This article was first published on SPOT.ph
by Christa I. De La Cruz
(SPOT.ph) Kids (and even kids-at-heart) often enjoy the glossy and uneven pages of pop-up books because of the flaps, pull tabs, and 3D features. Sometimes, there’s even music that goes with these pop-up books, making the whole scenario come to life. But creating a pop-up book is not as it easy as it looks.
For 22-year-old Amy Nayve, a fresh grad from the Industrial Design program at the College of Saint Benilde in Manila, making pop-up books is “a sophisticated craft because it combines art and science.” With all the physics and math that go into each piece, it’s no surprise then that people who dabble into paper pop-ups are called paper engineers. To recognize talents and skills that go into paper engineering, the Movable Book Society—an U.S.-based organization composed of artists, sellers, collectors, and other pop-up and movable-books enthusiasts—awards game-changers in the industry. Nayve just got her big break in early August after she received an Honorable Mention for the 2018 Emerging Paper Engineer Prize.
Winning the award “was coincidence,” according to the artist. She just chanced upon a post by the organization on her Facebook feed and found out about a competition that’s open to undergraduate students and fresh grads. “It was perfect timing,” she tells SPOT.ph in an interview. She submitted two works—and out of the two, it was Popfolio, her collection of works from college, that bagged her the recognition.
Between folding and cutting paper, she talks about how she got into the amazing world of pop-up books and what’s next for her business Pumapapel Crafts.
Pumapapel Pop-Up Design Studio 