Making books with children provides the unique opportunity of
combining different art forms with storytelling. Handmade books are pieces of art that you can
hold in your hand and share with your friends.
Books can incorporate the child’s own words, the words of others, or be
completely free of text. They can be
traditional in nature and composed of pages to leaf through, or untraditional
and composed of sculptural forms such as origami. Printmaking, painting, drawing, paper making
and the art of decorative papers, including marbled and paste papers, are just
of few of the techniques that can be employed in this art form.
“Spring” and “Printmaking” were the themes of our first book
project in the after school STARS ART class. The children were given a variety
of textures including bubble wrap, corduroy paper, plastic doilies and sheets
of craft foam with decorative cut-outs. These materials were glued to sheets of
cardboard to form printing blocks. Four
bright colors of printing ink were made available. The children applied the ink
to the textures with brayers and then printed the designs on white drawing
paper. They were responsible for trading and sharing the colors and printing
blocks.
Overlapping textures to create new shapes and printing on the
entire sheet of paper were two of the focuses of the lesson. After the prints dried, they were cut onto
smaller sheets so that each child would have six pages for their book. Holes were punched along one end of the
smaller prints and the children bound the pages with ribbons and beads. The
older children added words, that they associate with spring, to the inside
pages of their book.
At home, making books is a fun activity that can accompany a
family vacation, pictures from a favorite sport or plaything, or can be a
creative story made by your child or collaborated on by the whole family.
Contributed by Westmont's Art teacher, Vicki Smith.
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