Pop-up bookmaking and Make Nine finish #5

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Demonstration of the floating plane pop-up.

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.

My table mate, Lauren, working on her carousel book.

At the end of the week, the work tables were filled with samples and projects.

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.

“Chill and Grill” accordion artist book (front cover).

“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…

Make Nine Tracker, June 2026.

… showing the Bookmaking prompt fulfilled.

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.

From left: Becky, Lauren, and me.
Dimensional Books workshop 2026

A kantha-stitched book cover: completing a 2017 project for Make Nine 2025

It only took eight years, but I can finally call this small hand-crafted artist’s book “finished”! I’m counting it as fulfilling the second UFO prompt for Make Nine 2025. 

Artist’s book with a kantha stitched fabric cover.
Interior pages consist of various mark-making techniques and collage.

A book of mark-making 

This piece began as a mark-making exercise in a workshop with Dorothy Caldwell in the summer of 2017. The interior pages of this book are made of long, narrow strips of paper that were painted, inked, and collaged—experiments using different mark-making techniques and tools.

A page spread of the book.

Each page spread is a little world—layered with marks, pattern, shadow, and intuition. Some feel like meditative sketches with spontaneous marks. 

Another page spread with inked marks and collage.

The pages are folded into three signatures, sewn together with a woven binding. The book, when opened, can lie flat. 

Woven binding hold the three signatures together.

The kantha stitched cover

The cover was also a long narrow piece of black cotton fabric. The texture and hint of color is created by rows and rows of simple running stitches—the kantha embroidery technique we were learning in the workshop. I used embroidery floss, both single strand and multi-strand, and let the needle meander across the fabric. 

Kantha stitched cover.

The single strands of colored floss provide a subtle contrast to the black fabric base, and a soft, delicate complement to the more dominant, white stitching lines. This cover was stitched intentionally—not fast, not perfect, just by being present. 

Running stitches with colored and white embroidery floss.

Combining cover and signatures… just do it 

The stitched cover and the book pages lay together for years, knowing they were meant to go together. My dilemma, however, was how to attach the cover to the text pages. Make a wrap-around cover with a tie? A cover with a snap? or button closure? This was the step that stalled the completion of the book for so long. 

Returning home with energy and excitement from a recent quilting class at the Folk School, I had a burst of inspiration and immediacy to complete this UFO. The time had come to just “figure it out!” I decided to create a “book jacket” (of sorts) for the book. The two short ends of the cover were turned to the inside and stitched, creating pockets for the first and last pages of the book to slide into.

The ends of the cover folded over to create pockets for the book.

Front page inserted into the book jacket.

The kantha stitching was completed in 2017. The edges of this fabric piece, however, were stitched this month (August 2025) with a blanket stitch to enclose edges and minimize fraying.

The last page inserted into the book jacket.

The final result is a tactile skin for my little book of marks: a soft cover, richly textured with slow stitching, that wraps around pages already brimming with expression. The perfect complement! The imperfections of the stitching as well as the painted and drawn marks show the hand of the maker… from cover to cover. 

Finished artist’s book with a hand stitched cover.

Inserting the signatures into the pockets of the “book jacket” felt like the last step in the ceremony. After all this time, the project finally had its resolution. It was not just a collection of pages and fabric, but a completed book. A united entity unto itself.  

Creativity is not linear

There’s something deeply satisfying about finishing a long-dormant project. It reminds me that creativity isn’t linear—that even unfinished work holds value, and that returning to something old can still feel fresh and alive. It reminded me of the past experience when it was first created, but it also resonates with the present.

Make Nine 2025 UFO prompt fulfilled.

So here it is: another UFO prompt for Make Nine 2025 completed. Not late, just… right on time.

Make Nine 2025 tracker. August 2025.