• Kay Sekimachi: Washi Vessel XII, 1990; indigo dyed, treated with persimmon tannin, machine stitched, and folded; 9 3/4 x 10 3/4 x 10 3/4 in.; Mingel International Museum.


Advance registration required. The registration form will be available on Wednesday, October 6, and Thursday, October 7. You will receive a Zoom link on Saturday, October 9.


Virtual Gallery + Studio: Lines & Volumes: Paper Map Bowls

For ages 6–12 with accompanying adult(s)

  • With artist
    Melissa Sarris

    Melissa Sarris is an artist living in New York’s Hudson Valley. She has been a quiltmaker for many years and in 2013 received her MFA from the University of Albany. Since then she has combined her love of texture and color by creating collaborative projects in underserved communities.

Virtual Gallery + Studio integrates art on view at BAMPFA with a related art project; the session lasts about forty-five minutes. Sign up for this event on Wednesday, October 6, or Thursday, October 7, when the sign-up link will be active on this page. The meeting link will be sent to you on the morning of Saturday, October 9.

Look closely at Kay Sekimachi’s three-dimensional artworks and you’ll see stitched and woven lines, reminding us that these boxes and vessels started out as two-dimensional materials: paper, kiri-wood sheets, or woven cloth. Look at a two-dimensional map and you’ll find a variety of lines representing roads, rivers, train tracks, and other features in our three-dimensional world. In this workshop, we use maps of the Bay Area to make connections between two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms, and end up with an intriguing and functional object, too!

Materials
Please gather and prepare these materials before our session:

  • Printed-out maps from this webpage (choose your two or three favorite maps), cut or torn into approximately three-inch squares OR a paper road map that you can cut up (one your family doesn’t need to keep)
  • A balloon, blown up to the size you would like your bowl to be
  • A container to sit your balloon in while working (for example, an empty thirty-two-ounce yogurt container with a few metal objects to weight it)
  • Six tablespoons (or about three ounces) of all-purpose liquid glue (like Elmer’s) and two to three ounces of water—together in a jar or container with a lid that seals (to shake up the glue and water mixture)
  • A paintbrush or foam brush, approximately one inch wide
  • A plastic garbage bag or newspaper to protect your work surface

For the next day

  • Scissors, to pop the balloon and trim the edges of your bowl
  • Brush-on acrylic varnish (such as Mod-Podge) to make your bowl stronger and water-resistant

Optional

  • Other pieces of paper (not maps) also cut or torn into approximately three-inch squares
  • Sharpies, crayons, colored pencils, or any other non-water-based drawing tools to add color to your project

Please print out your favorite two or three maps and cut or tear them as described in advance of the workshop session.