Paper Tales of North Yorkshire

Kojima lies under her piece 'Byaku' Creating Sculpture from Paper Cutting - Nahoko Kojima - Artist Review Nahoko Kojima is a Japanese paper artist who creates giant papercuts from single sheets of Japanese Washi paper, and then hangs them so that the way they fall creates a 3D sculpture. One of her most famous pieces is Byaku, a life-sized polar bear which took 7 months to make from a single 3 metre square piece of Japanese Washi paper. 'Byaku' is painstakingly suspended in the air from many clear threads. Another of her pieces is Cloud Leopard, which, like many of her other pieces, has toured extensively and been shown in numerous different galleries. Paper is such a delicate medium, all that installing (hanging from hundreds of clear threads), dismantling, transporting (flat?), not to mention dusting (!) must take its toll on the paper! Kojima smartly says that she loves how the paper ‘changes over time’ which is perhaps a clever way to admit that it’s n

Exhibition Review - Paper Panda and Friends - Paper Cut Art Nunnington Hall, North Yorkshire - until 7th May 2017 https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/nunnington-hall Recently , on a beautiful sunny day, I drove across the North York Moors with my mum and baby boy Thomas to visit the Paper Panda and Friends Paper Cut Art exhibition at Nunnington Hall. According to its website, Nunnington Hall is a ‘picturesque Yorkshire manor house with organic garden and exciting exhibitions’. At £8.50, the entry price is quite steep but it is a National Trust property so if you’re a member you get in free. First lesson - don’t take a pushchair ! Or bother going in a wheelchair (although there is a wheelchair accessible entrance, I don’t think you’ll get to see much more than the tearoom and the gardens). Immediately the pu shchair was abandoned and we had to carry baby Thomas (who, at 13 weeks, wasn’t getting any lighter). The house was a beautiful old property with rickety stairs, impressive wood-p

I love colouring paper before using it as part of a paper cutting piece, either cutting shapes out to form a collage or as ‘infills’ on a paper cut. Mostly I use traditional watercolour paints to do this, scattering salt over the surface to get interesting patterns. Before Christmas, I saw an artist I follow (Kate Bird’s Art and Crafts - www.facebook.com/katebirdsart) using Brusho to add splashes of colour to some handmade Christmas cards. I’d never heard of Brusho but it looked fun, and so I was chuffed when I managed to get a mixed boxful of little pots from the university art stores. Brusho is basically little pots of crystals which explode into vibrant colours when mixed with water. ‘Be careful, it stains’, warned the uni technician. ‘I just stick my hands in bleach afterwards which gets it off’ he added. Err, I didn’t really fancy that, so point noted. He was right! The little pots are hard to open without the odd minuscule speck escaping, which then bursts into a bright

What’s it all about? Hello! I’m Leela. I’m currently studying MA Future Design at Teesside University. I am currently undertaking a period of research covering the following two strands… Paper art Specifically, cut paper art. I’ve dabbled into collage and paper cutting in the past. I’m now looking into the origins, the history, the differences across cultures, and modern uses and interpretations of the medium. I’m experimenting along the way, with the aim of developing my own unique and distinct style using paper to create illustrations. Folk and fairy tales and superstitions of North Yorkshire I love North Yorkshire. From the wilderness of the North York Moors, to the lush daffodil-covered dales, to the bustling fishing villages. It’s a special place full of unique and friendly people which holds a place forever in my heart. And, like many places steeped in history, it’s also full of myths, stories and legends. I want to create a series of illustrations celebrating the