Paul Shih Big Foot

Big Foot does exist. He is in Paul Shih's online shop.
He is a free download and a quick build for a Friday afternoon.
Ain't he cute?

Custom Paper Toys site

O.K. so I'm obsessed with these free little paper toys you can find online and download and recently I've become even more obsessed with designing my own. So I started a new website to devoted to my paper toy work www.custompapertoys.com. There are three new models to download and I've also posted Mr. Robot there too. I'm going to be posting a new free paper toy every month. Ranging from super easy to real complex. In between times I'll be posting about some of the commissioned work I've been doing lately and some super secret paper projects.
and I'll still be posting on Paper Forest all the other cool paper toys I come across.

e440

Here is a cool paper toy project I came across this week by Ringo from Amsterdam. It's e440 and templates are available by emailing Ringo through the e440 blog. I got mine and am customizing it over the long memorial day weekend.

Finger Puppets!

These cute little finger puppets are free to download as PDF files and are easy to make. A nice project for the office. (If you read blogs while at the office, which I'm sure you don't unless you are officially on a break.)

Cutnejo paper toy

Here is another great little free paper toy. It's Cutnejo by antiheroe.com. It's a cool toy as is and Antiheroe encourages all to make there own customs. Some nice ones are featured on the Cutnejo website as well as a groovy video. Enjoy.

Sabuda Pop-up Kits!

You have to love Robert Sabuda's amazing pop-ups. Now you can create the magic yourself! If you can read Japanese ( or at least follow picture instructions ). On Robert's site, you can buy three different Japanese kits to create signature images from three of his famous books.

Link here and buy your own signed kit before they are gone!

More fun than a Flickr of monkeys!

It's Flickr Monkey a fun little paper toy on Flickr.He comes in a variety of different colors. His friends Flickr Dog and Flickr Bird are also available for download. I came across this link on Warm 'n Fuzzy's Blog where she post a fun paper toy project every Friday for Paper Toy Fridays.

Harac Attack!

Ok, Fine Paper Foresters and Foristas, I have been very tardy in following up on my earlier report on the mouse-like, ingenious hand-held paper cutter called,Harac, that a friend of ours bought and carried to us from Japan. He bought two cutters and four replacement blades for our cutting pleasure and by converting the cost on the Japanese invoice enclosed to US Dollars from Yin my estimate is that they cost at $12-15 dollars each, and about $4-7 for the blades. Depending on whether you can order them from Japan or domestically through a retailer like, Soolip, paperie and press.

My delay in talking it up was caused from not really knowing what to say about the device exactly. On the one hand, it is a clever little gadget that has a needle-like blade that sits in a 360º pivoting, floating head that is made flush with your paper's surface precisely as you depress the top button on the ergonomic, palm-fitting handle. When the cutter is dragged around in any direction on the paper it leaves a razor clean cut in its wake. Swirly, curly, curvy shapes can be made with this tool far easier than with any other tool I've ever seen or used, including my omnipresent #11 Exacto™. It's impressive. A more pedestrian but still useful application for it would be to cut clippings, from mags and deadtree newspapers, as it only cuts through the topmost layer.

So far I've tried it freestyle (the best use I think) and on pattern shapes by trying to follow the lines (took some getting used to where the blade is actually cutting). I haven't been able to determine if it can be used for the rigorous exact shape cutting of say, an automata pattern (see Jaime's wonderful link list at right for more on those!) and to make matters worse, I haven't been able to devote much time to trying it out in more detail, opting instead for what my hands already know when having to make a birthday card as quickly as possible. You know how it is.

So, should you get one? I'd say, yes, if you are a cunning tool addict like us. Who knows, you might have more positive results with one. Matter of fact, if you do have one or end up getting yourself one, how about letting all of us know how it works in your paper masterpieces?

Mr. Robot, My first paper automata.

