Pop-Up Design & Paper Mechanics, by Duncan Birmingham. Review.

Pop-Up Designs & Paper Mechanics

18 Shapes to Make

By Duncan Birmingham

Guild of Master Craftsman Publications Ltd 2016

£5.99 UK/$9.95 US

ISBN 978-1-78494-165-9

Star rating: ****

This 48-page booklet is an abbreviated version of Duncan Birmingham’s 2010 title, Pop-Up Design and Paper Mechanics: How to Make Folding Paper Sculpture. If you want a no-frills crash course on pop-up card designing – just the facts – then this streamlined format could be just the ticket.

As a guide to pop-up mechanisms, the combo of simple photos and line diagrams successfully explains how to make things work, although you will have to put on your thinking cap to imagine the card actions. Next time up: a pop-up You Tube channel, please!

The upfront sections on Working Practice and Simple Rules are clear and concise. Handy hints are sprinkled throughout - suggestions on how to refine results, avoid pratfalls, or up your game. I liked the suggested approach of pop-up sketching – encouraging the reader to experiment. The idea of gluing experiments back-to-back to make a pop-up portfolio has wings.

Featured pop-up mechanisms include several varieties of V-fold, Parallel Fold, Open-topped shapes (boat shapes), Twisting Mechanism (double-action!), and Bending Planes (spirals can be used to make easy-peasy pop-ups). 

This title would make a good gift for a papercrafting newbie, whether an older child or adult.

Playing with Pop-Ups, by Helen Hiebert

Playing with Pop-Ups

The Art of Dimensional, Moving Paper Designs

By Helen Hiebert

Quarry Books 2014

Paperback £16.99 UK, $24.99 US, $27.99 CAN

ISBN 978-1-59253-908-6

Star rating: ****

 

Pop-ups are the graduate school of papercrafting. They dazzle and entertain.  Also intimidate -  pop-ups are called “paper engineering” for a reason!  If you are a fledgling papercrafter, possibly even if you are more experienced, pop-up construction is the ultimate challenge and goal.  In this new book, the intriguing secrets of pop-up construction are revealed.  Plus, there’s lots of enticing background info to put you in the (unfolding) picture. (For instance, The Production of a Pop-Up spread is a fly-on-the-wall experience charting the production cycle of a pop-up book  -  from artist’s roughs to factory assembly.)

The author is Helen Hiebert, talented paper artiste and author of Playing with Paper. She networks with the best and the brightest in the papercraft world. For this book, she made a very shrewd call by assembling an ace team of contributors to provide the projects. The  term “pop up” is an umbrella term that covers many different types of interactive papercrafts. So, the format showcases the paper engineering skills in individual areas of expertise. In all, there are 15 projects by some of the world’s top paper engineers.

This book is full of delights. Amaze to the dissolving picture effects of volvelles (rotating discs). (Must try making a volvelle! I can see why they were so popular in the 19th century.) The slice-form Pop-Up City Skyline (Paul Johnson) will enchant you. The Carousel Pop-Up Book (Emily Martin) is like a miniature doll’s house and would make a fabulous gift for a child. The Pop-Up First Bank (Colette Fu) very cleverly combines pop-up paper engineering with a photographic image. You will also find a tunnel book, a yappy puppy finger puppet, and a pull-tab project. The book is not an  exhaustive examination of pop-up possibilities, but it does cover a good cross-section of paper engineering mechanisms.

At the back of the book is a spectacular Gallery section featuring the creations of  world famous paper engineers: Robert Sabuda, David Pelham, Carol Barton and more. Thrill to the amazing origamic architecture and feats of papercraft dering-do. 

The book does contain a template section, and some double-sided pages that are meant to be cut apart and assembled. I, for one, would have preferred more editorial content to the cuttable pages – because I have no intention of chopping up my lovely review copy.  The Resource section contains a tasty list of books on pop-ups that I intend to chase. Several unfamiliar titles (I thought I knew them all!).

This is a personal hobby horse: I do wish that the book had a look-in on digital papercrafting. Many hobbyist papercrafters are exploring digital pop-up design with their very own home cutting plotters and software. But this is an area that is often overlooked by paper artists. It is like the great art/craft divide. 

Playing with Pop-Ups would make a lovely gift for a papercrafter. Or, treat yourself. And check out the other titles in this excellent series: Playing with Paper, Playing with Books.

Note: I was supplied with a review copy of this title.

Pop-Up Designs by Paul Jackson: Book Review

Cut and Fold Techniques for Pop-Up Designs

By Paul Jackson

Laurence King Publishing, March 2014

128 pages

Paperback, £15.95

ISBN 978 1 7806 7327 1

Star rating: *****

Papercraft expert extrordinaire Paul Jackson is back with a new addition to his excellent series of papercraft design titles for Laurence King Publishing. The subject of this title is pop-ups – I know, smile – but the content of the book is not what you are probably expecting. No, it is not slide-rule time for paper engineering geeks, but rather a streamlined system for designing one-page pop-ups. 

Written with the design professional in mind, the idea is to create a simple, attention-grabbing 3-D pop-up suitable as a backdrop for printed advertising – from just one sheet of card. Clock that, papercrafters: no gluing, nothing fancy. Stunning results from just one sheet of cardstock. According to the author, the technique “creates ‘negative’ (or empty) spaces behind sections of card which have been cut and folded to stand forward, so for every negative void there is an equivalent ‘positive’ of card.” The results are dramatic – sculptural, even architectural. Card-makers: this is the mother lode!

Like all of Paul Jackson’s titles in the series, you are taught the principles of the concept so you can master it and design for yourself. You learn how to create combinations of folds and cuts to make 3-D pop-ups that fold down flat. The first chapter shows how a simple slit in a piece of card can produce a variety of results, depending on how the paper is folded. In Chapter 3, Developing the Basics, you learn how to “Take the Cut for a Walk” – make a more complex cut line to create striking results. When varying the card silhouette is added to this, your options are multiplied bigtime (curvy or zigzag cut + different card outline shape = infinite possibilities). Chapter 4 is Releasing the Folded Edge. Here, you learn to create projecting sections along a crease to dramatic effect. Designs that really stand out! Chapter 5 is Multiple Gutters and Generations – fancy facetted creations – one-page pop-up graduate school, you might say.  Wow factor and something to aspire to. 

This book accomplishes its aim of teaching a specific papercraft design skill. It achieves this aim clearly, concisely, in style, and with humour and enthusiasm. 

Don’t forget to check out Paul Jackson’s other titles for Laurence King. You can build up a mini-library of papercraft titles to add to your papercraft expertise. Although written with the design professional in mind, these titles are user-friendly and completely accessible to the hobbyist papercrafter.

These titles are:

Structural Packaging: Design Your Own Boxes and 3-D Forms

This title, my personal favourite, is indispensible. It teaches you how to design a net – the 2-D pattern template for making a 3-D box.

Folding Techniques for Designers

This book is ideal for origami enthusiasts. It teaches how to create fancy multi-facetted folds ( these are currently in vogue for lampshades).

Cut and Fold Techniques for Promotional Materials

Fun stuff! Interactive novelty designs, such as flexagons - neverending movable folded shapes. The chapter on envelopes is superb.

In my next post, I’ll be featuring some one-page pop-ups that I’ve crafted after doing a quick study of Paul Jackson’s new book.

Note: I was given a review copy of this title.