The Makers & Shakers Art Party is held at Shake Rag Alley monthly on a Wednesday evening. The sessions are informal and short, only two hours, and anyone can attend for a nominal fee, no art experience required. Each month one of the participants shares an art project with the group, but not really a teaching situation, more of a casual have-fun-making-art-together thing.
I was invited to lead the art project for the April meeting. About the only project criteria is that it must be something that can be completed in only two hours. I chose to show how to fold mini books from a single sheet of paper which is really an origami technique (far as I know).
You can make either an 8 page book or a 16 page book - lots of instructions for the folds can be found online. You can use ordinary copy paper or any sturdy paper in any size that you want. I like to use card stock and sometimes craft paper or paper bags.
To add a little pizzazz to the project, I also showed how to make your own decorated paper using washes of acrylic paint layered with stamping, stenciling, and mark making. Decorating the paper before folding it rather than doing each page one at a time produces some delightfully surprising results once folded.
It was a pretty stormy night so the group was small but dedicated! We had a lot of fun and I think their books turned out great.
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| Heidi's books |
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| Kathleen's books |
