Paper Craft Inspiration

I don't normally buy books sight unseen, but when I read about this recently published compendium of contemporary paper crafts by Robert Klanten, I knew that I had to have a copy of my own. I played the 'it's nearly my birthday and I promise I won't ask for anything else' game that Leo's are so good at, and it worked. Jack is a very kind and obliging Scorpio. Here are are few images from the book, which covers every paper technique you could ever hope to see between two covers: collage, quilling, paper animation, models, advertising and product design, toys, books, installations...

Bela Borsodi Editorial for Tatler Magazine

Evalina Bratell

Karin Nussbaumer & Frank Visser

Peter Callesen

Ingrid Siliakus

I'm fairly sure this piece is sitting on a mirror,

but nevertheless it is a spectacular feat of paper engineering!

Here's one of Ingrid's pop-up books:

Ferry Staverman

Benjamin Van Oost & Annelies Vercaigne

ContainerPlus set design for stop frame animation

Adrian Merz & Cornelia Hess

Interior covered with post it notes as an advertising campaign

for a winter fragrance by perfumier Christopher Brosius.

Yulia Brodskaya

Needless to say, I am over the moon to own a copy of this book and I'm sure I'll be dipping into it many times over the next few months of exhibition preparation. I have a couple of writing jobs to finish during the next fortnight, so I'll be back in early August with some new paper goodies to show.

Have a great weekend.

item three in the cabinet of curiosities

Item three is the bundle of matches found in the apron pocket of the poor frozen matchgirl. 'The Little Matchgirl' has to be one of Hans Christian Andersen's saddest stories. The small model I've made is just a prototype at this stage. What I'm attempting to create is one of the visions the girl sees inside the match flame as she sits outside in the cold and burns her last few matches for warmth. The vision in this case is a cosy interior with a decorated Christmas tree and a glowing fireplace in the background.

item two in the cabinet of curiosities

Paper castle (The Steadfast Tin Soldier)

I recently learned that Hans Christian Andersen was not only a talented storyteller, but that he also had a talent for paper cutouts. 250 examples of Andersen's paper artworks survive and most of them are housed in the collection of the Hans Christian Andersen Museum in Odense, Denmark.

I couldn't resist buying a copy of a lovely book by Beth Wagner Brust about Andersen's paper works. I've posted a selection of images from the book that show his considerable skill in this artform. Apparently when he was telling his stories to groups of children he would simultaneously be snipping away at a piece of folded paper with a very large pair of scissors . When the story ended he would unfold the paper cutting and reveal the completed design, much to the delight of his young audience.

Andersen gave away many paper cutouts as gifts. The intricate example above was a special present he made for a little girl called Marie to celebrate her fourth birthday.

I'll be incorporating some very basic paper cutouts as a design element in my cabinet of curiosities, as well as in the design for some of the items inside it. My version of the paper castle that features in 'The Steadfast Tin Soldier' is a combination of simple paper cutouts and simple pop-up forms. In the story the one legged tin soldier falls in love with a beautiful paper ballerina he sees posed on one leg in the doorway of the toy paper castle. He mistakenly thinks that she has only one leg like him.