Making Origami Things

At our first meeting of 2026, we got together to do some origami. We had a few different origami projects ready to share so everyone who attended was able to try all of them. Marilynn was teaching the very practical masu box with lid. Stephanie was teaching a fun origami star. Rhonda was teaching the little origami book and the iris flower and Heather was teaching the fancy little dragon. It was a nice mix of techniques and everyone had a wonderful variety of finished items. Have a look at some of the results!




Thank you to those teaching and to everyone who came out to participate!

Our first card exchange

A group of our members agreed to participate in a card exchange! Everyone was asked to make an edition of 11 handmade cards so that each participant would have a full set, i.e. one card made by each participant. Folks were encouraged to make anything they fancied using their array of book and paper arts skills. The results were wonderful and wide-ranging.

As shown below, the final cards included many techniques such as origami, pop-ups, collage, flexagons, fancy folds, and lino prints. Most participants created an edition of cards that were all the same; however, some participants made 11 entirely different cards and in those cases only a few of their cards are shown here.

	Emily Brown An edition of cards made using a hand-carved lino block print with added watercolour and ink.
	Jessie Bruce A set of cards each with a unique layout featuring a combination of illustration and collage.
	Larry Colwell An edition featuring the Turkish map fold made with a hardcover case for the outer card.
	Sally Crawford A set of cards featuring original eco printed botanical papers.
	Barb Dugas A variety of cards made with combinations of collage, stamping, and folding.
	Alaina Harper An edition of cards featuring a bedazzled pop-up Christmas tree.
	Heather Loney An edition of cards featuring handcut roses on the front and pop-up roses inside with origami leaves.
	Rhonda Miller An edition of flexagon cards printed with a quote from Joni Mitchell's song The Circle Game, with gold foil lettering and rubber stamp patterns.
	Stephanie Morley An edition of letterpress cards printed on her Craftsman Superior tabletop press, featuring a line from Benjamin Franklin's Aplogy for Printers, 1731.
	Odyssean Press An edition of cards featuring 'The Magician,' an original relief print, hand-carved and printed as an edition of 11.
	Marilynn Rudi Origami kite cards collaged with string and cloud prints. Each card also has a coordinating envelope.
	Rhynn Winstead An edition of cards featuring an original daffodil lino print on handmade paper.

Nocturne "Legacy": printing, collage, and origami

Nocturne, Halifax's October contemporary arts festival, is now in its 15th year. This year's theme of "Legacy," featured installations of particular interest to book and paper arts enthusiasts.

Outside the Dawson Print Shop on the Granville Mall, Katherine Taylor, a NSCAD book arts and letterpress instructor, was running a "hands on" demonstration of a table top printing press. This family-friendly exhibit let people experience making a colour pressure print. Based on Ms. Taylor's Ukrainian legacy, she had the word "Family" carved using Cyrillic letters, into a lino block. It was then printed on a base print of an intricate flower pattern, reminiscent of paper filigree. The chipboard base print pressure plate was cut using a Cricut machine, which can reproduce and cut most paper material and almost any pattern that is uploaded to a computer. The design possibilities for cards, posters, end plates and text blocks is virtually limitless.

The Legacy theme continued over at Inkwell letterpress studio on South Park Street, with another interactive print/paper activity. Billed as "Mind your Ps and Qs," prints of common English language phrases originating from the print industry, were created on a 1921 cast iron printing press that uses carbon negative ink made from algae. Like the Dawson Print shop, each participant went home with a print.

On Lower Water Street, the Halifax Collage Collective created a large, paper-based mural collage. Participants were asked to comb through paper-based materials and ephemera like old magazines, journals, drawings, printed material, etc., and select items that they felt contributed to their personal legacy. Using scissors, glue and drawing materials, a paper-based collage was created that encouraged participants to reflect on their personal legacy.

At the Chase Gallery (located in the NS Archives, on the Dalhousie University campus), a group show based on identity called "I Am What I Am," featured works using materials ranging from acrylic, paint and fabric to metal, found objects and paper mâché. Among those featured, was Miya Turnbull, a Japanese Canadian artist living in Nova Scotia whose art practice is informed by Japanese paper work. Among Ms. Turnbull's works was a series of Origami Self Portraits (of crane, frog, heart, box and butterfly) created from colour photographic prints incorporating the artist's eyes and lips. This original approach in utilizing deconstructed facial features in origami was both mesmerizing and unsettling.

While Nocturne is over, "I Am What I Am" continues until Oct. 29th, 2022.

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Review by Charles Salmon