April 2009 Workshops

Diamond Fold, Star, Spiral, And Necklace Books
Mass Reading Association Conference
Sturbridge, MA
Friday, April 3
1-2:30 PM

Inspire your students with this popular and versatile series of books that all start with the same folded unit. The books are excellent for separating the main ideas
from details and can be applied across the curriculum. The hands‐on session is designed to encourage creative thinking and experimentation as you learn specific techniques.


Creative Bookmaking
Global Studies
Framingham State College
Framingham, MA
Saturday, April 4
8:45 AM-3:00 PM

Books are wonderful vehicles for content across the curriculum. Students are inspired to write and research more when they have a handmade book to display their efforts. Making books also provides an opportunity for creative thinking as forms are varied and combined. This session will include combinations of fold and cut booklets, diamond fold books, and sewn bindings. Susan will teach you the forms and then work with you to vary and adapt them to create a number of different books and develop curriculum applications appropriate for your particular needs. You'll leave with sample books ready for the classroom and ideas for many more. For those who have taken Susan's workshops before, these sessions repeat some familiar techniques but allow more time for experimentation and development of ideas. Recycled materials will be used.



Think Green: Paper Bag Bookmaking
Newburyport Literary Festival
Newburyport, MA
Saturday, April 25
2:45-4 PM

What do you need to transform everyday materials into a book? Imagination, the creative urge, an ordinary paper bag and an old cereal box, that's what. For more than twenty years Newburyport bookmaker Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord has been inspiring children--in school and at home--to create original books from recycled materials. During her workshop for families with children 4 and older (all materials provided) everyone will make and illustrate books of their own.

Welcome to the Aquarium

Welcome to the Aquarium by Julie Diamond takes us through one year in the life of a kindergarten teacher and her class at P.S. 87 in New York City. Excerpts from her journal thread through the book in which she describes her teaching methods and philosophy and her struggles to bring out the best in her class and herself as a teacher. There are many practical pieces of information but to me the most important overall point is that she is a teacher constantly engaged in self reflection through which she grows as a teacher and keeps engaged in the process. Julie Diamond is the kindergarten teacher we all wish we and our children had.

Our resources are our own capacities: Our Capacity to observe, especially at moments when nothing seems to be going on. Our capacity to be surprised by something a child said or did or made. Our capacity to be puzzled, and to mine puzzlement, to see something that escaped us earlier. Our capacity to recognize whatever has deep personal meaning, for our students and also for ourselves (a colleague's class study of birds). Not least, our capacity for friendship—our searching out sympathetic people, who provide the human environment we need. I began the school year, after all, walking to school with a friend. These are steps teachers can make immediately, right now; these resources—the capacities for observation, surprise, puzzlement, and connection—are always present. "Education in its widest sense," Carlina Rinaldi says, is "a hope for human beings."

In recognizing what matters to children and to ourselves, we develop a culture of teaching. The more years we teach, the more we understand what the work entails; and the more complex, colorful, and detailed the culture becomes. In choosing to teach, year after year, we learn to teach; we gain conviction and we discover again and again who are as teachers.

Welcome to the Aquarium is particularly valuable to those who work with young children but Julie Diamond's understanding of teaching has value for anyone involved in education. I found that three chapters, Collages: Making Art, Finding Curriculum: A Study of Squirrels, and The Uses of Literacy: Reading and Writing, were particularly applicable to bookmaking.

Umbrella Accordion Book

YouTube Tutorial

written directions (web and pdf)

umbrella pattern

This month's Umbrella Accordion Book is a tribute to Judith Hoffberg, the creator and editor of Umbrella magazine, who passed away in January. This wonderful magazine had an emphasis on artists' books, mail art, and Fluxus, but was filled with Judith's wide knowledge of the art world and her intrepid spirit. Most recently an online publication, it was for most of thirty years printed on blue paper. It was the only magazine that I always read the day it came in the mail. Judith also was the creator of The International Edible Book Festival which occurs annually on April 1st.

The accordions here have no covers. The blue book was made from a piece of used copy paper folded in half the long way with the writing on the inside. I glued the two sides together to give the paper more support since I was cutting the narrow umbrella stems. The second accordion was made from the front panel of a grocery bag cut in half the long way.

