My Love of Paper

A Mug Design for Tregothnan Tea by Anna Sidney

As a child I was at my most content sitting on the floor of my bedroom surrounded by tiny fragments of what had once been my Mother clothes catalogue. Sometimes I would cut round the figures and use them in some imaginative play, often creating sweeping Sagas that ran for weeks. But more often than not you would have found me in a scene rather reminiscent of ‘Edward Scissorhands’, just sat cutting amongst the snowy white dust that lay in piles all around me. I would create random shapes, that I would discard onto the carpet and then as I homed my cutting skills I would return to the old pieces and make even more intricate shapes out of them. My mother was very patient (and I hope she’ll forgive me for saying) a little averse to hovering, so my bedroom floor would often remain a living installation of ‘paper messiness’, long before I knew you could make an artform out of unmade beds or indeed bits of paper. For me the words stationary store are just as evocative of my childhood memories as the sweet shop on the corner.  

In fact, I put away what I thought were childish pursuits to study a more serious Arts and Crafts training path. It was only fairly recently that the full potential of this versatile material has been revealed to me once more.

Mainly through the work of the rising number of Paper Artist that are prevalent in the world today and though I love the simple elegance of silhouette art, I am still drawn to the wonderful colours and textures of the printed page. Their craft and ingenuity made me reconsider my relationship to paper and I found myself again not so much wanting to draw on it, but wondering what I could create from it, what were the limits of this wonderful material?

The answer is that in the right hands paper can be transformed into anything you want it to be, you'll find that some of my blog links will lead you to work by some of my favourite Paper Artists -whether they are cutting, folding or making wonderful 3D creatures out of it. As paper is made from the pulp of trees this makes it surprisingly strong and yet it is incredibly flexible. It is also a very instant medium to work with, which appeal to my impatient nature.  Of course when paper was first produced it was very expensive and a luxury good that wasn’t for cutting or tearing, unlike today when it is a relatively cheap material to use. This factor is the main reason why some of my theatrical workshops have used paper to practise costuming skills with rather than fabric. (see the paper dresses below)

However, like so many things in our modern world, there is a real environmental cost to this material and I think for that reason I am drawn more to creating my art froms out of discarded magazines, which are often kindly gifted to me by friends when they have been read. Much like the first gift my mother gave me, of time alone to play with my scissors and a discarded catalogue, for which I will be forever indebted. My mind is never more at peace than when I have a piece of paper in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other. I hope my work and that of the Artists I follow, will inspire you to rethink paper and have a play!

If you're interested in learning more about Paper Cutting I have a few book recommendations that I will be puting up in my review section shortly, so check them out.