Family Album Pop-Up Bookmaking.3 @ Queens Library 5/2/2023

 QUEENS PUBLIC LIBRARY

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

Tuesday May 2, 2023

Building on what we learned last week, our participants were eager to use their known skills and try their hand at something new. We began with a transformation theater game as we are transforming the simple page into a magical and surprising pop-up. Take an everyday object, look at it and without thinking too much transform it into something else. I led the game with a mug which I used as a telescope, spying our host Madlyn, “Ahoy there Madlyn!”. Next the humble wooden spoon became a ukulele as I serenaded the class with “On the Good Ship Lollipop”, and finally I took a book I was reading and made it fly, not across the room, but used the pages as the wings of a bird, a cheeky seagull swooping down to devour a tasty morsel. 

 

Our word for today’s class was “parallelogram”. I shared screen shots of these shapes in everyday objects such as a tissue box, a door and window, a shelving unit, and a chest of rolling office drawers. In today’s class we will use this shape to create a table and chair. I asked our participants to think about favorite or special tables and chairs as I shared my own examples, the dining table I sat at as a child while doing my homework. 

 

Spica outlined the materials needed, cardstock, pencil, ruler scissors and glue as well as colored paper for decorating. She began as we always do with making the Base page then reviewed what was learned last week and made 2 V-Fold Stands. Next, Spica demonstrated how to make a cube which is the basis of the table and the chair, though they differ in size. Once the strip of cardstock is cut and folded and the tab is glued, the cube takes shape and becomes a table when the legs are cut out and a colorful tabletop and or cloth is added. Using the same method, a chair is made which can have a back added or, in Spica’s case, a round top to make it a stool, like the ones she sat on as a child around her dining table with her family. 

 

The table was glued onto the front V-Fold Stand making sure it did not jut out of the page, while the table was added to the other side of the front V-Fold Stand. These 2 objects created the Foreground of the page. 

 

The Background was the wall of the room in which the table and chair stood. Using a scrap piece of paper, Spica folded it in half and placed it in front of the back V-Fold Stand and closed the page. She marked the section of the pare that extruded then cut it off. This paper then formed a template for the cardstock which was to be the wall. This is called making a mock-up and is a great way to learn and to keep as a guide for future work. Spica decorated her wall with textured green paper and added 2 doors which reflected the doors from her childhood home. 

 

Beth shared her mockup of a chair and wall. She also showed us her house page and shared her idea of adding 2 V-Fold Stands in front of the house, on which she’ll attach a tree, shrubs and possibly another object. 

 

We always enjoy it when our students experiment with ideas and ask questions. Learning by doing!