Hedi Kyle Workshop at SF Center for the Book

I spent a magical weekend in San Francisco at the Center for the Book making folded structures with Hedi Kyle, 15 students and 4 SFCB instructors who were Hedi's assistants. We created a dozen or so structures and added content to several. Hedi was engaging and patient; pacing the class so that everyone could successfully make each book, folder or flexagon. Here are some pictures of my pieces.

Enjoy,

Gina

Stenciled Flexagon

Belt fold around slat book and other books beneath.

Pink book was passed around class and everyone decorated a page.

Fishbone fold inside diagonal pocket folder. Blue book is a needle book. 

Sling Fold book open, with stenciled ovals and text.

Lots of letter folds and the needle case on the left.

Teaching in Tacoma

I was privileged to teach The Road to Spring to nine Puget Sound Book Artists last weekend in Tacoma, WA. We spent 3 hours together creating folded map books from Strathmore charcoal paper. I really enjoyed sharing this structure I invented from the Turkish map fold and the Hungarian map fold. Pictured below are the participants (with the exception of MalPina) and their work.

Enjoy,

Gina

Deb, Don, Kathy and Mary


Carole, Michelle, Lynn and Kathy















Playing with Paper/A Valentine's Day Treat

In 2008 I took a workshop that changed my life and my approach to making artist's books. It was taught by

Joan Michaels Paque

and she was a paper engineer and weaver extraordinaire. After the class I was playing around with folding paper and created a small book with the crease pattern you see below. The book was put into a drawer for years until last week when I decided to clean out my cluttered office and found it again. I always thought of this folded structure as a book and only looked at it linearly, but now I make structures that fold around in a circle. When I twisted this one into a circle it created a structure that is flexible and interesting in many orientations.

I have been thinking about ways to modify this structure and came up with two variations. One is inspired by Valentine's Day and the other is the answer to the question: What happens if I make a smaller version and nest it inside the bigger one? I hope you like the results and try folding one yourself.

Enjoy.

-Gina

Crease Pattern

Stages of folding the structure.

Two orientations of the round structure. There are more below.

I cut out hearts from paper folded into the water bomb base.

Variation 1: Insert hearts cut from 4 x 4 inch paper into the slots to make a unique Valentine.

Variation 2: Fold a second structure from 3 x 18 inch paper and nest it inside the 4 x 24 structure.

Three ways to twist the structure.

Sometimes I'm Jagged on the Inside

I have a new accordion folded sculpture to share with you today. A few days ago I was wondering what the

Turkish Map Fold

would look like if I used rectangular paper instead of square paper to fold it. Then I got to thinking about the fold for the insert I used in

The Road to Spring

 and

Companion Star

. Could it also be folded with rectangular paper? The answer is yes, and it makes a very interesting asymmetrical shape. Next I wondered if there was a way to fold this new shape from an accordion folded sheet of paper so that the parts would be connected to each other. This was tricky and took some fiddling, but in the end I was able to create the sculpture you see below. Later in the day a name came to me and it is the title of this blog post.

Here are some pictures showing the folding process. Enjoy!

-Gina

Finished piece.

Single folded unit.

I taped together several single units to figure out where I needed to cut the accordion and make a continuous folded sculpture.

Step 1: accordion fold then fold diagonals. Then cut the paper as shown.

Step 2: Collapse the paper along the diagonals.

Step 3: Fold in the triangle sides. Notice how one side has a small triangle and the other side is larger, but they don't overlap. This creates the asymmetrical look.

Step 4: All the triangle sides are creased. Now just inside reverse fold all of them to create the final shape.

'Tis the Season

I try to make holiday cards each year for friends and family, but I must be a dying breed as I seem to get fewer and fewer cards each year. I thought I would share some pictures of past cards and this year's as well. Enjoy.

-Gina

2008 Star Book Ornament/Card.

Cards from 2011-2014.


A selection of this year's cards. 