Each umbrella has a verse to a count-down poem:
There were four umbrellas sitting in a row.
The purple one said," I'm going out to feel the rain on me."
And now there are three.
The red one said, "I'm going out to see something new."
And then there were two.
The blue one said,"I'm going out to have some fun."
And then there was one.
The green one said, "I'll stay inside. Here comes the sun."

I have no idea why but February 10 is Umbrella Day.

BOOKS AND LINKS

Yellow Umbrella, a wordless book by Jae Soo Liu accompanied by a CD with music by Dong Il Sheen
The entire book is shown from high above, looking down on a rainy day. One yellow umbrella leaves the house and we follow it as other umbrellas join it on its journey. The beautiful paintings leave lots of room for imagination. The writer/illustrator wrote: "...whenever it rains, I watch for children carrying their colorful umbrellas. Whether they were boys or girls, fat or skinny, tall or short, I realized that under their umbrellas their differences disappeared. What remained in my mind was the visual image of the harmonized colors and movements of their umbrellas. It seemed to me that these children were claiming that they were all equal in spite of their differences."
There is an accompanying CD of piano music.

Umbrella by Taro Yashima
A tender story of a young girl who impatiently waits for the time when she can use her new umbrella.

The Umbrella Party by Janet Lunn, pictures by Katy MacDonad Denton
Christie loves umbrellas so much that she asks all her friends for umbrellas for her birthday. An eventful party at the beach ensues.

Judith Hoffberg's Umbrella magazine

Judith's obituary in the LA Times

Wikipedia information on umbrellas

Kids in Action: Young Inventor from Japan Gets Patent for His "Umbrella Ghost"

Inauguration Celebration Book

I was deeply moved by the entire inaugural celebration but what echoed in my mind the following day was the tune of the Shaker song Simple Gifts that was used in John Williams’s composition Air and Simple Gifts. It was played by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinist Itzhak Perlman, clarinetist Anthony McGill, and pianist Gabriela Montero. I have designed a small booklet with the words of the song to commemorate the day. Print out the pdf and follow the directions for making the hot dog booklet either on my YouTube tutorial or on my website. It's very simple: all you need is the printed page and a pair of scissors. If you don't have scissors, you can tear instead. The writing will be on the outside when you make the first fold.

Watch the performance

Inauaguration Pop-up from Carol Barton

Make an inauguration pop-up created by book artist Carol Barton.

Hear Carol with Scott Simon on Weekend Edition on NPR.

Narcissus Step Book

http://www.makingbooks.com/step.shtml

youtube tutorial

Every year after Thanksgiving we place paperwhite narcissus bulbs in a bowl filled with gravel, add water, watch the sprouting of the green leaves, and enjoy their growth until we get the rich scent of the delicate white blossoms. It's a tradition carried on from my childhood which I have expanded to include a second round of bulbs started in late January to bring us through the cold winter days.

The process of getting bulbs to bloom is usually called forcing. One of the websites I looked at talked about coaxing rather than forcing which I liked a lot. Paperwhites are the easiest because they do not need to be chilled ahead of time. However, they can't be planted after. This will be their one and only time to bloom. I love what The Great Plant Escape said about bulbs: "A bulb is a promise."

The step book was made with four pieces of paper cut from the side panels of a grocery bag. The ties were made from the plastic bag bananas came in. I used colored pencils for the drawings as I found that the white pencil showed up the best on the brown paper.


BOOKS AND LINKS


Delightfully illustrated with cut paper, Paperwhite tells the story of two bunnies, Lucy and her neighbor Miss Mamie. On the first day of winter, they gather stones and put them in a glass jar, place a paperwhite bulb on top of the stones, and water them. While they wait for it to "bring a little spring into this dark winter day," they enjoy their friendship, baking and making music.

Information on coaxing bulbs as well as curriculum connections can be found here
http://www.kidsgardening.com/growingideas/projects/sept03/pg1.html

For some very nice close-up photos of flower buds and blossoms, along with other flowers, visit http://www.charawilliams.com/eye/frontyardflora.html

Kids learn about bulbs as they solve Case 5: Mysterious Parts That Surprise in the Great Plant Escape.
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/gpe/case5/index.html

Step Book Tutorial on Youtube