Some pop-up videos!

There are some wonderful resources on pop-up books available freely on YouTube. Here is a seven minute video by the Smithsonian Libraries in collaboration with their exhibit on movable books. It details the process of making a pop-up book. 

Here is a 53 minute lecture by David Carter which he gave at the Smithsonian Libraries, talking about his work in book making. Tidbits include his work on a giant book for an exhibit, his work teaching children about pop-ups, and a lovely question and answer session in which he talked about a pop-up ap for iphone.

And finally, if you'd like to get started yourself, a one and a half minute video on how to make a particularly stunning pop-up card.

Enjoy!

Pop-up Books and their Engineers

In a time when e-readers are becoming more popular, pop-up books and the field of paper engineering mark an important contrast to an increasingly digitized world. In a pop-up book, paper is not the passive canvas on which the text provides meaning, paper is a sculpture, a dancer, a story in itself. I'll be posting several posts on pop-up books, but this first one is mainly to educate about some of the important paper engineers working in the field today. If you click on these artist's names the link will take you to their websites all of which include "how-to" sections, to make your own pop-ups at home.

Robert Sabuda is the world's most popular pop-up artist. Besides some beautiful original works such as Christmas Alphabet or Winter's Tale, he has created pop-up re-tellings of familiar tales such as Alice in Wonderland (left) or Beauty and the Beast or the lyrics to America the Beautiful (above). He often works primarily in white or solid colored paper, which really shows off the stunning artistry of his work.

David A. Carter is a paper engineer and illustrator who has done some really lovely abstract pop-up art for readers of all ages. His more recent books feature bold colors, in dramatic, innovative designs showing off a beautiful intricacy of design as well as some spreads of absolute simplicity. White Noise is book partially about the sounds paper makes as it flutters, or folds, or flaps, or saws. The spreads are united by a free-verse poem which dallies with the sensual beauties of paper. Pictured right is 600 Black Spots, a beautiful book containing exactly 600 spots for those interested to count them all. It's reviewed with more charming pictures of this girl here: http://intheknowmom.net/?p=6856 

Matthew Reinhart works a great deal with Robert Sabuda collaborating on some of the Candelwick pop-up encyclopedia books, such as Encyclopedia Mythologica: Gods and Heroes. He has also illustrated some classics such as The Jungle Book (left). His Pop-up Book of Nightmares, and Pop-up Book of Phobias lend a darker side to the realm of pop-up books for adults. 

Bruce Foster is another name which means a great deal in pop-up circles. He does some beautiful work on pop-ups in a large variety of projects. Perhaps most famous for Harry Potter: A Pop-up book based on the Film Phenomenon, he has also worked on an incredibly beautiful work on Angels, which is soon to be released, and a book holding paper models of some of the greatest architectural wonders of the world. 
 
 I'll post some more about pop-ups soon!

Matthew Sporzynski and Paper Sculpture

While recently flipping through a REAL SIMPLE magazine to cut it up for collages, I came across the work of Matthew Sporzynski, a paper sculptor who creates commissioned work for the magazine. His work is intricate and beautiful, often only using one color for the construction, creating a strong emphasis on line, volume and the texture of the paper he uses. What strikes me as interesting about his work is its connection with a magazine titled REAL SIMPLE. The magazine, and its accompanying website boasts "life made easier every day" and is full of simple solutions or creative ideas for many aspects of life, primarily geared towards women. Main topics include Food and Recipes, Home and Organizing, Beauty and Fashion, Holidays and Entertaining, Health, and a section on balancing Work and Life. All of these categories are full of ways of making one's existence more streamlined, efficient and beautiful, while keeping complications and mess to a minimum. Sporzynski's paper seems to fit in this mix, but fits strangely.
In one way, these paper creations are the essence of simplicity. Simple colors. Simple objects presented. Simple materials. These colors, objects and materials are also utilized both skillfully and beautifully, highlighting another main goal of the magazine, and bringing artistry into the cover pages of the different sections of the magazine, and embodying some of the essential values of the publication as it does so.
At the same time, these pieces seem an odd choice. The magazine, despite its appreciation of beauty and purity of construction also values a careful use of time and effort, and gives its readers some clear insights into how to limit complications in their lives. Commissioning art which portrays simple scenes and objects but does so in a which so utterly complicated manner seems odd. In their small paragraph on the REAL SIMPLE website, they introduce his work with the quip, "we don't know how he does it either." There's no sort of suggestions on how to get started doing paper construction yourself, or "how to" section like everywhere else in the magazine. These objects are purely something to look at and be impressed by. Is this as strange as I think it is? Or is it just fueling our culture's stubborn love of paper in an increasingly digital world?