CAP Book

It's December and I have been so busy that this is the first time I am sitting down to blog in a month. I have been a member of San Diego Book Arts for 14 years and next year is our 20th anniversary as an art organization. To commemorate this achievement a group of 40 members got together several times this year to create a collaborative art project (CAP). Each person created a piece based on member Diane Gage's moon haiku. The art was photographed and reproduced on 9 x 12 paper to be bound into books for an exhibit celebrating the anniversary. I did not create an art work for the book, but was asked to bind a book as a fundraiser for the project. Below are images of my book in progress. I based the structure on Elizabeth Steiner's Moeraki Boulders, which is bound through the middle of the pages. I created binding strips from a second set of prints of the book so that there is interplay between the works and their companions. I hope you like the results as much as I do.

Enjoy.
-Gina


Pages with slits cut for the binding strips.

Sample binding strip.






Paper in Japan Part 2

Last week I shared my paper adventures in Kyoto. This week I want to introduce you to Tokyo's Origami Kaikan (Origami Center) which is a six floor building dedicated to all things origami. After perusing the lobby showroom of classes offered, I climbed the stairs to the second floor gallery where there was a wonderful display of armored cavalrymen. Then it was up to the third floor to soak up all of the papers. There were packaged origami squares in all colors and sizes as well as racks and flat files of large sheets of chiyogami paper. I spent quite a bit of time looking through them and only seeing one or two that I can get here in the States. As I was paying for my purchases the clerk informed me that the director, Kazuo Kobayashi would be down to do some demonstrations soon and would I like to stay. Of course I stayed and was entertained (despite not knowing any Japanese) for the better part of an hour while Sensei Kobayashi folded and cut many samples for the Year of the Monkey. He was a revelation to me as he didn't fold anything precisely nor did he look at what he was folding often. It was astonishing to see him create such beautiful results in such an imprecise manner. He kindly gave me the rose and leaf pictured below which took him about a minute to make, all the while chatting to the gathered crowd.

I eventually tore myself away from the demonstration and wandered up to the fourth floor where you can watch them paint paper and hang it to dry. The fifth and sixth floors are reserved for classes and as I wasn't signed up for any I skipped them. I left full of ideas and a renewed passion for origami.

I hope you enjoy the images below from this lovely paper destination in Tokyo.

-Gina

First floor display.



Displays on the way up to the gallery. The above "plant" is made entirely of folded cranes.

Calvary of folded paper in the second floor gallery.

Men dying paper mustard yellow and red on the fourth floor.


Monkey fold the Master taught us.


Rose and leaf Sensei Kobayashi gave me.


Book Arts and Paper in Japan

I recently took a trip to Japan, a paper lover's paradise. My husband and I spent a week in Kyoto visiting gardens, temples, shrines and other local sites. We also took a shinkansen or bullet train to Hiroshima to visit the Atomic Dome and Peace Park. I left one of my crane books, shown below at the Sadako memorial. Visiting Hiroshima was an incredibly moving experience.

Of course, the trip included visiting lots of paper shops. I went to Morita as well as Kira Karacho. Both are institutions in the Kyoto area where paper making has a very long history. Kira Karacho is a store founded by the a family of karakami makers that began in 1624. They produce traditional fusuma sliding doors and wallpaper, but Kira began this stationary store in 2004 as a way to reach new audiences. Antique wood blocks are used to print on washi paper.

It was while we were visiting the store for the second time that we noticed the small shopping arcade has a gallery on the third floor. It  showcases artwork by students at Kyoto Seika University. We stopped in and noticed some handmade books in a side area. At first, I thought they were for sale, but as I looked around I realized it was a book arts exhibit. My husband quipped that only I could stumble upon a book arts exhibit 6000 miles from home. It was small, but lovely with a good
variety of books. Please enjoy the images and this brief description of an indescribably wonderful trip to Japan.

-Gina

Crane book I made and left at the Peace Park memorial.

Sadako statue at the Hiroshima Peace Park.

