Explore the craft of tunnel books at VAC

Get ready to take a trip down the rabbit hole in an adventurous tunnel bookbinding workshop where your imagination is your only limit.

A tunnel or “peephole” book is made up of pages bound by accordion folds on both sides and are read through a hole in the cover, and a cutout in each page, allowing all pages to be seen at once, front to back. This creates an illusion of depth and perception. The images on each page work together to form a three-dimensional scene inside the book that helps to tell a story. What will yours be?

You will learn the basics of constructing two styles of tunnel books and design your own models.

Join instructor Charlene Asato from 9 a.m.-noon Saturday for the Exploring Tunnel Books bookbinding workshop at Volcano Art Center Niaulani Campus in Volcano Village. Cost is $35/$32 VAC Members plus a $10 materials fee. Prior bookbinding experience is not necessary.

Attendees should bring the following tools to class: X-Acto knife with fresh No. 11 blade, cutting mat, scissors, pencil, metal edge ruler, bone folder or butter knife, glue stick, and an old magazine or catalog for gluing. Optional art supplies to bring include colored pencils, crayons, photographs for collaging, scraps of paper, scoring board, portable paper trimmer, punches, rubber stamps or stencils.

Asato avidly pursues book arts, paper arts, photography, calligraphy and doll arts.

Her books have been in many juried shows, locally, nationally and internationally and some have won awards. She finds it very exciting that a simple fold changes a two-dimensional plane into a three-dimensional form. These books provide a wonderful avenue to convey this energy. She enjoys imparting this excitement to others through workshops.