Andrew Baron (paper engineer)

Andrew (Andy) Baron
Born	(1962-03-31) March 31, 1962
Occupation	Paper engineer
Spouse	Paula
Website	popyrus.com

Andrew Baron (born 1962) is a self-taught, award-winning paper engineer and singled out by Robert Sabuda, a leading children's pop-up book artist, as a wunderkind of pull tabs, specific devices used to cause movement in pop-up books.

Biography

Baron was awarded the Movable Book Society's Meggendorfer Prize for Best Paper Engineering in 2004 for Knick-Knack Paddywhack! The book, by Paul O. Zelinsky, has “200 movable parts, 300 glue points – twice the usual number – 15 lift-the-flaps, and 10 parts on the last spread alone, moving simultaneously with one tab!... 500 people [at the Hua Yang Printing Company in China] worked on the book." Of this book, Robert Sabuda noted, "his designs are unique, complex, thoughtful and he doesn't skimp on the amount of paper or rivets needed to accomplish an action."

Baron has also repaired and restored old clocks, music boxes, radios and typewriters since childhood. In 2007, Baron spent about 70 hours repairing the "Draughtsman-Writer" automaton by Henri Maillardet (1745–1830). A version of Maillardet’s automaton, a self-powered robot that writes poetry and draws four different images, was in Martin Scorsese’s movie Hugo and Brian Selznick’s book The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

Exhibitions

Year	Title	Location	Notes
2012	Pop! The Arthur J. Williams Pop-up Collection	Florida Atlantic University, Wimberly Library	Also included David A. Carter, James Diaz, Harold Lentz
2012	Pop-Up! Illustration in 3-D	Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford, PA	Items drew largely from the collection of Ann Montanaro Staples, founder of The Movable Book Society
2011	The Harold M. Goralnick Pop-Up Book Collection: An Exhibition	Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, Maine	The collection holds over 1,900 volumes, including works by Baron.
2010	Paper Engineering: Fold, Pull, Pop and Turn	Smithsonian Institution Libraries, National Museum of American History	Also included Matthew Reinhart, Bruce Foster, Chuck Fischer
2004	Show Me a Story: Children’s Books and the Technology of Enchantment	San Francisco Center for the Book	Exhibit includes inside view of the production of Knick-Knack Paddywhack!

External links

• Official Andrew Baron Website http://popyrus.com/
• Video lecture, The Birth of a Corporate Pop-Up Book, given at the National Museum of American History, on April 18, 2011, as part of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries Paper Engineering Lecture Series.
• The Baron of Santa Fe, a studio interview with Baron, by Adie C. Pena, 2001