Make a mini map concertina…or a whole series! This quick, effective project will get you travelling through the pages of a zig-zag book in no time.
You’ll need:
- Old maps, preferably double sided. Check the grain direction of your map paper – watch this for a reminder. You want the strips to be short grain.
- Scissors
Step by step:
Fold each strip into a zig zag, by folding in half, and in half again, until you have eight pages.
I’ve used one page from an atlas – the paper was short grain – divided into four strips.
Here are all four strips folded into eight.
On each of the folds, cut two parallel lines, from the crease to the centre of the page, like this. Be sure not to cut more than half way across the page!
Then, at the end of those two cuts (at the centre of the page) make a fold, like this. Bring it to the front and crease it, and fold it round the back and crease it again.
Now, when you open out the page, push the centre part so that it pops through to the other side of the concertina.
Keep going until the fold has completely reversed! Hopefully it will magically fold flat now. Super clever.
On the next fold, experiment with cutting the lines closer together (…though never going over half way across the page.)
Crease back and forth, then reverse the fold, as before.
Creating three-dimensional landscapes within the map!
Go wide!
Go narrow!
Such interesting shapes, and endless combinations!
Create a whole series and admire how they interplay.
You could add words to the pop out parts, or just revel in the shadows and silhouettes.
If you’d like to use more maps and craft new landscapes then sign up for MapLove – class begins on 3rd March!
