Paper Folding

"Once upon a time…" is the beginning of many memorable children's books. Even when our offspring outgrow them, we often save the best ones for our grandchildren. We tend to keep, value and share the books we've read and loved. But there are those that we, our friends and even the ESRA bookshop don't want—volumes with information that Google can supply and which only take up valuable space on our shelves.

Book sculpture is an ingenious way of recycling these books. The precise, measured folding of book pages can produce artistic works, much like marble transformed into a statue. 

Books can be chosen to match the word or picture that is created. As a gift to a doctor who is also a musician, "Jews and Medicine" was transformed into the musical treble clef. The pages of a softcover book on eating, properly now adorn my shelf as a soft sculptured heart. We all benefit from seeing messages appearing before our eyes, like HEAL, PEACE, HOPE, JUST DO IT, and הכל לטובה. They uplift us and remind us of the important elements of life.

Although it is possible to buy these book sculptures, it is immeasurably more satisfying to see the images emerge, as you, with initial guidance, fold the pages yourself.

Sima Rolnick, from Tzur Yigal, has been folding paper for 35 years. Originally from Florida, she arrived in Israel almost 50 years ago from New York. Multitalented, she founded and chaired the Music Department of Katznelson High School in Kfar Saba and founded the Israel branch of the international Hazamir Choral group. Several of her exquisite origami mobiles hang in Meir Hospital and her folded book sculptures greet you on a wall in her artistic home. An exhibit of her work was displayed in the Kfar Saba library throughout June and July, but can still be seen at other venues in Israel.