The eternal flame with the Atomic Dome in the background, Hiroshima Peace Park.

Fusuma sliding doors in our Ryokan.




Examples of books at the b. only book 10 exhibit.

Information about the book artists (I assume).

Cube Book Workshop

I got to spend last Sunday afternoon with five talented women in my Cube Book Workshop. It was offered through San Diego Book Arts. We played a word game called The Exquisite Corpse to generate content for our books, colored our paper using Distress Inks and folded our way to finished cube shaped books. The books have 4 pages that are folded inserts and everyone used different colors and techniques to make their books unique. I hope seeing these pictures will inspire you to try this structure.

The red triangular book was made by my mom, Faye after I taught her the cube book structure. I am including the pictures so you get an idea of one of the many variations you can do with this folded work.

Enjoy!

-Gina



Faye's 3 tiered triangle book.

Nancy K's colored pages.

Linnea, Janis, and Jade use dye inks to color their paper.

Nancy K. and Nancy W.  are hard at work coloring their paper.

Linnea folds up her book.

Nancy W. inserts pages into her colorful book.

Janis works on folding her last page.

Nancy W.'s finished book.

Janis' finished book open.

Jade's finished book with the pages removed.

Cover to Cover Workshop

Seth Apter came to town this week to teach two workshops for San Diego Book Arts. I had the pleasure of taking "Cover to Cover" in which we used old book covers as pages for a mixed media book. I haven't done much mixed media in my art life, although I adore it. Seth made it both accessible and fun by breaking down the process into its component parts. We made many layers of color and texture that managed to form a cohesive whole when we were finished. Seth kept reminding us that an ugly page was just one layer away from beauty and if we didn't like something keep adding to it until we did. Good advice and a good mantra for life as well. Thanks Seth for a wonderful experience!

Enjoy the pictures.

-Gina








Variations on a Theme

My recent post The Road to Spring was pretty popular and I have been working on some variations on this book and structure ever since. The newest one is a story about my dad and his love of the night sky. I have also played with the bottom of the structure adding a sink fold so that the book can stand upright. Other variations include making smaller books and making it with 4 or 6 pages. I hope you like the pictures below and enjoy Companion Star. The first line of the story is: "Dad, like Plato, thought that every soul had a companion star to which it returned after death..."

 I hope you enjoy these variations on a theme and create your own version as well.

 -Gina
Companion Star , by Gina Pisello.


Companion Star has 4 pages instead of the 5 in The Road to Spring.


Bottom of the book.


Companion Star with the star pages removed to reveal the story.


Closeup of the text pages.


Top of 4 page variation.


Side view of 4 page variation showing flat base.


Bottom of 4 page variation showing sink folds. The inner blue pages have corresponding sink folds too.

New Accordion Book

I was playing around with a straw paper one day while waiting for my burger to arrive and I folded this structure. When I got home I cut some paper (2.25 x 23 inches) and recreated the same pattern with a couple of twists. It made the 2 page square "book" you see in the pictures below. There was a nice interaction between the front and back side of the paper so I colored or decorated each differently to accentuate the contrast. In the first example, I wrote two versions of a Haiku one on each page and then wrote the story of the origin of the poems in white pen around the folded structure as shown. When the book is folded up into the 2 page version there is a nice interplay between the black poem text and the white story text. When the book is unfolded parts of each side appear and the text is randomized.

The second example was made using a stencil and stamps from Seth Apter's new line. I used the stamps in red on one side and the stencil in blue on the other to give contrast when it is folded. I like the randomness of where the graphic elements appear in the folded version. You could plan out placement, but I like the surprises that arise this way.

If you can think of a name for this structure please tell me in the comments section. I am stumped.

Enjoy,

Gina


Finished book folded to show two pages and Haiku.



Back of folded book.



Book unfolded showing triangle accordion folds.



How the book wasvfolded when I wrote white text (front and back).





Second example showing book closed.





