Thoughts on Teaching

I have been a teacher for many years. I was once a science and art teacher at a school for the deaf in Massachusetts. I taught art classes at my kids elementary school and more recently book arts classes in San Diego and Tacoma have been my focus. It is always a learning experience to teach a group of people a new concept. I am looking forward to more of these experiences.

Here are some pictures of my student's hands folding paper in our Road to Spring workshop from Saturday's class at the Art Lounge on 101.  I just love expressive hands folding paper.

Enjoy!

Teaching at Art Lounge on 101

For those of you in the San Diego area, I will be teaching an origami book structure I invented called " The Road to Spring" on September 17 at Art Lounge on 101. Here is the flier for the class and the books that were inspired by this structure.

Enjoy,

Gina

Example made with rectangular sections.

The Road to Spring, my first book made with this structure.

Companion Star, shown with the "pages" removed.

As Deep Can Be closed.

Sample book with flattened points so it can stand up.

Spiral Atlas, variation on the basic structure.

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.

As Deep Can Be

Last week I shared a new variation on my accordion book; The Road to Spring. Since then I have been working on an artist's book based on the variation. I used beautiful marbled paper from Crepaldi of Brazil and some sea green handmade paper from a local art store. I wanted some kind of subtle visual content so I carved rubber erasers into segments of a river. They can be turned and combined in a number of ways. I stamped them with VersaMark ink which is clear but leaves a watermark effect. To make the lines stand out a bit more, I used a white gel pen to highlight them. Below are pictures of the finished book.

San Diego Book Arts is holding their annual member show this fall at the James Allen Rose Gallery at Francis Parker School. Since the gallery space is set up for wall display,  we were asked to come up with book structures that can hang on the wall. I think this new book will do nicely.

Enjoy.

-Gina

Carved erasers and their stamped images.

As Deep Can Be by Gina Pisello 2016

Closeup showing stamped and inked lines.

Closed book.

Open in a spiral.

Artist Books in England

I am a member of two book arts organizations: San Diego Book Arts (SDBA) and Puget Sound Book Arts (PSBA). They are both very supportive groups that offer different experiences for their members. PSBA, in collaboration with the Centre for Fine Print Research at the University of the West of England, in Bristol is holding an exhibit of PSBA artist's books this summer. I was honored to be asked to contribute to the show. You can see my books below and examples of all the other wonderful books here.

Enjoy.

-Gina

Small Migrations (2015)

Haikube (2015) -open

Haikube -closed

Spiral Atlases: playing with The Road to Spring book structure

I like to play with paper. I also like to invent new structures and then stretch, shrink, or change their folding patterns. Below are pictures showing two variations of my book The Road to Spring . The squares that form the base of the structure changed size from 4 inches down to 2 inches instead of staying the same size in the original version. I made a prototype on Wednesday with the squares centered and decreasing by 1/2 inch (see diagram 1). This made a very interesting model and got me thinking about other ways to have a graduated structure (see diagram 2). I hope you like the surprising results as much as I do. Here are my newest creations: Spiral Atlases (thanks Mom for the name).

Enjoy,

-Gina

Diagram of first variation.

Diagram of second variation.

Spiral Atlas #2 showing crease pattern. 

Note the notches cut where the squares meet.

#2 with creases collapsed.

#2 Side view.

Spiral Atlas #2 folded into Turkish map folds in each section.

#1 and #2 with finished Turkish map folded sections.

#1 with Hungarian map fold inserts. 

I used tracing paper hoping the marbling would still show.

#2 with gelatin printed paper inserts.

Spiral Atlas #2 finished.

Spiral Atlas #1 finished.