Byopia Press Advent Calendar 2019: Day Seven and a Little Star Book

Today’s post re-visits a post from May of last year. It seemed fitting to include it in this year’s Advent calendar since it starts with squares, is square when closed, and can be used as a Christmas ornament.

Friday Night Flicks: Christmas 2019 Ad | John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners

It’s the first Friday in December, and in the hopes of showing this to you before everyone on your mailing list and all your Facebook friends have recommended it, I am posting this at the beginning of the month rather than saving it for later.

Audience advisory: if you have small children with you who have become emotionally attached to Olaf from Frozen, and might be distressed by his flaming demise, please do not let them watch unless you are absolutely sure that you can convince them that the snowman is not Olaf.

 

 

Perhaps you will have the time —and the proper kind of snow— to build a replacement snowman this weekend.

 

 

Byopia Press Advent Calendar 2019: Day Six and a Modular Box

This is a box built out of six two-part panels and twelve connecting units.

Before you panic about making twenty-four parts to construct a simple cube, I would like to point out a couple of things.

Byopia Press Advent Calendar 2019: Day Five and a Modular Star/Wreath

This a Robin Star, version 2. It is made from eight folded and interlocked squares of paper. The structure was designed by Maria Sinayskaya and published on-line by her in December 2012.

Byopia Press Advent Calendar 2019: Day Four and Jam Tarts

Although the dormouse says the tarts are filled with treacle, and the Cook tells the King the filling is pepper, I have always imagined that the stolen tarts in Alice in Wonderland were jam tarts.

Byopia Press Advent Calendar 2019: Day Three and a Menko CD Case

I have written about the one-sheet menko before. As well as being an interesting structure for a valentine greeting, or serving as the smallest compartment in a Zhen Xian Bao/Chinese Thread Book, it can be used as a CD case.

Byopia Press Advent Calendar 2019: Day Two and an Origami Bookmark

A book makes an excellent gift. If it is purchased rather than one you have created yourself, you can personalize it with an origami bookmark. The one below is made from wrapping paper and is suitably festive for the season.

Byopia Press Advent Calendar 2019: Day One and How to Make a Square Piece of Paper

It’s the first day of December, so it is time for the third annual Byopia Press Advent Calendar. This year the theme is “square”. There will be paper things and bookish things and a little food. There will be some re-visiting of past posts but a lot of new things too.

And now it begins.

Most origami instruction books start with how to make a square piece of paper from a rectangular one.

If you have tried this method and been unsuccessful, it’s because the rectangular piece of paper you started with does not have right-angle (90°) corners.

Friday Night Flicks: “Mère et Enfant par Beno

Last week’s flick featured some easy ways to make little books. Tonight’s flick shows the complex process used to produce a traditional ‘moku hanga’ or woodblock print. Some of the Japanese ukiyo-e prints produced this way originally appeared in books.

 

 

If you would like to try a simpler form of printmaking this weekend, you can find instructions for making potato prints here. (If you are old enough to handle a knife safely I would recommend using that instead of a paper clip!)

Patience is a Virtue

The temperature in my studio can change quite drastically between day and night. Humidity levels also shift. Paper can move considerably with either (or both) of those changes. As a result, some of the corners on the support structure for G is for Geography detached themselves after a few days. It was not totally unexpected, and one of the tasks I completed this week was re-gluing a bunch of corners.