Bound and Kyled...

I am very happy to report that I have two books juried into each of the shows I submitted to last month. Bound and Unbound III at the University of South Dakota accepted Stone Mountain, GA and Alternatives for their altered book arts show beginning in August. Hello Hedi at 23 Sandy Gallery accepted Lost River and Three Fold Night my Hedi Kyle inspired creations. Puget Sound Book Arts accepted Tine Language and Small Migrations. I feel like I am floating on a cloud right now and I want to share my good fortune with you all.

Here are pictures of each book. Enjoy and please leave comments if you wish.

-Gina

Stone Mountain, GA

Alternative

Lost River

Three Fold Night

Tine Language

Small Migrations

Modified Blizzard Fold Pinwheel Structure

I would like to share a model today that I invented based on

Hedi Kyle's Blizzard Fold

book (instructions are given in the Penland Book of Handmade Books). I was playing around with the folds and wondered what would happen if I folded every other triangle fold back instead of forward as you do in her model. The result was 4 little niches with roofs and floors. I then manipulated this linear structure and realized that if I turned it in on itself I could create a pinwheel design and a book in the round. Below are step by step pictures with descriptions for how to fold this structure. I hope you will try it and come up with interesting uses for this wonderful design. Thanks for stopping by.

-Gina

 Step 1: Start by folding a piece of paper measuring 6 x 24 inches into 16 equal parts (ie. accordion fold the length of the paper). Then with the accordion folded up, fold down the top and bottom corners to form triangles like you see in the picture above.

Step 2: Repeat the triangle fold for each mountain fold (page) of the structure.

Step 3: Here is where my model diverges from Hedi Kyle's. Unfold all of the triangle folds made above and reverse fold the first one on the mountain fold as shown above.

Step 4: Unfold the next mountain fold, making it a valley fold and fold the triangles toward you. Your model should look like the picture above.

Step 5: Keep the next mountain fold and fold the triangles to the back of the structure. Repeat this process, first folding the triangles towards you then unfolding the next mountain fold and folding the triangles to the back until you reach the end of the paper.

Step 6: Your model should look like the picture above. The one below gives a different angle showing the triangle folds going back and forth.

Step 7: Close up the model along the valley folds and mountain folds. Notice that the structure is now twice as wide. That is because we opened up every other mountain fold in the previous steps.

Step 8: Now we return to the Blizzard Fold and starting with the first page fold the triangle sections into the middle of the pages. 

Step 9: The next set of triangles is on the back side of the model. Fold them in as shown above.

Step 10: Continue folding in the triangles at the back and front of the accordion folds, tucking in and folding along existing lines. Use the pictures to help you get your model working.

This picture shows the triangle flaps being folded in on the second page.

Here is the model with the first and second pages and their triangles folded in. Note how the rest of the model looks at this stage.

The third set of triangles are now folded up.

Here is the other side of the model at this stage.

The forth set of triangles are now folded up and the folding is complete.

This is the model from the other side. At this point you can use the model as a linear structure. It has these 4 niches on one side and 3 on the other. Or you can proceed and get the pinwheel pictured below.

Step 11: If you want to turn the model into a self closing pinwheel structure make sure the model has the side with 4 niches facing you. Grab the first and last page and pull them towards each other, but away from you and the niches will open out to form the structure you see above and below. 

Step 12: To get the model to stay in this open position, take the triangle tabs from the last page and fold them over the triangle tabs on the first page (shown in the picture above on the left).

Here I have turned the model into an artist's book using paper threads to represent waves. 

Topographic Altered Artist Books

Welcome to a new month and a new post. Today I would like to share some pictures of my topographic books. I have been a book artist for about 13 years and recently I started making sculptural books based on topographic maps. I "carve" the books page by page to leave a landscape behind. Sometimes hidden lines and text come out and make the pieces more than what I intented them to be. Several of these books have been juried into art galleries or university shows.

Enjoy!

~Gina

My first foray into topographic book arts was a Library Card Catalog traveling exhibit. I used the positive and negative pieces to make 2 complimentary books.

 Closeup of Mesa Tables.

Here is "Mesa Tables." I only carved the right side of the book of pipe tables into a mesa formation. Hence the name of the piece.

I made this box of treats for my mom. The very tiny carved book is a river flow in reverse. I also made the very tiny box in the lower right.

Here is another boxed art piece with the reverse of a mountain carved into a small German book. I love the way the beach rock mimics the shape of the topographic book.

This is my most recent carved book. It is an old german book that I carved into a table mountain. I think the rock in the center perfectly matches the antique marbled paper revealed once the pages are carved away.

My Map Art

Today I would like to share with you some of the map art I made about a year ago. I was obsessed with vintage maps and atlases; the kind you can pick up at local estate sales or second hand book stores for a few dollars. I was fascinated by the colors, lines and differences between maps from 30 or 40 years ago and now. I cut folded, layered, and reshaped them to fit the projects I wanted to create. I hope you enjoy this little tour of my map art. Thanks for stopping by.

~Gina

 "Edna's Travels" is an artist's book made of envelopes and letters written by Edna Rudolph, a teacher who spent her summers traveling the world and writing home about it. Each letter is housed in an atlas envelope of the country she was visiting at the time. The envelopes are folded using Hedi Kyle's method and sewn into the spine of the book. This book was shown at Front Porch Gallery in Carlsbad, CA and the Carmel Valley Library in CA.

"Red Routes" is an origami folded single sheet of orange paper that forms pockets to hold the twist folded map squares. I tried to find map sections with red lines that moved around the piece.

 "Crossover" uses several techniques, including folded vellum with text cut and carefully inserted in each pleat in the shape of a river with an accompanying map of the same river with punched holes showing the relative width of the river as it meanders along. This piece traveled around the country last year as part of San Diego Book Arts member shows at Cerritos Library in Orange County, CA and the Graficas Gallery on Nantucket.

"Meeting Creek is a river in Kentucky that has a nice shape. It was cut into the pleated vellum and a vellum river is overlaid on the map of Kentucky. This tin box used to hold watercolors.

 I worked on a series of cut maps in which I carefully cut out everything but the roads on maps and then inserted them in bottles. I like the shadows the paper casts in the light that shines through them. The one above is called "Nesting" and the two below are "Network I and II." The maps came from an old travel guide on England and each map is from a different city.

I created this map house and origami inside tea bags for a friend who kindly gave me the tea in the first place. The lovely triangular mesh tea bags just begged to be used for something creative.

Finally, here is a close up of "Entanglement." This is a single sheet of map paper folded accordion style, with cut windows that are then folded into cranes and their heads are entwined. I invented this crane creation by combining several different techniques. It was shown at CODEX 2013 in Richmond, CA.