Joseph Cornell Accordion Book

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

Last week I went to see a wonderful exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum called Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination. While best known for his boxes, Joseph Cornell also made collages, films, and a few books. There was one book that would fit into the category of altered book, several portfolio style boxes, and one accordion book.

His work combines found objects and images in surprising ways. I liked one of the descriptive tags so much I copied it. "In the late 1930's a chance encounter with caged tropical birds displayed against a pet shop's stark white walls made such a 'dazzling' impression that Cornell believed it changed his way of seeing 'the simplicity of magic' in the everyday." Our project for the month is an accordion book where we can express the "simplicity of magic" of the everyday in our lives.

Making the Book
You will need two long pieces of sturdy paper or cover stock or the back panel of a brown grocery bag cut in half vertically. I used the front panel of a large cereal box cut in half vertically. It was a little awkward to fold but made an accordion that stood up well for display.

This accordion will have eight pages. Follow the directions for making the accordion. Trim off the tab at the end. You are ready to add your collage images. Joseph Cornell used images of the things that he loved, including birds, ballerinas, and movie stars. Collect images of things you care about- flowers, musicians, baseball players, birds, and make your own book. Magazines and catalogs are good sources of imagery.

Links

Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination
The Peabody Essex Museum has an excellent interactive online companion to the exhibition.
http://pem.org/cornell/

Guardian article by Jonathan Safran Foer, editor of A Convergence of Birds, original fiction and poetry inspired by the work of Joseph Cornell
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1778945,00.html

Straightforward presentations of images of Joseph Cornells' collages and boxes
http://josephcornell.org/list.html

Smithsonian Archives of American Art
Collections Online: Joseph Cornell
View some of his papers including diaries, letters, art works, and ephemera.
http://www.aaa.si.edu/collectionsonline/cornjose/index.cfm/fuseaction/Main.Overview

Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Information about Joseph Cornell and one of Soap Bubble Set boxes with suggestions for an activity for children
http://www.albrightknox.org/ArtStart/Cornell.html

in good spirit Blog
More reflections on the Joseph Cornell exhibit and Edward Hopper at the MFA in Boston are on my art blog, ingoodspirit. Both exhibits close on August 19.

Adapted from the August 2007 issue of Making Books Monthly
Free subscriptions available at makingbooks.com

Fall Workshops

Record, Reflect, Reminisce (Reuse, Reduce, Recycle)
Fiber Art Center
79 S. Pleasant St.
Amherst, MA
Saturday, October 13
10:00-4:30

This workshop is for anyone who works with or spends time with
children or who would like an introduction to simple bookmaking
techniques. In addition to the tactile pleasures of working with our
hands, handmade books give us places to celebrate our lives and the
world around us. Learning to look at the abundance of materials
around us for their potential in bookmaking encourages creativity as
well as benefits the environment. Come and have fun while building a
repertoire of creative projects for children of all ages.


Making Books with Recycled Materials Part I
Center for Global Education
Framingham State College
Framingham, MA
Saturday, October 20
9:00-3:00

Making books is a wonderful teaching tool across the curriculum. In this hands-on workshop, we will use recycled materials (paper grocery bags, cereal boxes, used copy paper) almost exclusively.With the increasing attention to environmental issues and climate change, it is time to think about what resources we consume as we teach. Print and web resources for children on recycling and environmental issues will be shared but the workshop time will spent in the creation of books. A materials list will be sent on registration. You are welcome to bring a camera to photograph Susan's samples.


Books Around the World and Across the Curriculum
Global Education Center
Winchester, MA
Saturday, November 3
9:00-12:00

Embark on a journey of cultural discovery. In this hands-on workshop, you'll learn how to make a variety of book forms from around the world including scrolls from Africa, slat books from China, palm leaf books from Southeast Asia, and accordion books from Mexico, a bit about their history, and how to use them across curriculum. The emphasis is on simple techniques and recycled materials. You'll leave with lots of samples and even more ideas.