Book open, but folded.





Front and back of unfolded book.


University of South Dakota Altered Book Show: Bound & Unbound III

Today's post is all about altered books. I love making and seeing altered books. It's a way to recycle old books that no one reads anymore and it is amazing to see how many ways people can alter a book. I hope you check out the Bound & Unbound digital exhibit. Be prepared to be inspired.

Here are my two entries in the show.

-Gina


Alternative : Topographic carving in an old German book. The beach rock matches the marbled endpapers perfectly and adds some weight to the piece.


Stone Mountain, GA : Topographic carving of Stone Mountain, GA showing both positive and negative elevations. The sedimentary rock happened to be almost the same shape as the base of the mountian.

The Road to Spring

I made a new book this week using techniques learned in Jill Berry's class (Intimate Atlas) and from fellow origami enthusiast Kathy Linsley's variations on the Turkish Map Fold. I call it The Road to Spring. It is a story about my childhood family's trip every spring from New York to Birmingham, AL where we visited our maternal grandparents. We often drove from lingering winter into spring weather and I was always fascinated to watch the snow melt away and the flowers appear on the two day drive. I hope you like the structure I created and the pictures of my process.

-Gina

List of supplies:
Higgins Indigo ink- watered down
Tim Holtz Ranger dye inks: mown lawn, peacock feathers, broken glass, brushed corduroy, antique linen, and mustard seed
Tim Holtz Distress Markers in the same colors as above
Arches Text Wove paper- 5 x 25 1/4 inches


The Road to Spring by Gina Pisello

Dripping ink to make a quick road map.

Coloring the background with Distress Inks.

Cutting and folding the paper into 5 pages.

The next step in the Turkish Map Fold (the water bomb base).

Finally all 5 pages are folded into the standard Turkish Map Fold.

These 5 pages, also 5 x 5 inches, contain our route south as well as the story of our trip.

I folded these pages into a complimentary form that Kathy Linsley invented so that they nest inside of the Turkish Map fold. She modified the Turkish fold as well with an extra fold on the center seam.

The finished book from the top. It made this nice circular form when it was done.



Teaching the Pocket Book Structure

I recently taught my version of Hedi Kyle's Pocket Book structure to members of Puget Sound Book Arts and San Diego Book Arts. I designed this method of folding a pocket book after seeing a picture of Hedi Kyle's structure on Pinterest. Participants learned how to fold the structure from a long sheet of paper and then create a cover using cardstock weight paper. We had a great time in each class and I really enjoyed teaching this versatile book form.

Here are some pictures from the classes and a link here for my blog post showing step by step photographs of how to fold this structure so you can try it too. Enjoy!
-Gina


Pocket Book Sample


Students in my Puget Sound Book Arts class in April


Finished pocket book.






Pocket Book class with San Diego Book Arts students.

Tiny Book Necklaces

Tiny origami crane book measuring 1 x 3/4 inches. Folded from tracing paper colored with alcohol inks.



I started making book necklaces back in 2004 when I was working at a craft fair and wanted something to do during down time. I made hardcover, maze fold books like the one below and sold them at the fair. Later I made coordinating books and boxes to sell as well. 








I decided to make some new mini book necklaces to wear each day of FOBA.  I got to work last month and made the books shown below. They are each approximately 1 inch tall and 3/4 inch wide. The crane book at the top of this post is my favorite and the hardest one to make.  I got lots of positive comments on the necklaces at Focus on Book Arts and I hope you like them too.


Envelope fold pocket book with glassine covers.


Inside of this book showing pockets with handmade marble paper inside.



Hedi Kyle Blizzard fold book made from vintage map.



Map book open.









FOBA and Other Trips

I have not posted in a while and now I have a back log of posts to write. So... I will try to work backwards from the present and catch you up on what has been happening in my corner of the paper and book arts worlds.