I hope you don't mind me posting about my own work. I just got this one done and am anxious to share it with everyone. This is my first piece of paper automata. You turn the key in his back and he plays the guitar and rocks his head. You can see him in action here on youtube.
It's a pretty complex model and has three pages of parts with two pages of instructions.
It's available free from my website.

Ron Chespak

Based in California, Ron Chespak has been producing his remarkable hand-cut paper sculptures since the eighties. His minimal, sophisticated work has found its way into books, magazines and television as well as many top galleries.

Shadows, light and composition surround us everywhere. Capturing them in crisp form is what I do. My work thrives on the light and reflection of our world that can be looked at in so many ways. My work is graphic in nature but always natural in form. I like when people want to get closer and more involved with my art, it’s a trait I admire in people and in life. My art has taught me to become more involved, to trust myself and have more fun. It’s my gift.

Paper-plane Folding

By using some very nifty 3D animation, this site shows you how to fold a variety of paper planes.

It is well worth the jump just for the sheer elegance of the site concept.

Animation by Christian Lowe and plane designs by John Collins.

Simple but Useful

Make envelopes out of patterned paper with this free pdf template from the blog of designer Jessica Jones.

If you want to be a pro about it, you could order the templates from Paper Source, and then go for the liner templates to go inside. The possibilities are endless.

New at Flying Pig!

I'm a big fan of paper toys with moving parts or animation. Rob Ives has a few new additions to his ever-growing library of models to print out and construct. This elephant raises its its trunk when you rock its body back. Explore the library of very reasonably-priced models, and you'll also find the new Logic Goats and the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Liz Miller

Liz Miller produces fantastic sprawling mixed media wall installations.

Using strong synthetic colours and materials such as paper, foam and felt she explores the boundaries of structure and chaos referencing biology, natural disasters and computer graphics.

This reminds me a bit of some generative art, and to an extent the work of artists like Sarah Sze - I love the way the art is literally crawling up the walls, looking for a way to escape the confines of the gallery.

Sent my way by Donna.

More cardboard fun at Box Doodle

The Box Doodle Project is an art jam that features art created on and inspired by cardboard boxes. Lots of work by lots of different artist to look at on this site, very cool stuff. The piece above was created by Vincent Beachet. Inspired? Create your own box doodle and submit it to the project!

PDF Graph Paper

Why is it you can never find any graph paper when you need it? I seem to either have a graph pad the size of a phone book (which I will never be able to use up) or none at all. This site has you covered - only print what you need.

Via Stumbleupon.com

Update: Here's another site, if you require customisation.

Undoboy

Designer paper toys just keep getting more interesting. I love these Super-Bastard Box Art Characters by designer Chean Wei Law aka Undoboy. Operating under the motto of "design brings happiness", Undoboy's series of 16 toys/64 characters are beautifully inventive and charming. The dimensions are 1.5" X 1.5" X 4" and they are made from heavy card stock with matt lamination. They can be purchased from here.

I also dig these Little Undo packages - some lovely use of pixel art.

Thanks again Damien!

Oh, and be sure to check out Undoboy's blog.

Gaudi Paper Art

Some superb origami architecture from Marivi Garrido derived from the work of Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi. As a fan of both Gaudi and paper architecture I couldn't resist.

Also check out Ingrid Siliakus' Gaudi inspired sculptures.

Note: the Geocities site seems to be having a few bandwidth problems so please be patient.

3D Wallpaper

Philadelphia based Mio is a green design company offering some very exciting earth-friendly products from their website.

Designed by Jaime Salm and Kris Daniel, these lightweight modular wallcoverings are made from 100% recycled waste paper and look great. They are also surprisingly affordable.

The Acoustic Weave in particular has been designed with sound-diffusion in mind and should noticeably improve the acoustics of most spaces.

Brian Chan

The Catbus (or Nekobasu) from Hayao Miyazaki's beautiful anime film My Neighbour Totoro has to be one of my favourite animated characters. Here is Brian Chan's origami version. Also check out his other works - some are really rather nice. It deserves mention that most of these are folded from a single sheet of paper - the crease patterns are available from Brian's site.