By Isabell Macrina
Walpole Library hosted Pop Up Art School this past week for a unique craft lesson, making teacups and saucers from old book pages! With tables covered in paint-coated tablecloths and the materials laid out in front of everyone, the class began.
Erica from Pop Up led the patrons through the materials given, a glue and water mix, paint brush, the cardstock templates and scissors, the book pages, and tape, lots of tape. Through decoupage, the art of decorating surfaces by adhering paper cutouts to them, these ordinary things come together to make an interesting piece of art, perfect for any book lover’s shelf.
The lesson started with cutting out the templates and taping them into the shape that will later form the cup and saucer. Then, you take the loose pages and tear them into more manageable pieces and stick them to your base with the glue mix. The pages come from old books that have fallen into disrepair, so no book was harmed for the sake of this project! Erica brought various pages from many different sources to make each cup unique. Some young adult books, a few pages from Harry Potter, and a section from The Iliad just to name a few of the options that were there.
After adhering the paper strips to the cup and forming a handle from a folded page that gave it the true teacup shape, the artists were also given paper with small pictures to color in, cut, and form decals. Everyone also had a teabag to decorate the end of, making a custom tag to tie it all together. While some tied it into the theme of whatever book they were made from, others simply decorated to their heart’s content.
Thanks to Pop Up also having a video in the background, which gave a much clearer view on what steps to take next, the new craft was easy to follow. Everyone left with a new piece of décor that adds to any bookshelf.
