Here’s the cover of my newest book, Playing With Pop-Ups, which is being printed, bound and will be ready to read in early May! It is a colorful book (on the inside too) which I’m really liking. Here you see artwork by David Carter, a project by Shawn Sheehy, artwork by Peter Dahmen and a project by Carol Barton.

This book is a bit different for me, in that I’m more of an editor/curator than the artist. In Paper Illuminated, I created all of the projects; in Playing With Paper, I designed about two thirds of the projects (and guest artists came up with the rest); and in Playing With Pop-Ups, I designed just one of the projects. 

Pop-ups were my foray into the world of paper art over twenty years ago, but then I discovered hand papermaking. When this book opportunity presented itself, I felt it would be best to have the experts show off their work in the field. And as it so happened, I had just attended the annual meeting of the Movable Book Society where I met some of them (and learned about others). Thankfully, about 15 paper engineers agreed to contribute projects and show off their artwork in the gallery section of the book. You’re in for a treat!

I am having fun exploring pop-ups again (isn’t it wonderful how things circle around in life). I’m working on a pop-up alphabet which will make its debut along with Playing With Pop-Ups. These are working models, based on a two-dimensional rendering of a 3D font that I discovered in a book of fonts back in the 1980’s.

I’d love to know about your favorite pop-up projects, books and artists. I’ll be featuring some of the artists in the book here in the months to come, but please feel free to add your comments below.