Family Album Pop-Up Bookmaking.5 @ Queens Library 5/9/2023

 QUEENS PUBLIC LIBRARY

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

Tuesday May 9, 2023

Madlyn is on a well-earned vacation, so we were ably hosted by Ricola and Willie. Thanks to both for all their help. It was great to be in the same time zone as everyone, having arrived back in New York the night before. Sonia came onto Webex early and shared the terrific pop-up pages her older adult students are making. As a visual teaching artist, Sonia has been inspired by our classes to try some simple pop-ups with her classes and the cards they have made are colorful and inventive. She also told us her granddaughter loves making pop-up art, which she takes to school for show and tell. 

 

Today’s lesson features how to make a pop-up bedroom, so my warmup was a word association game using “bedroom”. We went around the class with students offering the first word they thought of when they heard “bedroom”, with some surprising results including lambs, art, music and romance!

 

I shared my example of my childhood pop-up bedroom and drew students’ attention to the wall shape and design as well as the bed, which is another parallelogram. Next, I asked them to think about the bedroom they want to make today, whether it be their current bedroom, one from childhood or even fantastical.

 

Spica shared recommendations of 3 how to make pop-up Art books, including for the beginner; The Elements of Pop-Up by David A. Carter and James Diaz, Pop-Up design and paper mechanics: How to make folding paper sculpture by Duncan Birmingham, who also has great videos online and with more complex techniques, Playing with Pop-Up: The art of dimensional, moving paper designs by Helen Hiebert. 

 

Students reviewed making the Base page and an inverted fold, which was the technique learnt in the first class. Next, we expanded on skills learnt last week to make a box but this time it was rectangular in shape. Students used leftover cardstock to make the headboard and footboard, which they could shape and decorate to their taste. Choosing textured and/or colored paper, they made a bedspread and matching pillows. Participants suggested using cloth for the bed covering and pillows. A great idea!

 

Using these skills, they made a slightly larger rectangular box which became the closet. Spica demonstrated ways of decorating the front panel to make it appear like doors with handles. We suggested they could use the Flap technique to add opening doors if they so wished. 

 

The Wall was glued onto the Base page and students decided which side they would place the bed and the opposite side the closet, ensuring both were not too close to the center fold or too far near the edge so they were hidden inside the page. We suggested that if they wanted to add a floor covering, like carpet or wood, now was the time to do so before the bed and closet were glued on to the wall. A rug or mat was cut out of colorful paper and glued to the base page at the side of the bed and/or in front of the closet. Spica added a painting simply made from a small rectangle of cardstock and smaller piece of colored paper on top and glued it above the bed. We suggested a window could be placed there instead. 

 

Pat chose brightly colored striped paper placed horizontally on the bed as its duvet, then used the same paper, glued horizontally on the closet doors. Adding 2 door handles completed that design. Beth chose a deep red for the sheets on the bed which folded over the footboard. Her closet became a chest of drawers. We love seeing our students’ work and hearing their suggestions. Creativity rules!!