Time and Place

San Diego Book Arts is holding a member show this fall at a traditional art gallery with lots of wall space and not much room for standing works like traditional artist's books. That means they are asking members to come up with "books" that can hang on the walls. I have been trying out various ideas for this show and here is my latest attempt. I call it Time and Place since it represents the fall night sky constellations imposed onto a folded paper structure.

I hope you like the results. I feel like it still needs something more, but here is the work so far.

-Gina

I printed a map of the northern hemisphere's fall constellations onto graph paper.

Next, I scaled up the map using a bigger sheet of graph paper that had the same divisions. Each square on the smaller sheet represents a 3 x 3 square on the larger paper.

I folded the 18 x 24 sheet of paper into a chevron pattern then flattened it, placed the graph paper drawing over it and punched holes using a Japanese screw punch. I used 5 sizes to represent different star magnitudes (from 1mm to 3mm).

Here's a closeup of the paper with the stars punched.

I like the idea of shaping the piece with this bend in the middle to suggest the curvature of space-time.

Tiny Book Necklaces II

In a previous post I showed you several tiny book necklaces that I made last year before attending FOBA (Focus on Book Arts). I recently made a Hedi Kyle inspired one for my class with her and yesterday I got truly nuts and made one based on my latest structure; the Spiral Atlas. They both required some creative folding (using tools when my fingers were too large) and patience. Below are pictures of both and step outs of the spiral atlas.
Enjoy!

-Gina

Hedi Kyle inspired diagonal pocket folder. 

Made from 1 5/8 x 2.5 inch paper. (3/4 x 1/2 inches closed).

Folder open showing diagonal pockets and golden lining.

Spiral Atlas book necklace. 

The largest section is 1 inch and the smallest is 1/2 inch.

When folded they are half that size!

Spiral atlas: I used tracing paper colored with alcohol ink. It measures 1 x 3 3/4 with each section scored and folded in half. Scores are at 1, 7/8, 3/4, 5/8, and 1/2 inch.

Trim off 1/8 inch from each square from left to right, skipping the 1 inch square.

Diagonal fold each square to form an X.

Cut a notch at the fold between squares equal to 1/4 their length at the top and bottom. This makes it possible to fold in the points after the next step.

Collapse each square into a water bomb base along the X folds and center folds. The structure should look like the one below.

Fold in the points on left and right. Unfold and inside reverse fold them to make the shape below.

The book when folded measures less than 2 inches.

Cut squares the same sizes as above (1, 7/8, 3/4, 5/8, and 1/2 inch). Fold them into Hungarian map folds so they nest inside the base structure.

Carefully place inserts in each section and fold down the center points to "lock" them in place. Use a thin scoring tool to help move paper where it needs to go. To form the spiral shape seen in the necklace, glue together the first and last sections by forming a circle. I attached a wire hook using glue, put on a jump ring and threaded a chain through it.