Paper as an art material

Paper is something we take for granted and while constantly using it in our everyday life, we never think about its huge contribution to knowledge transmission or about its history from first papyrus notes to first published book. We do not think about how simpler our lives are because of paper or about the joy that child’s drawing on a piece of paper brings us. The purpose of this paper was to present the significance that paper has in our lives by first looking into its long history and its production from early beginnings till now. Further we analyzed different characteristics that paper possesses and how that influences the use of it in art. We explored paper techniques such as origami, cutting, collage and presented their qualities for possible pedagogical work. But the biggest emphasis of this work was on pop-up books, their history, their characteristics, basic technical procedures, and ways of production. Pop-up books are, in comparison to ordinary illustrated books, very untypical, which makes them very interesting for children and gives new possibilities for learning. They make learning situation fun and unpredictable and by that more effective, interactive, and memorable. When children learn, the mechanical aspect of pop-up stimulates their curiosity and imagination. We made a pop-up picture book with content full of geometrical forms and with a purpose to facilitate children’s learning about art and geometry