Family Album Pop-Up Bookmaking.2 @ Queens Library 4/18/2023

 QUEENS PUBLIC LIBRARY

"Creative Aging: Virtual Family Album Pop-Up Bookmaking"

Tuesday April 18, 2023

 

We had another good roll of students this morning, some new faces and quite a few returning participants.  Sonia was so inspired by last week’s class that she researched more methods of making pop-ups and even bought a book on the subject!. She shared over 8 examples of different pop-up pages she made. 

 

As our class is about how to make a “flap”, which opens to show what is underneath, our warm up was centered on “the reveal”. We placed our hands over our face then moved them apart horizontally, vertically, and diagonally each time revealing a different facial expression. Next, we gave ourselves a hug, closing our body, then opened our arms, stretching them in different directions. Finally, we opened our hands from closed fists into hand gestures.

 

I screen-shared our word of the day, FLAP and an example of a “turn-up” book popularized by medical students for learning about human anatomy in the 16th century. In the mid-eighteenth century “metamorphoses” books were created for children, and opening each fold revealed a picture which helped forward the narrative. We also shared images of early twentieth century German made mechanical drawings which when opened revealed the workings of locomotives.

 

We asked participants to think about a door they are familiar with, either front, back or inside door, from their memory or now. As we want to encourage storytelling, we asked them to think about what they might see when they open the door. For inspiration, I shared my example of the front door of my childhood home and behind it was my mother’s hand beckoning and welcoming me home after school, where there was often a treat, she had baked waiting for me. 

 

Spica outlined the materials needed for today’s class and shared a link as to where they can be purchased. Spica demonstrated how to make the next base page into which the door would be placed and showed us how to make the door. She gave two examples, a single opening door and French Doors. Spica glued patterned paper inside her door reminiscent of the heavy rain she experiences in Taiwan. She made an umbrella as the moving object revealed when the door was opened. A stick made from stiffened paper was added to the object and a slot cut close to the fold of the door through which the stick was poked through. Then a semi-circular cut was made in the base page, so the stick is easily accessible. To close the French Doors, Spica demonstrated how to make a latch. 

 

I shared the refrigerator I’d made, which was inspired by the Fridgidaire we had when we were children. Inside the small freezer I added a large tub of Neopolitan ice cream, which was my father’s favorite and inside the fridge a bottle of milk, and a bowl of jelly (jello to Americans). Spica demonstrated how to make the fridge and freezer and create the internal crispers for fruit and vegetables. 

 

Pat wanted to make a circular flap which when opened would reveal her grandchild who loves to paint. Spica modeled how to do this using a mini flap or hinge. We love it when our students challenge us and when they come up with their own original examples. It’s all about “having a go”, experimenting and having fun creating!