Kicking off the half-term week on Monday with a full-day workshop in Putney with Surrey Explorers (Potential Plus UK). The children produced amazing work including Joss who created the piece in the video, and Daniel, Sebastian and Almaz who created the examples below that.
Latest pop-up tutorial in the series.
Make a pop-up rainbow for your favourite NHS person.
Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7qyzxvZYJ3TxdCGIP_T6XYvYe0l4iqji
I’m very grateful to the schools that have invited me in over the years to talk about my work, run workshops and share my pop-up skills. I wanted to offer them something during this difficult time so I’ve been creating a series of online pop-up tutorials.
I’m currently editing video number 4. Each one deals with an aspect of paper-engineering – parallel fold, v fold, platform fold and so forth and the designs will become more complicated over time. My intention is to continue to make the videos even after everything turns back to normal – whenever that might be. Also, I’ve always wanted to provide people with a resource after they’ve done my workshops and now seemed as good a time as any to create it.
Quite rightly, no comments are allowed on the YouTube videos intended for families and kids but if you have any questions about the techniques, feel free to ask me here.
I celebrated World Book Day with the children of Annemount School in Hampstead Garden Suburb. A few of the children dressed up as characters from the Big Match and one boy, Rafael, completed his costume with a ‘book cabinet’ for guessing the book. The box opened to reveal mini pictures of all of my books.
I couldn’t believe the work that Rafael and his family put into this – two days I’m told. He wanted to give the box to me to take away at the end of the day (with his Mum’s permission, of course) – it now takes pride of place on my studio wall.
Final outcome of the ‘And So She Did’ project at St Albans Museum. Video shows the three giant pop-up constructions made with local families and museum volunteers, based on women with local connections.
My recent three-day residency at the new St Albans Museum was part of the ‘And So She Did’ programme and looked at three women with some connection to St Albans – Constance Lytton, Sarah Churchill and Boudicca.
The brief was to work with visiting families and adults to produce large-scale pop-up constructions featuring the three women. I aimed to give the feel of a picture frame combined with stage set and to create a narrative for each of the women using elements from their lives along with the use of text. Preparation was key but also important was an understanding that the participants would ultimately determine the direction and look of the final pieces. Week two of the project had further workshops with textile artist Flea Cooke creating banners about Margaret Wix, Syeda Momotaz Rahim and Muriel Green.
High Sun is organised by my friend Jonathan Lambert who I had the pleasure of working with on one of Wordpepper’s children’s theatre productions.
I’ll be running two half-term workshops at the Verulamium Museum (The Museum of Everyday Life in Roman Britain) in St. Albans next month. Verulamium was the third largest city of Roman Britain and the museum stands on the site of the Roman town.
Both workshops are based around the theme of the Roman kitchen, allowing plenty of scope for food, implements, vessels, tools, pets and other rooms in the background. Workshop 1 will consist of making simple individual pop-up frameworks and adding the various elements to build up a 3D picture.
Workshop 2 (free) is a drop-in session where you get to help co-create a giant work of three dimensional art! The children will create and add the elements to a large pre-prepared, collapsible, cardboard framework, using the museum’s exhibits for inspiration. The finished piece will be displayed at the museum for a short period of time.
Further information about the workshops and the museum:
http://www.stalbansmuseums.org.uk/whats-on/roman-paper-engineering-bookable-session-457/
http://www.stalbansmuseums.org.uk/whats-on/roman-paper-engineering-drop-in-session-458/
The Word Festival is an innovative programme of activities, events and workshops focusing on and exploring the pleasure of reading, writing and freedom of expression in Islington. Launched in 2012, and delivered annually since then, the Word Festival Programme is a partnership initiative between Islington Council’s Library and Heritage Services, Arts Service, All Change and Free Word.
This year artist Irma Irsara and I are proud to co-produce an event with Word17 at Finsbury Park Trust on Saturday 17th June (full details below). We’ll be running two workshops in pop-up design, illustration and wordplay for small children and their families. Make your very own pop-up creations by learning to develop basic mechanisms to create more complex designs, all in easy-to-follow steps.
It’s also an opportunity to develop spatial awareness and explore ideas of transformation while practicing construction and craft-making skills. At the same time, we will be exploring descriptive wordplay in a fun and accessible way.
The starting point is the idea of someone special to you and how you would describe them using individual words and phrases. We are also interested in the idea of different languages. The event is targeted at younger children who are beginning to connect words and construct sentences.
The workshops are free and all materials are supplied – you just bring the creativity.
Suitable for children age 5 and upwards along with parents and carers.
Saturday 17th June 2017, 11am – 1pm & 2 – 4pm
Finsbury Park Trust, 225-229 Seven Sisters Road, London N4 2DF
No booking required – arrive early to avoid disappointment.
See the full Word programme here: Word Festival Brochure 2017
Below are images from our Word events in 2014 with Islington Museum.
John O'Leary 