Book Sculptures: Fold • Cut • Glue

Here are a few old books that I have been creating into book sculptures. The first is a book about fresh and salt water fishes. I cut out many of the fish illustrations before I folded pages. 

The fold pattern for this book is to alternate: 1.) page folded in half vertically with 2.) page in which corners are folded inward from the edge to form a triangle. Keep folding these two patterns until the whole book has been folded. Below is my sample book to demonstrate.

I glued decorative paper to the end pages of the book, then positioned and glued on my fish. For glue, I used a glue stick for fish on the end pages, white craft glue and a glue gun for other areas. I also added some fishing line, lures and bobbers for embellishments. 

I had been thinking about a circus tent of a a book and finally found this fun circus book in which to create it. I liked the end pages so I didn't have to cover them with paper. I cut out many of the illustrations to use and glue back on. The pattern for folding is to fold down the tops of each page to form a triangle creating the point. To make the entrance, I folded some of the middle pages inward. I created red flags out of paper and added a gold ribbon to hang the flags. I really like the way this one came out!

I had found an aquarium book with colorful fish and corals so I wanted to make a book that appeared to be an aquarium. First I glued all of the ends of the pages with gel medium and when the glue was dry and the pages glued into a "block" I could hollow out the insides with a utility knife. This is not easy and takes a while to do. Your hands will tire quickly! Next I glued turquoise Lokta paper to the backgrounds and started adding in fish. 

 Here I have added black handmade paper with gold flecks running through it (I'm not sure of the name) and glued more fish on top of the black paper and coming out of the cut pages inside.