Book Logs

The phrases: ‘Book Folding’ and ‘Folded Books’ are right up there in the top 10 search keywords that bring people to the Freshly Found blog.

We have done a fair bit of book work over the years at Freshly Found.
With life being rather chilly here in the Southern Hemisphere, I thought it may be a good idea to warm up the view of the fireplace with some ‘logs’!

[Please don’t actually set them alight in your fireplace, unless you want a quick short blaze]
These Book Logs are made from Basic Barrel Roll Fold.  You may like to pop over to the Freshly Found Tutorial for that.  Happy folding!!

Gentian Roses

Gentian for gentlemen at an upcoming function. 

 

Loved making this order up in this beautiful colour 🙂

Did you know? Interesting Gentian info from the Gentian Research Network a free, not-for-profit, web-based forum for worldwide research on the natural history and evolution of the flowering plant family Gentianaceae (gentians).

• Gentian violet is a water soluble dye used primarily in medicine to stain bacteria, but also in other histological procedures.  It is not derived from gentians, but got its name since it is pink-violet like some gentians in the genera of Centaurium, Gentiana, and Gentianella.
• The gentian family contains 87 genera and over 1600 species in the newest classification. It is closely related to other plant families that include coffee, periwinkle, milkweed, madder, and dogbanes
• Gentians have been used by humans since ancient times as herbal remedies, and taste very bitter. 
•  Their flowers are often colorful (blue, pink, red, yellow), and the true blue gentians (Gentiana) are often grown in rock gardens.

Cotton Print Trees

Christmas Time with bonded paper and fabric squares folded into mini trees.  

The delicate bright green floral sari prints are all the decorating these simple trees need.

They may be folded from a square of normal paper or light cardboard, but 
here they are made from a fine layer of cotton fabric bonded onto good quality book print paper (those annual share report books have their uses!!)
I love the way the typography gently emerges  through the botanical pattern.

How to fold:

Fold a preliminary base. Squash fold each flap.

Crease fold each point up

Reverse fold the points and tuck under. Once again, squash fold each flap.

Crease fold each flap up. Reverse fold and tuck under.

Join each inside point with a thread. Pull in and tie to secure the tree shape.

If you would like to try the fabric option, here’s how it’s done using fusible applique paper

Cut a squares of book paper . Cut a square of fusible bonding paper, iron it onto the fabric and cut the square out.

Flatten the paper square, peel the backing paper off the fabric square, and iron the fabric onto the paper square.

Adding Paint to Paper

Peace lilies are indigenous to South Africa, and one of my favourite flowers.  I love their simplicity and have enjoyed making them up out of paper.  I used book paper, but here in this bunch, I added a layer of white acrylic paint, before wet moulding the petals.  I am really pleased with the way they turned out.

The paint layer softens and almost hides the underlying print and gives the paper a lovely firm handle.

The Christmas Tree Project was also made with acrylic coated book paper squares, which were further decorated with a Collagraph Print.

 

Each square was covered with a layer of white acrylic paint on both sides. 

I rolled the acrylic paint on to some good quality recycled paper with a sponge roller. 

 

To speed the drying process up, I placed the painted sheets in my thermo-fan oven for a few minutes.  I only just switched the oven on, relying more on the moving air than the gentle heat.  

Afterwards I put the squares out to cool

Once the squares were folded (See the instructions here) I printed them with a simple pattern.  I made up a Collagraph plate – so named beause of the collaged materials that created the patterned print.

I used thick cardboard, and wound small string coils, which I glued on the corners. I sealed the string and cardboard with diluted wood glue.  When this was dry, I brushed paint onto the colis, and then printed them onto the squares.

See some pictures here and instructions on how to make up the tree here.

How To Make The Modular Tree.

Yesterday I showed you the Christmas Tree hanging in my living room.  It is made from individual folded squares of recycled paper, and strung together abacus-like to form a tree.

There are many decorative square shapes that you can fold.  
Here is a Pictorial to make up the squares. I used painted book paper squares for the tree, but I am using plain book paper to show the technique I used. 

Slits were cut on the back of each square to thread the string through.
I used coarse string to create enough friction to keep the shapes from slipping down and out of position.
The tree was laid out on the floor before each string was threaded. Refer back to the picture in yesterday’s post for the pattern.

The rod at the top of the mural was made from a large rectangle of waste paper, rolled obliquely into a long paper rod and secured with some wood glue.   
Each string was knotted around the paper rod.

 

Colourful tissue paper squares were inserted inside some of the shapes.

In the next post I’ll tell you about painting the book paper and the pattern I randomly printed on some of the squares. 

Modular Paper Tree

This year some alternate Christmas decor is up and hanging in our living space.

Recycled paper square were folded and supspended to form a modular hanging tree.  
I love the vibrant geometric textured feel.  

In the next couple of blog posts, I’ll tell you how I made it.  

Prepare to hear about painting paper with acrylic, Collagraph printing (I learnt a new term there),  Origami folding, and paper rolling. 
How-to over here

Thoughts on Hummingbirds

I don’t think I’ve seen a hummingbird in real life.  Here in Southern Africa, we have similar sunbirds, but no true hummingbirds. 

We’ve seen a couple of hummingbird images on the net in the last few days with the unfolding of the Woolworths / Euodia Roets plagiarism saga.
I was asked to come up with some origami ornament options for a client, so I decided to make up a version of this sweet news-worthy bird.
I folded some paper prototypes for my client, and then created these 2 for myself – worked with a paper and fabric layer together.

    

The thin sari fabric is fairly easy to work with, and covers the predictable book print that I so often use 🙂


Random Facts:

• Hummingbirds are the smallest birds.
• They are the only birds that can fly backwards.
• The humming sound comes from the rapid beat of their wings
• Read a variety of interesting responses to the Hummingbird Plagiarism Tale at Touchee Feelee, Woolworths, fin24 and Reluctant Mom 

Ref Wikipedia

Mild Mustard

Just finished a Dusty-Yellow coloured paper project! 

Hand painting the paper with this warm colour has endeared me a little to this hot dog hue.

Concertina Shells…

These are the interesting leftovers from an enormous project we have just completed.

Christy, Sandile, Hlengiwe and myself have sourced, sliced, folded and strung together hundreds of folded books for the Shaw Sisters, who are supplying a nation-wide chain store in South Africa.
So…when you are at the mall – please be on the look out for this coming-soon literate installation, and let me know when and where you’ve seen it. – and send us a pic too.  Thanks♥
A special thanks to the Highway Hospice Charity Shop for supplying us with books to recycle and to Isla Designs for your contribution too!

Book Shelving

Barrel Roll Folded books stacked into shelving.  The print stripes and gentle folds form a pleasing rhythmic backdrop to some quirky collectibles.

 

The delicate book rolls are surprisingly stable and can be stacked in many combinations.  Here we filled a corner, creating an interesting wall covering and lots of display space. 

 

This is an ideal budget treatment that can be erected easily and moved or rearranged if needed, and eventually completely recycled.

See the Freshly Found book folding tutorial for instructions on making the rolls.