Contact Paper Accordion Book

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

I spent two days this spring at the Cambridge Ellis School in Cambridge, MA as part of the Ann Murphy Artisans Program. I worked with children from ages 2 to 4. After I enthusiastically agreed to go, I stopped. I wondered what making books with a class of two-year-olds would be like and then thought, what have I gotten myself into? It turned out to be great. There was lots of staff to help and Jodi Crawford, who is in charge of the arts at the school, was terrific. As I prepared, I enlisted the help of my friend Kathy Charpentier who has been doing day care for years and has a good understanding of the capabilities of children at different ages. The project we came up with was a simple four page accordion without a cover. The children created imagery for their pages by placing pieces of colored paper on a sheet of exposed clear contact paper and then placing the contact paper on the accordion page. I got the idea for this from something I did with my daughter years ago at the Children's Museum in Boston. In honor of the Children's Museum and its reopening after renovation, the links this month connect you to Children's Museums around the country and their offerings of activities to do at home.

Making the Book
You will need one long piece of sturdy paper or cover stock or the back panel of a brown grocery bag cut in half vertically, clear contact paper, a piece of scrap copy paper, tape, and an assortment of small pieces of paper cut or torn in to different shapes.

Cut four pieces of clear contact paper that are a little smaller than the size of the accordion pages. Remove the backing and tape them, sticky side up, to a piece of scrap paper.

Place an assortment of small pieces of paper in trays.

Fold a four page accordion. For the two year olds, I precreased the folds so they could still do the folding steps but didn't have to worry about making the folds even.

Have the children arrange small pieces of paper on the contact paper. If the paper has color or an image on one side only, it must be placed with the image side down. We told them to hide the picture. The surface of the contact paper should not be covered as there needs to be adhesive showing to make the contact paper stick to the accordion.

Place one piece of clear contact paper on each page of the accordion and smooth down to help it adhere.

Variations
Make a face on each page showing different emotions/moods.

Make an accordion shaped like a butterfly and cut the contact paper to fit the wings.

Links

Boston Children's Museum
The Educators link has pdfs to download of some interesting projects, including Chinese shadow puppets and The Nose Knows.
http://www.bostonchildrensmuseum.org

Children's Museum of Indianapolis
Lots of good activities for children in the classroom and at home. The Units of study are divided into K-2, 3-5, and 6-8. K-2 offerings include All Aboard: Trains in History, Folklore, and the Future and Dinosphere: Now You're in Their World.
http://www.childrensmuseum.org/teachers/online_resources_activities.htm

Chicago Children's Museum
A series of articles and activities in four categories: Playful Learning, Growing Up Healthy, Language and Literacy, and Exploring the Arts.
http://www.chicagochildrensmuseum.org/learning_connection.html#language

List of Children's Museum in the US from the Association of Children's Museum
http://www.childrensmuseums.org/visit/us_members.htm#maine
Workshops
I have two open workshops coming in the fall on making books with recycled materials. One will be at the Center for Global Studies at Framingham State College on October 20 and one will be at the Fiber Art Center in Amherst, MA, date to be determined. Details will follow in future posts.

Adapted from the July 2007 issue of Making Books Monthly
Free subscriptions available at makingbooks.com

Butterfly Symmetry Accordion Book

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

One of the signs of summer is the appearance of butterflies in the garden. This month's project is an accordion book which uses yarn threaded through holes to create two butterfly shapes. The wings can be filled in with symmetrical patterns. I have particularly fallen in love with butterflies as images since our trip to Korea where butterflies are symbols of happiness.

Thread the other piece of yarn through the bottom hole.

Bring both pieces of yarn into the single hole on the same page.

Turn the accordion over (it will look like an M from the side) and thread both pieces of yarn through the center hole on the next page.

Turn the accordion over (a W again) and thread each piece of yarn through one of the two holes (top and bottom) on the same page.

Turn the accordion over and repeat the process to make the second butterfly.

Tie a bead to the end of each piece of yarn close to the accordion.

