A lesson in Paper Folding

Like Appleton Library, Kimberly-Little Chute had an artist-in-residence in September/October. Benjamin D. Reinhart, a bookmaking and box making professor, is the artist-in-residence in Kimberly. The Kimberly-Little Chute Library was offering several drop-in programs about bookmaking techniques. The first one was a basic book making class.

After doing the heart walk, I headed over to the Kimberly library to learn how to make a book. It turns out I wasn't making a book per se but learning how to fold paper to create different types of "books" that would be great for reports and/or book projects if I was a still a teacher. I did learn how to make 3 different types of "books".

The pocket book

This was a simple accordion book that had pockets on each paper where you could tuck in recipes, photos, or other mementos.

I really like this one. It's easy and it would make a fun recipe book. Instead doing a traditional accordion fold, you folded the paper to the middle a couple times to create an illusion of an accordion. If you the right size canvas or cardboard, you could a make a nice strong cover. Instant gift. 

The chain book

This one involved many squares of paper glued together to make a chain. We started by folding the paper in quarters and then opening it and folding it the opposite side on a diagonal to make the paper pop -- so it looked like a lotus flower or personally I think a frog. 

Then we glued like sides together to make a strand. 

This book could go on for ever just by adding more squares. It would also make nice holiday garland. 

The square

Okay that is not the name of this type of book but I can't remember what it is really called. I know it is a pain and I don't think mine turned out right because it never shifted the way it was supposed to.

We folded our paper into 16 squares using a lot of hot dog folds. 

Then we cut out the middle to make a picture frame.

Folding the corners and sides a certain way we ended up with a square that if you twisted it opened a different way. Mine didn't seem to play nice. This would be fun for a book report.

Despite not making what I would have thought of real books, it was a fun activity. I am glad I went and glad KimLit has their own artist-in-residence. Ben is a great teacher and am I looking forward to more artist-in-residence events at the Kimberly-Little Chute Library.