Curator of Infinite Interests
Today’s spotlight is on Andrew Crawford, a modern-day Renaissance man and cultural anthropologist who dabbles in a dizzying array of creative pursuits! Over the years, we’ve come to know Andrew from his paper engineering and penchant for integrating light into pop-up cards and other three dimensional objects.
A prolific maker, Andrew is generous with his time, often sharing tutorials and detailed videos of his builds. Most recently, Andrew was an integral part of the Chibitronics LightUpPopUpTober Team (see Day 11: Reverse)!
The most interesting things seem to happen at the intersections of things no one thought were connected.
– Andrew Crawford
Can you please tell us a little bit about yourself?
I am a maker, designer, and artist working in a variety of different media including paper art, kirigami, printmaking, textiles, wood, and more. You may have seen my light-up Japanese Garden Lantern and Spiral Crystal pop-up cards, or my light-up polyhedra in Chibitronics’ newsletter, on Instagram, or on Mastodon.
My project about creating connections and community with paper art at the recent XOXO festival also caught some attention.
I have done commercial work in web and software design, paper engineering, and photography for small organizations and giant multinational corporations; but, you would likely be most interested in my work in origamic architecture-style pop-up cards, kirigami, and paper electronics.
I grew up in a family that made things. My grandmother (Mary Jane Sibley) was an art teacher. She painted in watercolors and acrylic, created miniatures (including some with clay she formulated herself), and was one of the people who pioneered photo silk screening. She put a lot of time into showing me how to do that stuff when I was little. In a fun reversal of established tropes, she introduced me to digital design tools.
When I was a child, my mom (Carol Crawford) taught people in the neighborhood how to make corn husk dolls, and turned tin and aluminum cans into amazingly-detailed flowers. I learned to sew by watching her make my clothes and Halloween costumes. More recently, she has taken up pastels.
My grandfather (Clay Sibley) was an award-winning wood carver. Later in life, he did a whole series of wonderful, award-winning, life-like birds. Our home was filled with things they made.
Meanwhile, my dad was an electrical engineer with a computer specialization in the days before there were separate degrees for computers. So, I was exposed to technology and learned to program before that was common.
I studied cultural anthropology through the Master’s level, but moved to working in tech for financial stability. I was always making things, from the textile art I made to help pay my way through grad school to the origamic architecture pop-up cards and serigraphs (screen prints) I sent to friends and family for holidays and special occasions.
How would you describe what you do? What do you most enjoy making and why?
My creative impulse seems to be a constant feed of ideas for things that I feel drawn to make. Unfortunately, it happens so frequently I could never get to all of them. Even if I never came up with a single new idea to add to my list, I’d still run out of time before I get to all of them. Often, I will see something – a finished object, a leaf, a piece of paper, something – and some aspect of it will make me think of something else. I find myself thinking “what if it’s like this but, also that?” My most interesting projects develop from there.
Novelty drives me a lot. Sometimes it is trying out a whole new technique or material but, other times, it is the novelty of refining something subtle and thinking about it in new ways.
Sometimes I describe the things I make as “confections.”
– Andrew Crawford
Sometimes I describe the things I make as “confections.” Traditionally, a confection is a sweet edible item that someone has put a lot of work into making tasty and pretty. A handmade truffle is a good example. It was hours of work for the chef. Then, it delights someone briefly while they hold it, smell it, and eat it. Similarly, I put a lot of energy and attention into creating things people will enjoy for an ephemeral moment, such as the moment of opening a pop-up card for the first time.
What materials do you most gravitate towards?
A lot of the time, a new idea for a project or design will need an obvious set of mediums, but I am often drawn to more natural elements like paper, fabric, wood, and stone, and I love when I am able to put them together to make something unexpected emerge.
But, of all of the materials that I’ve worked with, paper holds a special place in my heart. It is inexpensive and abundant. Even the fancier stuff I work with is mostly only a few cents a sheet. It is easy to cut and shape. Yet, you can make a piece of paper that unfolds into a little house or a garden lantern that lights up. It’s magic!
What do you want people to know about your work and/or creative process?
Everything can be inspiration to create something new. It’s an exercise in really seeing and remembering. Those are the materials for creative synthesis.
The most interesting things seem to happen at the intersections of things no one thought were connected. That’s the logic of creativity – abduction. We learn that reasoning is either inductive – going from the general to the specific – or deductive – going from the specific to the general. The lesser-known abduction is finding (or making) the connection between two disparate things.
The explosion of affordable digital fabrication tools and new materials has spurred me to play with more things, to try them together, to make something new.
What inspires you? What are your interests? What are you passionate about?
There is a long list of all of these! It seems like there is something new that catches my interest all the time but, things dwell in my mind and come back when the time is right. I feel like I am exploring a deep synergy among all the things I notice. I tend to talk about “recurring themes” when asked that. Some of those are: origamic architecture-style pop-up cards, kirigami, printmaking, landscape photography, gardening, cooking, Celtic design, fiber arts, and mythology.
I grew up around Japanese art and culture and that’s a noticeable influence in a lot of what I do.
In the last few years, I have become excited about showing more people how I did things. I have been making some short videos. My nieces and nephews, in particular, seem to enjoy seeing how I made the things I send them.
How are you using light (or Chibitronics) in your creations?
Light is really magical and Chibitronics’ Circuit Stickers are a huge leap forward for easily being able to add lights to projects, particularly when I work with paper electronics. Soldering surface-mount LEDs to copper tape on paper is really fiddly and Circuit Stickers are ideal for this.
They have also enabled new approaches. Conductive fabric tape seems to be a lot more reliable in many applications, particularly when stuff has to bend or fold, like in a pop-up card. While you can solder to some conductive fabrics, the rigid connections are not the most resilient. Conductive adhesives and sewable components (like Circuit Stickers) for flexible mechanical connections make conductive fabric tape a lot more practical.
I have made a few light-up pop-up cards, and put lights in some more rigid paper structures (like the stars and icosahedra). I have created a few other projects with LEDs and phosphorescent materials. Plus, I have ideas for more (including pieces with fabric and wood) and, I am sure I will get to at least some of them soon.
What challenges and/or joys have you encountered during your creative (and/or professional) journey?
Time and space have always been challenges for me. There are always more projects to do than I can reasonably get done. Yet, I know I have more time for those than average. Combining so many interests into one studio space sometimes makes for tight quarters. As much as I covet larger workspaces, I am very aware of how fortunate I am to have the space I do.
The time I spend in my studio is a constant trickle of joy. Sure, there are bits of frustration but, it’s like the saying about the worst day fishing.
Where can people learn more about you and your work?
The best place to follow my work is my website https://evermorestud.io/ where I post my projects, including a few with patterns you can download for free. You can also go to https://links.andrewcrawford.me/ for links to Mastodon and Instagram, and some tutorials on YouTube.