Tuesday, May 14, 2013

TRAVEL ART


A good trip can trip yield at least a year's worth of art projects...photo albums, scrapbooks, journals, wall art, handmade gifts, calendars, notecards and so on. Having just returned from my first trip to London, I'm just getting starting.

First I chose 100 (or so) of my favorite photos culled from the 1,200 (or so) I shot and made a little slide show for my friends and family before the novelty of the trip wore off and they lost interest. I kept thinking of one agonizing slide show my aunt and uncle forced on us after their trip to the southwest back in the early 50s and tried my best to choose photos that were beautiful or interesting in themselves, not just "and then we went to..." Feel free to check it out: Across the Pond

Today, my jet lag subsiding somewhat, I finally unpacked and found all the ephemera I had collected and tucked away...ticket stubs, brochures, maps, receipts, menus, found objects, lists, etc. I don't have the inclination to make scrapbooks per se at this point in my life, but I did want to save this stuff in a creative sort of way. I love making books, so I decided to make an accordion book, or concertina, out of one of the London street maps and turned it into a repository. It took less than an hour to make and  couldn't have been easier. I'll display it on a shelf for a while, then wrap a ribbon around it and pop it into a drawer to be rediscovered and perused from time to time.

1. Open the map fully and smooth it out on a clean tabletop.

2. Turn up 1/2" or so along the bottom edge and crease firmly. You may glue this down if you wish.

3. Turn up this bottom edge again, this time about 2", with the previously turned-up edge on the inside.  Don't glue this time.

4. Rotate the map so that the top edge becomes the bottom edge and repeat steps 2 and 3.

5. Fold the map in half lengthwise so there are now "pockets" along the outside front and back lower edges.

6. Apply a little tape or glue to all four outer edges just from the top of the pocket down to the fore edge to close the pockets.

7. Fold the assembly in half and accordion fold into equal segments. If you want more (smaller) segments, you may have to refold turning a "valley" fold into a "mountain" fold to get the proper accordion effect.

Now just slip ephemera into the pockets. You might want to add a date to the front of the pocket or a  decoration of some sort. Display open on a table top, or wrap with ribbon.