Links

Children's Butterfly Site
Well organized site with photographs of butterflies searchable by geographic area and family as well as information about the life cycle of a butterfly with translations into French, Spanish, German Italian, and Dutch
http://bsi.montana.edu/web/kidsbutterfly/

Symmetry in Nature
A discussion of line and rotational symmetry with examples of butterflies, leaves, and flowers
http://www.misterteacher.com/symmetry.html

How To Make A Butterfly Garden
Create a garden that attracts butterflies with guidance from these two websites.
http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef006.asp
http://www.thebutterflysite.com/gardening.shtml

Monarch Watch
Information on March butterflies including how to create a Monarch Waystation to provide resources for monarchs during their migration
http://www.monarchwatch.org/

in good spirit Blog
A butterfly image created in Photoshop and inspired by my trip to Korea can be seen on my art blog, in good spirit.

Susan's Visit to Korea

It's almost a month since we returned from a short trip to Korea where I took part in the Seongnam International Book Art Fair. I was very inspired by the experience but have not had time to write or create much about it. I did compose a short letter with photos to preschool children at the Cambridge-Ellis School in Cambridge, MA where I spent a few days last month. Here's a slightly modified version.

R ur kids 4getn how 2 rite?: Fun writing activities for summer

Newburyport writer Aine Greaney has written an article full of great ideas for getting kids writing over the summer. She kindly lists makingbooks.com as a resource. You can read the article here.

You can learn more about Aine and her work on her website.

Korean Counting Book

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

My husband and I went to Korea last month where I was part of the Seungnam International Book Art Fair. I exhibited some of the Spirit Books and gave a coupleof workshops to children. We were welcomed with wonderful hospitality and had a chance to make friends from Korea and around the world. Our trip was only six days with two of them in airports and in the air so it took us a while to recover after our return home. I'll be posting information about the trip sometime soon. I always like to show some sample ways of using the books I make in workshops. Here's a book that I took to Korea. The first page says counting book followed by the numbers from one to nine.

I used five sheets of 4.25" x 11" colored copy paper (standard size sheets cut in half vertically). The step book works great for a counting book as the page revealed after lifting each step gets larger as you move along the book. For a variation, you can bind it using the stick and elastic technique instead of yarn.
http://www.makingbooks.com/elastic.shtml


Links

Numbers in Different Languages
A counting book can be an entry into a different culture. I'm planning on making a larger counting book with the following:

1 palace (we visited Gyeongbokgung (Gyeongbok Palace),
2 chopsticks (Korean chopsticks are made of stainless steel),
3 azalea blossoms (I was introduced to one of Korea's most famous poems by its translator David R. McCann who is the brother of a friend from the Children's Museum),
4 handmade brushes (I bought a beautiful one in a shop in Insadong in Seoul),
5 birds (as far as I can tell the common birds we saw and loved were black-billed magpies),
6 children playing badminton (we saw lots in the park on the weekend),
7 bowls of kimchi (the fermented cabbage dish is served at every meal),
8 pairs of slippers (there were slippers in the hotel room, outside the dining room in a restaurant, and in bins at the airport where we had to take off our shoes),
9 Dunkin Donuts coffees (we were surprised to see containers of Dunkin Donuts coffee arrive at the exhibition hall especially when we have friends in the western US who miss them terribly)

Wikipedia has well organized sets of numbers from one to ten in different languages.

Korean Numbers

There are two kinds of numbers in Korean: pure Korean numbers and Sino-Korean numbers. The numbers in the Counting Book above are Sino-Korean numbers.

Sino-Korean Numbers

Pronunciation:
1= il
2= ee
3= sam
4= sa
5= oh
6= yook
7= chil
8= pal
9= goo
10= ship

You can hear them and then test yourself with a concentration game here.

Korean Number Song
You may find this cute or irritating but it does go through the Korean numbers from one to ten.

Adapted from the May 2007 issue of Making Books Monthly
Free subscriptions available at makingbooks.com