Photo Weaver

Zig-zag folded paper on the table showing picture of 2 girls interwoven in vertical strips.

We made a web app to splice photos together in strips. With it you can make some interesting interlaced images or print+fold+glue to create a two-faced zig-zag picture thing!

I've just found out these things are called "Agamographs"! Named after the sculptor Yaacov Agam . Googling that brings up loads of tutorials and examples, like this brilliant example on youtube:

The zig-zag part of this was inspired by this School Art Blog post: http://mvrmsart.blogspot.com/2012/12/altered-ego-6th-grade.html

Instructions to make the Zig Zag

Shows the photos splicer thing on a phone — Here's the Photo Weaver web app on a phone.

Zig zag printed image showing flaps stuck together at the top — Ends of each zig-zag can be stuck together.

Folded zig-zag printed image shown from the front. — Printed and folded zig-zag picture. From the front you can see both images spliced together.

Zig-zag folded picture viewed from the left hand side. — Look from the left side and you should get one picture...

Zig-zag folded image shown from the right side. — ... and from the other side you see the other picture.

Go to https://lab.artfly.io/weaver
Add photos 1 and 2 using top buttons.
Switch off “OVERLAP” at the bottom.
Use the strips slider to try different numbers of slices.
I found a setting of 4 of 5 is plenty - any more and have to do too much folding!!
Download with the button in the top right.
When cutting out, if you leave strips of paper at the top and bottom these can be taped together to keep the folds square.
Longer strips at the sides can be joined along the back with another strip of paper to keep at the right spot.
We used scissors to score along the joins before folding.

Boxing Ideas

I’ve not hit upon an ideal way to present the pictures. Sticking the tabs at the back to some cardboard works ok, but it’s a bit fiddly.

Ideas for the types of splice/zigzag pics

Opposites

Happy / Sad
Angry / Jolly
Dog / Cat
Alive / Dead (skull)
Day / Night - the same scene perhaps at different times
Busy / Empty - the town center with and without people perhaps

Other ideas

Vertical zig zags might be nice so taller grown-ups see one picture and shorter children see another.
Two zig zag photos could be stuck back to back and rotated on a mobile so 4 faces can be seen as it rotates.
Use photos of famous paintings or your own drawings.

Instructions for Face Slicing

I initially created the photo weaver tools to try a technique I’ve seen used by several artists. Some guillotined physical pictures which I’d love to have a go at because you could play around with angles, but know I’d get frustrated quickly! So I’ve made a quick web version to play around with.

Web app screenshot. — Allowing the photos to overlap and increasing the strip count gives some nice artistic effects.

Go to https://lab.artfly.io/weaver
Add photos 1 and 2 using top buttons.
Switch on “OVERLAP” at the bottom.
Use the strips slider to try different numbers of slices.
Use the sliders on the ALIGN tab to move the second picture around.
Download your creation using the button in the top right.

I saved a few examples here: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/cdennett1221/artfly-project-ideas/photo-weaver/

Two images of Audrey Hepburn interwoven. — Example from an artist combining two images of Audrey Hepburn in different poses.

Black and white woven photo portrait of a woman head on to the camera. — I find something beautiful and unnerving about a broken(?)/deconstructed(?) person looking straight at you.