paper craft

November’s Handmade: Crafternoon will be all about paper and books! And really, is there anything better? If you’d like to try your hand at some basic book making (both sewn bindings and not), origami, or other paper-based creations, please come along! Our special guest will be artist and maker Mike Perry, who will share his creative expertise on this fun afternoon. We’ll have lots of supplies on hand to share so that you can make your own handmade book!

Here are the details:

Date and time:
Saturday, November 14th, from 2:00 to 4:00pm

Location:
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
42nd Street and Fifth Avenue
Margaret Liebman Berger Forum (Room #227, located in the northeast corner of the second floor)

Remember—it’s FREE, and there’s no advance registration required.
Question? Please leave it as a comment! Maura and I look forward to seeing you on the 14th!

Update (11/11/09): It turns out that we'll have one special guest on this afternoon--the amazing artist and maker Mike Perry. Grace Bonney cannot join us, but she promises to come out for another crafternoon in the future!

On Saturday, September 12th, Maura Madden (author of Crafternoon) and I will kick off our Handmade: Crafternoon series, and we hope that you can join us. This crafty gathering is free, and there’s no advance registration required. Here’s what’s in store for you that day:

Two special guests will join us and share their approaches to crafting with unusual and alternative materials. Jessica Vitkus (author of Alternacrafts) will show us how to make one-of-a-kind pierced and embroidered cards, and Hannah Rogge (author of Hardwear) will demonstrate how to turn stuff that you find in your toolbox and at the hardware store into unique jewelry.

We will have some materials on hand to share so that you can try your hand at these crafts. But if you would like to be sure to have what you need to make your own pair of hardware-inspired earrings, please bring with you:

• from the hardware store: 10 #8 flat washers
• from the craft store: 2 french earring wires

And if you happen to have embroidery floss and/or needle nose pliers to share with your fellow crafters, please bring them along!

We’ll have an inspiring spread of vintage books, magazines, and images from the Library’s collection to inspire you in your embroidery and jewelry making. And remember, the Library will be open from 11:00am until 6:00pm that day, so if you want to dig around in the collections you’ll have time to do so before and after the event! Here are the details on next week's Handmade: Crafternoon!

Date and time:
Saturday, September 12, 2009, from 2:00 to 4:00pm

Location:
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
42nd Street and Fifth Avenue
Margaret Liebman Berger Forum (Room #227, located in the northeast corner of the second floor)

Questions? Please leave it as a comment! See you on the 12th!

I’m often amazed by how paper sculptors--working with a practically two-dimensional material, and one that is treated as quite ephemeral--can create inventive and elegant sculptural forms. Artists whose work in paper I’ve been admiring quite a bit lately include Su Blackwell, who conjures complex literary scenes from book pages, and Yuken Teruya, whose tiny forest worlds created from discarded paper bags and rolls invite us to reconsider habits of consumption.

Would you like to investigate paper sculpture? The library has a number of mid-twentieth-century books that I like for the window they open into the medium’s use in advertising and window dressing as well as for the how-to projects they include. Two that I like in particular are Sculpture in Paper and Paper Sculpture, both of which are illustrated with commercial paper sculptures evocative of that period. And here (above and below) are a couple of pages from Paper Sculpture, in which author and sculptor Arthur Sadler shows you how to make an owl:

Are you thinking about making some Easter cards this year? If you are, and if you are hungry for ideas, look no further than the Digital Gallery and its hundreds of inspiring vintage Easter cards. Here are a few of my favorites of the moment:
Play ball, rabbits!

Chicks who have wrecked their car!

And hens, doing what they do best.

Have fun exploring the many rabbits, and hens and pussywillows you'll find in this card collection. And if you make cards inspired by what you find, please share them with us via our Flickr group! I'll write again soon with another Easter craft idea!