Playing With Paper
Illuminating, Engineering, and
Reimagining
Paper Art
By Helen Hiebert
Quarry Books
£16.99 Paperback
ISBN 978159253140
The sign of a good craft book is
when you come across an idea or a project that you just can’t wait to try out.
Moments like that come thick and fast in Helen Hiebert’s new book, Playing With Paper. As the subtitle
suggests, many light bulb moments are contained within its (quality paperback)
covers. For example, I was fascinated by the section on Hedi Kyle’s One -Sheet Books – a mini-course on pamphlet-folding.
Helen’s projects using hinged and cut-out envelopes are very inventive, as is
her magnetic ring with interchangeable 3-D toppers.
This book is a refreshing mix of
the practical and the inspirational. It is infused with a sense of fun and
wonder. Although this is a book of artisan papercrafts, there is plenty here
for the papercraft hobbyist. All the
projects are do-able – nothing a newbie couldn’t accomplish. Yet, there is
plenty to engage and inspire the more-experienced papercrafter. Paul Johnson’s Interlocking Pop-Up Castle (template
included at the back of the book) is a colourful, non-intimidating introduction
to slice-forms – a papercraft technique that I had previously regarded as
purely geek territory.
All the projects in the book are
handmade, and none of them require more than pretty basic tools and equipment –
and paper, of course.
This collaborative book surveys a
variety of papercrafting techniques, provides an accessible bunch of projects,
and provides inspiration in a gallery section which presents the work of world-class
paper artists. The format works. In the gallery section, featured artists
include Ingrid Siliakus, who produces astonishing origamic architecture
cityscapes; Vincent Floderer, whose crumpled paper sculptures look like Fortuny
pleating; and Paul Jackson, whose
pleated paper vessels look as if they
are made from pottery or carved from wood.
In the Acknowledgments, the
author credits the “wonderful sense of sharing that exists within the paper
community...”, and the contributors to the book must surely have donated some
of their best ideas.
Helen Hiebert is a paper artist with an international reputation. She
makes her own handmade paper and constructs installations, lamps and art books
which alter the viewer’s perceptions of time, space and form. She has a
fabulous blog which you can visit at
http://www.helenhiebertstudio.com
Note: I was provided with a
review copy of this title.
