The winged scarab pop-up card consists of two pop-up mechanisms on a
background of hieroglyphics set within a card braced with rigid matt
board. Its cover is a tiny fresco framed with a double matt, so
entirely the card is more akin to a small book of four layers of matt
board with two thicknesses of 100 LB Bristol along with the folded
mechanisms.
The
mechanisms depict first a dung beetle rolling a ball of dung and second
a winged scarab lifted upward and forward on two rigid paper pillars.
The background depicts Egyptian hieroglyphics that convey a birthday
message along with a typical Egyptian warning. A separate
hand-written document is included that transliterates the glyphs and
translates them into English. A separate card is included
within
that document that makes clear the meaning of the cover, which is also
a glyph. |
The
card as it is opened
The opened card
The card has no envelope, rather, it is wrapped in a preposterous length of
thin paper with hieroglyphic amulets drawn on both sides of Bristol
paper inserted between the folds. It is then further wrapped in a large
thin cotton bar towel with more paper protective amulets between the
cloth folds and finally belted with a strip of that same cloth and tied
with a square knot.
Card wrappings and
extraneous material. |
Card wrapped.
The mechanisms took some time to work out and required several prototypes
each. I kept making one mistake or another that prevented the mechanism
from working or prevented them from folding flat. It took up to eight
tries for each mechanism until I finally got something that worked
reliably for both mechanisms. I went through a lot of card stock and
Bristol paper for this card.
The
principle of the dung beetle mechanism is the crimped corners of folded
tab that is slightly elevated on the right side of the card and
attached to the left half of the card at a 90˚ angle at that same
elevation. The tab is elevated as a table when the card is in
the 90˚ half opened position, and lays flat with the crimps
spread
wide open when the card is fully opened, and lays flat with the crimps
pressed closed when the card is closed. This crimp closed to crimp
opened creates a movement in the angle of the crimp as the card is
opened that is exploited. It is a tiny crimp and a tiny angle and tiny
spot of glue, but a decent movement that can be translated to a
rotation with the use of a tiny arm. This was the tricky bit.
The
following diagram depicts one of the crimps in the tab, there are
actually two that face each other. The arms glued to the crimps, half
of the crimp actually, move in opposite directions so the discs glued
to the arms appear to rotate in opposite directions. With a dung ball
drawn on one disc, and a beetle drawn on the other, and with the discs
overlapping, it appears as if the beetle is rolling the ball. |
The winged scarab is a tent atop a platform constructed on a plane
horizontal to an opened card. It's lifted by two pillars that
are
attached on the cards central fold with a typical V mechanism. The V is
centered with the central fold of the card and the two Vs are parallel
with each other. They're unusually tall Vs and thin so they're more
like pillars than regular V tabs to which content is attached. In this
case they hold up a table that is loosely attached at the top with tabs
rather than being glued. This is the bottom of the bug. When the card
is opened the V tabs (pillars) flip up. Since they're parallel, they
flip together. In the upright position the table that the
pillars
hold is flat with the base of the card. When the card is folded, the
tab pillars dutifully fold back down dragging the table with it which
is also forced closed in harmony with the card, as its fold and
orientation is aligned with the card. After all this is established, a
tent is designed to top the table which becomes the top of the bug,
also with a fold aligned with the card's fold, but this time the fold
is in the opposite direction. So whereas the bottom of the bug folds as
the card folds, the top of the bug folds in the opposite direction, but
it's still attached at the sides so it can not go anywhere. The legs of
the bug are just a matter of extending the bottom of the bug. In this
case, they're glued separately.
Wings
are a different matter. They consist of another table mechanism with
extraordinarily short legs. The table consists of three short posts one
on the central fold and one on each side, all three post
are wide as the wing itself. The posts are shaped vaguely as an I-bar.
The
posts are attached to the upper side of the bottom of the bug. So the
wings amounts to a table on a table set on two pillars, covered by a
tent. A slot is provided on the top (the tent) of the bug to allow for
flappy movement of the wings as they fold and unfold forced by
attachment with the movement of the card. |
This isn't all
that complicated, but it does take a bit of precision, which runs
counter to my slap-dash tendencies.
The picture painted for
the cover is the glyph for "rejoice," some read "praise."
The message inside the
card reads:
"He who opens this card
without giving good birthday praise and gladdening the heart, I will
wring his neck like a bird." |
There. That should ensure everybody at least says, "Happy Birthday" when they open the card. The thing that amuses me is the glyph for "birth" is a picture of a little baby dropping out of a seated woman. This is 100% of fact, although I'm fairly certain Egyptians didn't celebrate birthdays as we do today. Plus the idea of including an inactionable threat along with a birthday greeting just strikes me as funny. |