Stable and Wearable Paper Jewels

Artist Lydia Hirte makes lovely miniature paper sculpture pieces that are worn as jewelry.

[photos: Jürgen Kossatz]

She writes about her techniques: forming and fixation under strong pressure
"On account of applying my different methods and techniques I am able to generate strong tension within the cardboard. These I use to create self supporting structures. The resulting objects are stable and resilient. These is the reason why I need not apply the standard paper handling techniques - gluing, folding, nesting - and why I need not use additional reinforcements such as metal, bars, other rivets or other support within the spatial structure. So my technique allows both to overcome the well known restrictions of working with paper and to make use of the advantages of this material. To my knowledge I generally extend through this technique the possibilities of working with paper in the arts. So far I came neither across works in jewellery nor in paper arts in which tension is used in such an intensive and essential way.

With my recent group “One week in May – or seven possibilities to move my hands” I have enriched my knowledge on and my possibilities to apply my hands for creating pressure and indirectly forming the material. This provides me with a wider scope for using my hands in subsequent works. Combining this with other techniques further developed enables me to use the material in a less restrictive way and to extend the spatiality in my works."