snail town pop-up card construction

A confession is in order. This card is a total cop out. The original idea, one that I have not abandoned and tends to nag, was to describe a war between snails and slugs over a series of some six or so pages. I have already finished much work on that project. Various types of trebuchets (siege machine) in paper were worked out with salt ammunition but the backgrounds were left undone. A page depicting slugs torturing a snail was worked out. This page here was one of four variations of a peaceful snail settlement that would be followed by a peaceful slug settlement but with handwritten signs in each describing animosity or some kind of feud. I had a page with snail ram-rods that would require a slug castle. I devised weapons all having to do with salt and salt traps, a page with beer traps arranged as land mines with signs advertising "free food" was devised. Another page showed snails and slugs jousting.  The final page would be slugs operating an escargot stand. I dithered this way as three important birthdays loomed and time was quickly running out. Finally there was no time left. It occurred to me in a moment of panic that the recipients don't care the slightest about what ideas I have cooking. All that they  appreciate is the card in hand, the one that they get through the mail addressed directly to them, and that can be anything, even a lame one-page pop-up.  So I adapted the peaceful snail settlement to omit any mention of slugs. Although I did consider a "no slugs allowed" sign. Anyway, these three cards turned out to be something of a marathon. I worked all night to 4:00 in the morning until I became unsteady with the X-ACTO knife right at the point of the most vital final cuts. So I went to bed with the three cards unfinished and really behind the 8-ball.  The next morning I finished them which took another three hours, photographed one, and ran them off to the post office, which thankfully is just a few blocks away. I didn't bother with fashioning envelopes because I would have to make three and it was more important to mail them than to fuss around with a decorative envelope in addition to the mailer. I'm glad they're gone.  But I am still thinking about a snail and slug war and how cool that would be. It is just too funny an idea to let go. The trebuchet is particularly hilarious with its packets of NaCl stacked up and ordinary salt shakers on the side.

A tree placed on the central fold flips up. It is the single mechanism on the card. All the snails and the signs are attached to the tree on either the right or the left side of the fold. Another layer is created in order to disguise the connection between tree and snails (and signs). It could be devised as a single layer, as a table that gets lifted when the tree is lifted. All the slots for the posts must then be measured and cut at once and they must align perfectly with the posts that support the content (the snails and the signs).  Should the posts be fitted through slots first then attached to the base, or attached to the base first and then fitted through slots later? Perhaps cuts in the top layer could be made then the cuts used to locate the positions on the base. It is all so confusing. To make the alignment easier, I decided to use these square tubes instead. The entire length of the tube would not be needed, but rather just segments would work as long as the segments were placed as if they were full tubes. This would facilitate folding by presenting less resistance. Clever, eh? Tube segments are aligned at the same angles as the tree, which was arbitrary to begin with. . They can be segments because they' will be attached to the tree and not lifting themselves up as separate mechanisms, in which case the full length of the tube would be necessary.  The tubes will determine the height of the new layer.  A matrix is to be built upon the square tube segments and then filled out with leaves to form a new layer. That was the idea to get around the mathematics and the precision required of placing slots through a solid table layer, and finding the anchor placements for the posts that will stand up content.   The choice  turned out to be a massive pain in  the ass. But kind of cool.

The matrix that connects the square tubes to the tree is random. There is a right side and a left side. Understand, it needn't be this way. It could be a single layer for the right side and the left, or it could be a single layer with a crease in it directly above the central fold, but then all those upright would have to be dealt with, attached to the bottom and fitted through slots. This avoids that, but at what cost?

This is 1/3 the number of leaves that was necessary to cover the matrix and to form a new layer that disguises the connection between the snails and the tree.