Folded Book Art

Aim:

To engage participants in a creative process of creating art from old books, involving skills in making things by hand.

Objectives: 

  • To learn ways on how to recycle old books;
  • To learn how to create folded book art in a heart shape.

Duration: 120 min.

Number of participants: 4 – 10

Materials:

  • Book. It’s best to use a hardcover book, as these books will give the best results when displaying them;
  • Ruler in centimeters, as these patterns are displayed in centimeters;
  • Pencil to mark the pages.

Description:
Step 1: Marking the Pages

For this heart pattern we need to mark and fold only 40 sheets of paper.

The pattern we use is in centimeters.

Now pick up the book like normal when you would read it (Like in the first image of this step).

Now turn the book a quarter, so your hand ends up on the right of the book and the page numbers (in this case) end up in the right upper corner. Like in the second image.

The book is now positioned right. It has to stay in this position during the process of marking the folds.

Now place your ruler on the book like in the third image. Make sure the beginning of the ruler is on the left side of the book.

The first two values you need to mark according to the pattern are: 7.7 centimeters and 8.9 centimeters. So place two marks on those two values. If done right, you now have marked the first page and there’s a gap of 1.2 centimeters between the marks. It looks similar to the fourth image.

Now go to the next page (the second page). Here you mark the following values: 7.1 centimeter and 9.6 centimeter

On the third page you mark the following values: 6.8 centimeters and 10.1 centimeters.

Page 4 values: 6.6 & 10.5

Page 5: 6.4 & 10.9

Page 6: 6.3 & 11.2

Page 7: 6.2 & 11.6

Page 8: 6.1 & 11.8

Page 9: 6.0 & 12.1

Page 10: 6.0 & 12.4

Page 11: 6.0 & 12.6

Page 12: 6.0 & 12.8

Page 13: 6.0 & 13.1

Page 14: 6.1 & 13.3

Page 15: 6.1 & 13.5

Page 16: 6.3 & 13.7

Page 17: 6.4 & 14.0

Page 18: 6.6 & 14.2

Page 19: 6.8 & 14.4

Page 20: 7.1 & 14.6

Page 21: 7.1 & 14.6

Page 22: 6.8 & 14.4

Page 23: 6.6 & 14.2

Page 24: 6.4 & 14.0

Page 25: 6.2 & 13.7

Page 26: 6.1 & 13.5

Page 27: 6.1 & 13.3

Page 28: 6.0 & 13.1

Page 29: 6.0 & 12.8

Page 30: 6.0 & 12.6

Page 31: 6.0 & 12.4

Page 32: 6.0 & 12.1

Page 33: 6.1 & 11.8

Page 34: 6.2 & 11.6

Page 35: 6.3 & 11.2

Page 36: 6.4 & 10.9

Page 37: 6.6 & 10.5

Page 38: 6.8 & 10.1

Page 39: 7.2 & 9.6

Page 40: 7.7 & 8.9

Step 2: Folding the Pages

After you marked all the pages you can start folding.

Place the book in front of you like in the first image of this step.

Then fold each page twice on the marks you made in the previous step, like you can see in the second and third image. Try to keep the folds at 90 degrees or as close to it as possible.

Repeat these steps until you have folded all the marked pages.

The fourth, fifth and sixth image let you see how the book should look like once you folded some pages.

When finished folding, you’re done! You’ve created your own folded book art now. Now go ahead and look for more patterns, as all of their patterns work in the same way.

Expected outcomes:

  • Participants have learned how to recycle old books
  • Participants have learned how to created folded book art in a heart shape
  • Participants with and without disabilities took part in an creative and artistic process together