I recently returned from a week-long studio intensive on Dimensional Books. It was a fabulous workshop with the funny and talented Beauvais Lyons, Chancellor’s Professor and Divisional Dean for Arts and Humanities at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and hosted by Shakerag Workshops.
Remembering paste-up, mechanicals, and rubber cement
For me, the workshop was reminiscent of my early career working in design studios and commercial printing companies (all good memories) doing paste-up using an X-acto knife, Rapidograph pens, and rubber cement—although with the pop-ups, we used glue sticks.
Professor Lyons showed workshop attendees an abundance of pop-up folds and cut-outs. It was a paper-lover’s dream!
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| Various pop-up examples. |
The paper engineering aspect—using parallel and angled folds and cuts—was intriguing and provided myriad artistic and narrative possibilities for books, folios, and cards.
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| Beauvais Lyons showing a complex pop-up from a published book. |
Examples, demonstrations, and inspiration galore
The workshop was jam-packed with pop-up exercises and dimensional book projects, including accordion and carousel book formats. In addition, Professor Lyons showed examples, videos, and slides of his work and work of other professional artists in the field of dimensional books. Workshop attendees did not lack for inspiration! The mess on the work table is proof of this.
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| Productivity and the mess on the work table. |
Each day’s work was displayed in the common area for students in our class, as well as students in other studios, to see what we were learning and doing.
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| Daily discussions about work in progress. |
There were demonstrations for many of the paper structures. This one is about the floating planes, a versatile and useful pop-up that accommodates different shapes and asymmetrical as well as symmetrical layouts.
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| Demonstration of the floating plane pop-up. |
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| A carousel book example (top view). |
As the week progressed, we spent more time in the studio after class time… trying to soak up as much information and accomplish as much as possible on our projects.
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| My table mate, Lauren, working on her carousel book. |
At the end of the week, the work tables were filled with samples and projects.
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| Show and Tell of my projects at the end of the week. |
My finished accordion book, Chill and Grill (below), is a mixed media piece with pop-ups, collage, and watercolor.
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| “Chill and Grill” accordion artist book (front cover). |
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| “Chill and Grill” inside panels with pop-ups. |
I also have a piece using the carousel format and a collection of pop-up folding examples and test pieces that I can use for reference.
Make Nine 2026 Bookmaking prompt
For this year’s Make Nine Challenge, I included a “Bookmaking” prompt… and I’m happy that the inclusion of this topic has been realized. This Dimensional Books workshop has opened the “book” (wink, wink) for so many paper, mixed media, and creative possibilities. I’m excited to continue the exploration.
Below is my 2026 Make Nine tracker as of mid-June…
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| Make Nine Tracker, June 2026. |
… showing the Bookmaking prompt fulfilled.
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| Make Nine 2026, Bookmaking prompt. |
Workshop Friends are the Best!
Here are fellow classmates, Becky and Lauren, who shared this wonderful experience with me. We’ve had several workshops together over the years and it’s always a fun time to reconnect with these multi-talented artists.
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| From left: Becky, Lauren, and me. Dimensional Books workshop 2026 |
