During June I’ve been experimenting with pop-up and pop out ideas. I want to be ready to work with The Ethelzine next year on a visual poetry book. It’s also great timing because the staff showcase is coming up at my workplace, Hereford College of Arts. This is an annual event, part of Herefordshire Art Week. This year I wanted to have something more than a memory stick full of images.

Visual poetry book 1: Accordion theatre

This project is based on found poetry from a vintage book of wedding customs. I initially called these ‘directives’ and they were flat images. However, to make them into an object I’ve split the layers, printed and cut them, and used folded paper to separate each layer.

These are very much samples, and the print quality isn’t great, but they will be accompanied by some of the customs from the book and slots so that people can make their own found charms (as well as some of my poetry)

Visual poetry book 2: Pop up theatre/card

I wanted to see if I could make a pop up card, and I can – it’s very simple, with slots for the text, but it makes me think that if I have lots of these, as an accordion, or perhaps using cut-through techniques. to make a book it might be worth working on as an idea for next year. I can intersperse images with poetry, as well as offering this out as an interactive book. We’ll see what The Ethelzine think to this when I’ve worked it out more fully!

Staff Showcase at Hereford College of Arts

I’m looking forward to showing these, along with images and poetry from last year. Luckily, I can take part in the Staff Showcase at Hereford College of Arts, where I work. This is part of Herefordshire’s Art Week, an annual event where artists and crafts people across the county open up their studios to share work and working processes.

So, if you’re in the area, I hope I might meet some of you there, and be able to show you my small paper samples (and lots of lovely digital images) in person.