Traffic flag book

Anyone who has lived near Baton Rouge since Katrina knows the traffic flow problems on the interstates there. One big wreck can shut the interstate system down for the afternoon, so I began carrying food and water in my car in case we were ever stranded. It happened with alarming frequency while I was living there. In true Louisiana fashion, I decided to poke fun at the situation with this book. One of the things that I really miss about LA is the sense of humor.

The covers of this book are painted museum boards.

And when you open it, the flags open up and point out in two directions. I drew cartoons of people stuck in traffic, with dogs barking and drivers taking a nap. There were times you just had to turn the engine off, and wait, and it could be for hours if it was a large wreck.

I know there are commissions studying the situation right now. The interstate there was simply not designed to handle the traffic patterns that have developed post-Katrina.  I hope they can find a solution.

Origami Envelope book

This was a fun book to make, and it's from my series of Louisiana Impressions books. I thought it would be fun to make something that might capture a child's eye, and light a creative fire. I suppose I am reaching out to kids who might be creative like I was, and give them some ideas and encouragement.

I got the idea for an origami envelope book from Alisa Golden's book, Making Handmade Books. The paper I used is painted with acrylic paints, and the book is tied together with linen thread.

The book is called Louisiana Backyard, and has removable creatures in each pocket. Inside is a crawfish, a dragonfly, a lizard, and a June bug, all of which I found in my backyard one warm summer day in Louisiana.

A Very, very small book!

A long time ago I wrote that I had made a very small book. Sometimes, it is fun to just play, and see what you can do. I wanted to see how small a hard cover could be, so I made this accordion book with a G. M. Hopkins quote.

This little book is 1" by 1 1/2". It falls into the corners of my box of finished books, and gets lost. I love foundational calligraphy, so I used that in a single line on both sides of the paper, with illustrations of wild roses. The paper is luscious Arches Text wove, and the covers are museum boards covered with Thai Uruyu paper. This is one of my favorite books!

I will be posting more of my book art over the next few weeks. It's the original reason I started to blog, so I want to get back to sharing it. The more I write, the more I love book art. Book art, I think, also uses both sides of the brain- the left to measure and plan, the right to accommodate whimsy and illustrate. I think it also brings me back to childhood, and the joy I felt making books on greenbar computer paper. Joy is something we should celebrate... we do not have enough of it in this world.

Sonobe Unit Models

I can't remember when it was that I bumped into modular origami. I do know that when I found it, I was fascinated. It is the perfect blend of art and geometry. Sonobe units were the first units I discovered while doing an internet search. From a flat square of paper, you can fold many different geometric solids.

This photo shows a basic sonobe unit- the small, winged square in the front center. To the left is a triangle made from three of these units, called a Toshie's Jewel. Above that is an octahedron made from 12 units, and on the right, an icosahedron made from 30 units. The octahedron is a variation of the basic sonobe unit by Meenakshi Mukerji, from her book Marvelous Modular Origami. You can see that all of the peaks are white. This is accomplished by a variation in folding the basic sonobe unit, described in her book, which is wonderful, by the way.

The Sonobe unit above was folded from a 4" square of giftwrap. I love using the kind with squares printed on the reverse. I can get beautiful colors, and the measuring is easy! I have learned that with many types of giftwrap, if the paper is slick, the first few units will need a touch of glue. I use a basic white school glue, and put a very small drop, before locking the units together. Later, as I complete the model, I may or may not need to keep using the glue. It all depends on the model and the kind of paper. And if others will be handling the models, sometimes it is just good insurance to use a bit of glue.

To show how the units go together, here is the beginning of a 90 unit dodecahedron that I have started. 90 units seems like a tremendous amount of folding, but these units fold very quickly, and I usually fold them while watching tv with my family. I can get quite a few folded during a football or baseball game. :)

The ability to make beautiful geometric solids out of humble squares of gift wrap and other papers has not lost its wonder for me, even though I have been playing around with this for a few years now. It seems to me that origami, and modular origami in particular, uses both sides of the brain. It has elements of math, in its geometric form, and art, in the infinite possibilities of color and patterning of the models.  And it is just pure fun, and makes a great decoration for a writing desk.

Origami Model

This is a Five Intersecting Tetrahedra model that I made from directions in Thomas Hull's book, Project Origami: Activities for Exploring Mathematics. The book is wonderful for those of us who think in three dimensions. Making this model took patience, but it was a lot of fun. I am still not sure if I got the last tetrahedron woven in properly, but I think I did!

I am looking forward to making more models from this book. Kudos to the author for writing a math text that is fun!

Reading List

While I have been researching ways to redo this blog, I quit posting... but I've decided to keep going. I'll give it an overhaul this summer, when I have more time.

In the meantime, I think I will jump back in by posting my current reading list. There are a lot of books here, but it includes some (like the physics and math books!) that are taking me a very long time to read. I tend to read a chapter of those and let the concepts soak in for a month or so.

Art books are underrepresented here. The list would grow too long. I'm not including all of the ones I pull out as I work.

In no particular order, here goes!:

Wizards Aliens and Starships: Physics and Math in Fantasy and Science Fiction, by Charles L. Adler; I love this book!!! It is taking me a very long time to read- there are a lot of equations. But the concepts are fascinating, and I think it will be an invaluable writing resource. My teens are enjoying the bits I am passing along to them, too.

Cover to Cover (20th Ann. Ed.) by Shereen LaPlantz; this is a new purchase. I can't wait to dive in.

The Art of Slow Writing by Louise DeSalvo; do I really need this encouragement???!!!  :)  I am so grateful to know that I am not alone in taking a very long time with writing projects. This is a nice counterbalance to the book by Isaac Asimov I recently read, in which he said you can write well, or prolifically, but probably not both.

Living Things by Anne Porter (again...)

Splitting An Order by Ted Kooser; this is another new favorite

As You Like It by William Shakespeare; because I have to have a Shakespeare play going at all times!

Rendevous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke; I am having a hard time getting into this one. I think it is the *tiny* paperback print and yellowing paper that is giving me problems.

Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World by Jane Hirshfield; library selection; there is a good chapter on Basho. Still reading through the rest.

National Geographic's Backyard Guide to the Night Sky; there is a nice brief section on each constellation's mythology.

Project Origami: Activities for Exploring Mathematics by Thomas Hull; thank heavens for interlibrary loan! This book is wonderful. I made the five intersecting tetrahedra model, and it is stunning. Math would have been my favorite subject in school if I had been introduced to this.