The Wizard of Odd party, Geelong, Australia

The Geelong Fibers Forum ended with a fabulous costume party. The theme was “The Wizard of Odd” and partygoers dressed accordingly. Here are photos of a few of the imaginative characters in attendance. Thanks to everyone who made this conference such a great success! 

The Geelong Forum and My Australian Students

The Geelong Forum is a major conference of Fibers and Textile artists which takes place every year at the Geelong Grammar School in Australia. Approximately 300 artists, craftspersons, and vendors attend. This year I offered a sculptural book class at the conference and had seventeen enthusiastic students in the class. They created some wonderful books and pop-ups over the course of the  past week, and we had a great time sharing ideas and seeing examples of work by everyone who participated.

Teaching in Tasmania, Australia

A week-long class in Lanceston, Tasmania, yielded a slew of wonderful pop-up, carousel, and tunnel books. My eleven students worked day and night to produce the work shown here. I’m so happy with the results of the class that I’ve added images of the finished books to my ongoing slide lecture series. Thanks everyone who participated!

Introduction to Tasmania

Arriving in the city of Launceston in Tasmania, I was greeted by Helen Statham at the airport and escorted to their home for my first Tasmanian cup of tea. Helen and her husband Mick are agricultural scientists working on studies of Tasmanian Devils, Wallabies, and other native marsupials to find how they affect agricultural production in the state. While staying with them I learned more about these incredible animals and went to see several in the their study area and at the local wildlife reserve. We also did a hike into the Lanceston gorge and over the weekend took a longer trip out to see some of the surrounding countryside. Helen and Mick have a wealth of knowledge on the local flora and fauna, which I greatly appreciated along with their hospitality.

Unfolding at Arrowmont

Over the course of an exciting week at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg , Tennessee, students in my sculptural book class created numerous pop-up cards along with a carousel book and a tunnel book.

Arrowmont is a creative oasis nestled within the Smoky Mountains. Along with my class, sessions were held in woodturning, jewelry, drawing, basket weaving, printmaking, ceramics, fabric design, and glass. The entire faculty and student body gathers at meals and in the evenings to share experiences and gain inspiration from each other. It’s a great environment in which to expand the boundaries of one’s creative experience.

Bear painting by Thaddeus Erdahl, artist-in-residence

Several students also sighted some local residents in the form of a mamma bear and her two cubs.

Building Pop-Ups at the National Building Museum

The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., is one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. Designed by General Montgomery Meigs as the Pension Building and built between 1881 and 1887, its eight enormous interior columns are among the tallest in the world. Today the museum features exhibitions on architecture, city planning, and design. So what better place to hold a kids’ class on building pop-ups?

My two-day session was part of a six-week program of kids’ camps at the museum. Twelve young designers and paper engineers participated. The first day we designed books around the themes of family and home. Pop-ups featured drawings of friends, parents, siblings, pets, and room interiors. The next day we concentrated on neighborhoods. After drawing a map of their neighborhood, each child did pop-ups of their house, their school, and their favorite place to eat. As you can see from the results, the class was full of ideas and lots of creative energy.

Between Road Trips

Between this summer’s teaching trips I’m doing some long-overdue rennovation work on our house. Neighbor and sculptor Raya Bodnarchuk arrived just in time to capture  me putting the finishing touches on a major spackle job in the living room. (I think there was as much spackle dust on me as on the walls and floor.) It’s not bookmaking, but it does give the satisfaction of a job well done.

Pop-Ups in Durango, Colorado

 

This past weekend was highlighted by a wild west pop-up workshop in Durango, Colorado. The beautiful mountainous setting inspired lots of landscape images, along with many purely sculptural pop-up scenes. Eleven students spent two days in an intensive study of paper engineering structures, and I’m sure many more creations will be designed following the class.

While in Durango, I stayed friends Mary Ellen  and Wendell Long. Mary Ellen is a nationally known paper and book artist who creates wonderful environmental book s that change with the weather and the seasons.

We had a wonderful time looking at her work, seeing a show of fabulous crochet fashions aby Birgitta Bjerke at Fort Lewis College, and enjoying Wendell’s culinary creations.

Exhibit of Brigitta Bjerke's crochet fashions

On the Road in Pittsburgh

 

 

 

 

 

 

My pop-up workshop at the Society for Creative Craft in Pittsburgh was a wonderful mix of students from many different backgrounds. The prize for the student traveling the farthest to take the class goes to Eric Poon of ThinkSmart Training Ltd. in Hong Kong, who flew to Pittsburgh just for the occasion. In addition to a lively workshop session of pop-up construction, there was a gallery opening Friday night for the exhibition “Beyond Shared Language, Contemporary Art and the Latin American Experience,” a Latino Fest at the center on Saturday, and the Pittsburgh marathon on Sunday.

I was also able to visit “House Poem,” the permanent installation by artist Huang Xiang at the Mattress Factory. A large-scale “book” of Xiang’s poetry, I’d been wanting to see and photograph the house for some time, so here are the photos.

    

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Laura and Janet at SCC for bringing me to Pittsburgh for my first visit there.

The Inauguration Pop-Up

 

I finished designing the 2009 Inauguration Pop-Up today and delivered the files to the Washington Post. The do-it-yourself commemorative pop-up will appear in the KidsPost section of the paper on inauguration day, January 20th. People will either be able to cut it from the newspaper and glue it onto heavier card stock, or download and print it either from my web site or the Post’s site.

http://www.popularkinetics.com/making_page.html 
www.washingtonpost.com