Papertoys featured in Luna

The latest issue of the German family magazine Luna features some great shots of papertoys by some great papertoy designers and me:)
Stole these images from Marshall Alexanders nicepapertoys.com post.

Thought Processor SF series

A group show from Bay Area artists based on Phoneticontrol's Thought Processor paper toy that was paper sculpted by Sjors Trimbach @ Super 7 in June.
Preview of some of the work on Phoneticontrols flickr.
The piece below is by Josh Ellingson. All colorways will be available for download during the shows run from phoneticontrol.com.

InCreasing Interest: Embossed Drawings by Simon Schubert

You ever see something interesting while traveling online, something that most people wouldn't likely have come across elsewhere, something that would be ideal to bring to the discriminating readers of Paper Forest, only to neglect to make yourself a note about the source? I DID! Fortunately, after several failed attempts to Google up the source with keyword searches in endless variations of "white, paper, embossed, still life, stairway" etc., I activated my Private Eye skills and got it*.

Avant Gard artist, Simon Schubert, is the one who crafted the striking works I thought you'd all like to see, in case you hadn't.


"For his first solo exhibition at upstairs Berlin Simon Schubert has created an accessible room. Ceiling and walls are covered completely with panels of paper folds in which other works of paper are embedded."

"...In barely noticeable interplay of positive and negative convolution arises, depending on the viewing direction, a sculptural portrait, but the next moment again invisible to the interview. This portrait, shimmering between two-and three-dimensionality, drawing and relief object image and is characterized mainly by the reduction of design elements. Again and again, it seems to tilt into nothingness, it displays the variable in the change of light or the viewer position." (Google translation of Simon's index page written by Magdalena Kröner)

There's some web-cussion about how, Mr. Schubert creates these:

The display site uses a language I don't know, German perhaps, but from what I've picked up, he apparently claims to make these ghostly illustrations by folding the paper rather than by embossing with a stylus tool as I would have thought. Some say he's either folded or straight-line embossed these by hand, which is possible. But I have another theory though, no less impressive to have employed.

What if a line art image of a real room was broken out into the mountain and valley folds we see in the finished work, such that they could be output to a plotter similar to a CraftRobo (computer controlled cutting device made by Graphtec) seen demo'd for origami here by Jeff Rutzky:



*Sleuthing breakdown: To re-find the artist, I opened the old unnamed screen grab in Photoshop and looked under "file info" and got the date that I had grabbed the image. Then I learned (by Googling!)how to sort my browsing history in Firefox by date--Viola! Pay dirt.

Feeding Time at the Zoo.

Check out the latest paper automata from Tim at Cool4cats, Feeding Time at the Zoo.
Totally twisted and fun. Get this kit and other amazing paper automata from Cool4cats here.

Matthew Shlian amazing paper engineering videos!

These paper folding videos by Matthew Shlian just blow my mind!
More of his amazing paper engineering can be seen on his site here.

PAPERgraphic illustrations by Yulia Brodskaya

Check out this amazing blend of paper and typography by artist Yulia Brodskaya.
More of her work can be found on her site here.

Paper Totem by Dolly Oblong

Here is a simple yet really fun Papertoy project by Dolly Oblong, Paper totem. So far there are three cool sets by Shin Tanaka and Tougui (pictured above) and one by Dolly herself. Check her blog , all kinds of fun papertoys and Paper Totems to download.

Paper Whites

"How to make a quick card with time to tear. Get it? Ray!"
(--just Twittered from husband Paul when he saw this post.)

Easy and quick anyone-can-do-it hand-made Mother's Day card.

There's still time!

Whether you tear or cut the layers of washi, a stack of white petal shapes, sewn onto a bright foldover card, makes for a striking card that she would love to get.

I used apple green silk cord as stem and pleated lime washi paper leaf to finish.

Line the envelopes with a decorative, patterned, pink-edged paper of your choice (this fun one from Paper Source, as are the cards and envelopes) Sew a matching center to the top of your petal stack and secure to the card.

I let the threaded knots show through on the inside because I think it's nicer to show a human hand was there making the card.

Then crumple the petals to add loft and fullness. It should travel well, as it's not too fussy that way.

Urban Paper tommorow night!

Just a quick reminder the Urban Paper book launch party and papertoy show is tomorrow night at Mobius in LA's Koreatown. Here is a little preview of some of my pieces for the show. They are hand cut colored paper versions of some of my papertoys. I've been wanting to work in more handmade goodness into my work and I'm really enjoying making these. Lots more to see too by tons of great artists so if your in the LA area tomorrow night stop by and if you can't make it I'll take lots of pics and post them soon. Love to meet some Paper Forest peeps in person!