First up is my trip to FOBA (Focus on Book Arts). I attended this wonderful event for the first time in late June and had a great experience. The conference was well organized, full of enthusiastic participants and overflowing with great teachers. I met so many book artists that I hope I will be able to stay in touch with. My class was taught by Jill Berry and you can see pictures below of the book we made. The class was called An Intimate Atlas and it was all that and more! Thanks Jill for a wonderful class.

While I was in Portland for FOBA there was also a talk by Hedi Kyle, a person I greatly admire and have never met before.  I did get to introduce myself to her briefly and thank her for all the inspiration she has provided over the years. I also attended the artists' reception at 23 Sandy Gallery and got to see all the lovely books up close. I met several of the other artists in the show and we bonded over our love of Hedi's structures. There was even a table of her (Hedi's) sample books at the show that we could touch and try to figure out. All in all it was a wonderful trip and an experience I will remember for many years.

Enjoy the pictures of my FOBA experience.

-Gina

An Intimate Atlas - book designed by Jill Berry and executed by me.

Page 1 "My Head"

Pages 3 and 4 shown folded into their turkish map fold shapes.

Pages 3-4 closed up and encased in their black paper gate fold binding.

The back of one map page showing the random lines we made using dripped walnut ink. Color was added with Twinkling H2O's and watercolor.


Hedi Kyle sample of a map accordion folded and fishbone folded at the same time! Amazing structure.


Hedi Kyle Map book closed showing her belt fold closure. You can find directions for this closure in Preservation Enclosures by Hedi Kyle


Me with my book Lost River at 23 Sandy Gallery.

News

I want to share some good news along with some links today. As you know if you follow this blog, I was juried into the Hello Hedi show at 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland, OR. The show opened yesterday and I am excited to share the online catalog with you here. I will be attending the artists' reception on Friday June 26 and hope to meet Hedi Kyle, who will be attending. I am also in Portland that week attending the Focus on Book Arts Conference and taking Jill Berry's class An Intimate Atlas. I can't wait for both of these events and when I am back home I will be sure to blog about the experiences. If any of you are attending either event I hope to see you there.

The other thing I want to mention is that I will be teaching a two hour workshop next weekend. I will show students how to fold Hedi Kyle's Pocket Book. It is similar to her Blizzard Fold book, but creates an expandable structure that can hold bulky items. Here is a link to my blog showing how to fold the structure. I also taught this class at Puget Sound Book Arts in April and it went very well. I hope my students will be inspired to use the structure to create their own artist books.

Pocket Book for mini workshop


Here are the books I have in the Hello Hedi show. One has already sold which I am very happy about. Enjoy.

-Gina


Three Fold Night (sold)


Lost River


All About ATC's

Today's topic is ATC's or Artist's Trading Cards. ATC's are 3.5 x 2.5 inch cards that artists create with any type of media they like. ATC's can be painted, rubber stamped, covered in collage, mixed media, etc. If it will fit on a 3.5 by 2.5 inch piece of paper then it works. There are groups that meet and trade, there are online trading sites or you can simply trade with your friends. The only catch is that these cards have to be traded, not sold. I have been making them for a few years off and on, but recently I have been making lots of them. I try to make sets of 9 as my album has page protectors with 9 slots. Here are some examples of the ATC's I have created recently. Enjoy and if you want to trade, let me know.

-Gina


"Cameo" set of 4


"Back of Fashion" set of 5


"Advice" set of 4


"Water Nymphs" set of 9


"Beaded Fragments" set of 9


"Beaded Fragments" detail. I made the Greek statue fragment with collaged papers that I tore into the body shape. I then applied glue and clear micro beads to give it some sparkle. I stamped the background with "Greeking" text and Tim Holtz Brushed Corduroy and Antique Linen and used the inks on the edges too.


Detail of "Water Nymphs" using Tim Holtz Brushed Corduroy and Antique Linen again with his marble paper stamp. The image was stamped on a glossy photograph of my family in blue rain ponchos that we wore on the Maid of the Mist in Niagara Falls.