Mollie Makes Papercraft. Review.

Mollie Makes Papercraft

Origami*Scrapbooking*Cardmaking*Stamping

Mollie Makes

Pavilion Books, June 2015

Hardback, £16.99

ISBN 1-978-1-909815-91-9

Star rating: ****

Here’s a welcome new addition to the Mollie Makes-branded range of craft titles (they’ve already got Crochet, Patchwork & Quilting, Embroidery, Knitting, Weddings, and Christmas). What were they waiting for with papercrafts??? – perhaps because the Mollie Makes publication was originally a sewing craft-lifestyle mag. Well – you know what to expect from Mollie Makes – quality crafts with a quirky contemporary/hipster edge – but accessible to all. 

You will find 20 new projects here, designed by a talented team of contributors and put together by the competent Mollie Makes editorial team. This is an ideal title for a newbie who wants a taster of different aspects of papercrafting. The majority of the projects are delightful – dimensionality and the surprise factor figure in most of them. The Techniques section, back-of-book, is very meaty – intros to a variety of papercraft techniques (origami, quilling, pâpier-mâché, paper manipulation, embellishment techniques) are handled concisely – packing lots of useful - and fascinating-  info into the available space. 

The book takes on board how we have all been spoiled by the internet – and instead of clickable links, you will find text boxes with interesting related details like author bios and  project motivations (papercraft story). It is always a pleasure to find out what makes papercraft artists tick.

The step-by-steps accompanying the projects are excellent. Plenty of info about materials, photos or illustrations where appropriate.

My favourite projects include the Teeny-weeny pull-out house (flip back the roof to reveal a fold-out greeting) by Alix Swan; the Origami lampshade, by Esther Thorpe (lovely, and so very do-able); the Foxy nights papercut (urban foxes shadow box – fun!), by Jaina Minton,  and Three little cacti pots, by Sarah Matthew, which is a masterpiece of paper manipulation (two flowering cacti and a succulent – ideal for plant lovers sans green fingers). 

The beautiful cacti project brings to mind the elephant in the front room of 21^st century papercraft projects. Just how many of these projects were designed and made digitally? I don’t know for sure how this project was made, but the preferred method must surely be digital papercrafting. This project is very fiddly and, at the very least, a link to a printable.pdf and cutting files for papercrafters with digital papercutters would be a useful addition to the book. The contributing designers featured in this book are professionals – surely they design digitally. 

So: to book editiors who are reading this review, I am broadcasting a request: there are more and digital papercrafters out there. We want craft titles, too!

Summing up – if you are a fledgling papercrafter, or are looking for a gift for a fledgling papercrafter, Mollie Makes Papercraft will do nicely.