saw of his was an all white Christmas Alphabet book: awe-inspiring.
I’ve been pouring over these photos that I have taken of work done at a Book Arts Summer In Salem workshop, as well as pages from a very special book that created by students during this past winter while working at North Main Gallery in Salem, NY alongside Ruth Sauer and Ed Hutchins.
One thing I keep coming back to is how the dynamic energy of the students is so well aligned with dynamic paper structures.
There is something about putting a big pile of colored markers on the table, along with paper and instructions on how to make pop-ups that, well, just go together.
One thing that I have really noticed, and have been inspired by, about the pop-ups made by Salem youth (besides the bold colors, the whimsy and the energy of the drawings) is how well these young people grasp the concept of using multiple elements in the composition on their pages. For instance, in the page above, there are animals on three different levels. Also, I am particularly enchanted by how the hats are layered and slightly intertwined and how they echo the tents of the landscape.
This boat is perched on a waterfall. The waterfall pops-up out from the page by being a basic box pop-up. But there’s more!
As the page opens the boat seems to be teetering on the edge.
The Hidden V-Pop-up: Behind the Scenes of Going over the Waterfall
The secret behind the boat’s movement is the V-fold that the boat is attached to from behind , creating a diagonal movement when the page opens, so the predicament that this boat finds itself in seems tangibly real.
Slider behind a Box Pop-UP: Girls coming out of the Woods
Another way these students used the box pop-up dynamically is by making sliders that come out from behind the box.
It looks to me like the young artist here drew a tree or two on a separate piece of paper, created a landscape with a box pop-up, then cut out the trees that were drawn separately and, finally, added one to the box, the other to a slider element.
I so much admire the composition of these pages. It looks like there’s two pop-up boxes on this page,but what really makes this page striking to me is that the turtle (who had been upright and standing out on previous pages) is now upside down with just her little feet sticking up….and her crown floating away. The upside heroine with the splashes of red around her creates a bold and dynamic image.
I’ve put together an instructional hand-out for the two basic pop-ups, just in case you are now suffering from a touch of inspiration.
I’ll have this instructional sheet out in a day or two.
Playful Bookbinding and Paper Works 