Horrorgami Adams Family House for Halloween

From early childhood, London artist Marc Hagan-Guirey has been a huge fan of horror movies. He began working with kirigami (the Japanese art of cutting an image from a single piece of paper) by designing a model of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House in Los Angeles, but then gravitated to more spooky edifices with a design for the house that served as the set in the Adams Family television show. From there he’s moved on to create a Horrorgami Overlook Hotel (The Shining), The Amityville House, and the MacNeil house from The Exorcist. He has plans to do more, and has a show coming up in November at Gallery One-and-a-Half in London. A video of the artist and his work is at this link. Thanks to Betsy Rubinstein for bringing these horrors to our attention.

Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival Pop-Up Cards

To celebrate the National Cherry Blossom Festival and the 100th anniversary of Japan’s gift of cherry trees to our nation’s capital, the National Building Museum commissioned artist and paper engineer Carol Barton to design do-it-yourself pop-ups that kids (and adults) could make at the event this past weekend. A pop-up Japanese Tea House and a pop-up of the Miajima Torii Gate were among the projects. Both were given out free to the crowd, along with instructions on how to cut out and assemble them. Volunteers helped with the assembly process, and everyone seemed pleased with their take-home pop-up souvenirs.

To make your own Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival pop-ups, download the designs and directions from www.cherryblossompopup.com, print them onto card stock paper and glue them together. The trees have already lost their blossom due to this year’s early spring, but you’ll have the pop-ups to remember them by.

Pop-Up Inspired Micro-Robotics

Pratheev Sreetharan and his team of engineers at Harvard’s Microbiotics Lab had a problem. They were trying to produce very small flying micro robots (about the size of a bee). However, building such miniscule pieces of technology was fraught with difficulties. ”You’d take a very fine tungsten wire and dip it in a little bit of superglue,” explains Sreetharan. “Then, with that tiny ball of glue, you’d go in under a microscope like an arthroscopic surgeon and try to stick it in the right place.”

The solution to their dilemma was inspired by a study of origami and pop-up books. They constructed a flat sandwich of 18 layers of different materials (plastic film, carbon fiber, titanium, etc.). Then, utilizing a series of movable hinges, they folded the tiny circuit board to “pop” the robot into three-dimensional form. To watch a film of the process, go to news.harvard.edu

The robots might be used in the future for weather observations, traffic monitoring, emergency rescue, and more disturbingly, surveillance. Let’s hope this interesting pop-up application “does no evil.”

Cooking up a Pop-Up

Students in Carol Barton’s Sculptural Books class at the Corcoran School of Art and Design have been working hard to create pop-ups of their favorite recipes. The resulting dimensional illustrations range from main dishes such as Grilled Fish in Banana Leaves to deserts made with flavorings of lavender and lime. The recipes reflect an international cuisine typical of Washington, D.C.’s multi-national mix. And though the food here is all of paper, it looks good enough to eat.

Peter Dahmen’s sculptural pop-ups

German graphic designer Peter Dahmen has a stunning video on Youtube showing the mechanical movements of his sculptural pop-ups. Executed in plain white paper, the pop-ups in the video become choreographed plays in light and shadow with the turning of each page.

Here’s the link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuQsxFhBGzw

Pop-Up Artist visits Pop-Up Collector

On her recent teaching trip to Australia, artist and paper engineer Carol Barton spent an evening viewing some of the wonderful books in collector Corrie Allegro’s extensive pop-up collection. A graphic designer, Corrie has been assembling his collection of over 3,500 pop-ups for the past 30 years. He owns some real gems, including several historic lift-up flap anatomy books and original 19th-century books by Lothar Meggendorfer. Corrie was recently featured on Australia’s popular TV show “The Collectors.” To view the video, click here.

Thomas Allen’s Pulp Fiction

Photographer Thomas Allen has an interesting take on the pulp fiction genre. He cuts various characters from a book’s cover, theatrically positions and lights them (often with a tongue-in-cheek response to the work’s title), then photographs the results to create an eerily staged diorama with surprising dramatic impact. To see more of Allen’s work, visit the 1dak.com site.

Kristine Suhr’s Amazing Movable Paintings

We’re so impressed with Krisitne Suhr’s handsome web site, and with her wonderful mechanical paintings. Each framed painting has a pull tab, rotating wheel (called a volvelle) or other mechanical device which can be manipulated by the viewer. When activited, the image in the painting moves or transforms with surprising results. To see her paintings in action, visit Kristine’s web site.

Volume Two, The Pocket Paper Engineer

The long-awaited Volume 2 of Carol Barton’s The Pocket Paper Engineer is on it’s way, and will be available in late June. This volume will cover the steps in constructing four glued pop-ups: platforms, props, spirals, and straddles. The book includes ten new projects to be constructed right out of the book, plus lots of photos, ideas, and step-by-step instructions for creating your own pop-ups.

Visit http://www.popularkinetics.com/sales_page.html to place your pre-publication order now!

Santa Fe Radio Cafe Interview

Carol Barton recently was interviewed by Mary-Charlotte Domandi on the public radio member station KSFR in Santa Fe, NM, along with Santa Fe Art Institute director Diane Karp. The half-hour segment covers a wide range of topics ranging from Barton’s work with pop-ups, historical background on artist’s books, and even a few science subjects. To listen to the full interview, go to SantaFeRadioCafe.org