Designing with light is a great opportunity to enhance your creations and offer new forms of expression. Material kit provided.

There are no available registration dates at this time.

Special note for registrations received after December 2nd:  Registrations received after this date MAY not have their kits delivered in time for the class.  However, registrants should still plan to attend. Kits will be shipped and you will have full access to the recorded workshop.

NOTE: This class will be held in a live, online format using the Zoom Platform
Class Meets Sunday Dec 11th, 1-4pm EST

In the 1640s, a German priest living in Rome developed the magic lantern, which cast shadows from glass slides onto a screen, a precursor to modern cinema. This shadow lantern works on the same principle: a light source inside casts the shadow from a stencil onto a paper screen. Illuminate the darkest days of the year as you design your own paper cuts (or use those that are provided) and construct a balsa wood framework. Create multiple panels and connect them with a flexible Japanese hinge that allows you to display the structure as a mini folding screen or a lantern.

Materials Provided:

  • Card stock
  • Lightweight “screen” paper
  • Balsa wood (pre-cut)
  • Tea light (battery operated)
  • Sandpaper

Students will need to have:

  • Glue (I like PVA, but any white glue will work)
  • Extra Card stock (to make additional panels if you work quickly)
  • Scrap paper

Tools that students will need:

  • Glue brush
  • Xacto knife
  • Cutting mat
  • Ruler
  • Sharp pencil & eraser

Priority mail shipping is provided.

Images courtesy of Helen Hiebert

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Instructor: Helen Hiebert

Helen Hiebert is a Colorado artist who constructs installations, sculptures, films, artists’ books and works in paper using handmade paper as her primary medium. She teaches, lectures and exhibits her work internationally and online, and is the author of the several how-to books about papermaking and papercrafts, including Paper Illuminated. Helen has an extensive network of paper colleagues around the world and her interest in how things are made (from paper) keeps her up-to-date on current paper trends, which she writes about in her weekly blog called The Sunday Paper.