During the last weeks we’ve seen pictures of a fabulous cardboard stove here, a cool dollhouse there… but only yesterday we actually found the designers and makers behind these pieces: flatout frankie! Of course if we read parenting blogs we might have figured it out sooner (but up until now no such blogs are read in the studio though times might change at some point…).

flatout frankie is based in New Zealand, all their toys come flatpacked (of course) and can be recycled in case the kids – or adults – ever get tired of them. Better still you can also just pop them together to store them or take them along on a holiday! The signature white details are just amazing – hot plates, knobs and utensils on the stove, furniture and a dog in the dollhouse and ‘Red Baron’ flames on the nose of the plane.

A growing list of stockists can be found here and some of the online retailers ship internationally.

Thanks to Ann and her blog All Things Paper we discovered the paper jewelry by Sydney’s Rowan Shaw of Frank Ideas. Rowan’s work is very special and inspiring especially for the paper twine enthousiast so we want to quickly share some pictures with you.

Rowan not only works with paper but with a wide range of materials including felt, rubber, buttons, textiles, recycled plastic, color and fabric (we only show you the paper jewelry here). Ann also asked Rowan why she enjoys creating with paper:

“…because of the colours and textures. As you can tell I’m quite eclectic, both in my taste and the materials I use for making jewellery. I find working with paper therapeutic when I’m in the right mood. You have to to be patient and gentle to create with paper and since most of my life is a chaotic flurry of activity, occasionally it’s nice to take time to think and be quiet and work at a slower pace.

You can see more of Rowan’s jewelry here. Also Ann has been very busy the last year putting together a first All Things Paper book and we’re already very excited about it. The book is due to be released in 2013 and we’ll surely keep you posted about it.

Paper Star / Craspedia Flowers by kissa design

I tried to warn you about the studio’s current obsession with paper stars but it’s good to see that you’re still reading our blog!

Some of the paper stars that we love most for their simplicity and geometric form (if it’s possible to say that about stars) are handmade by Kathleen who runs kissa design.

One question that arises – especially when having a look at the gorgeous Craspedia Flowers on top of this article – is if these small sculpture are stars? Kathleen herself calls them “Star Urchins” and explains her point of view “Star Urchins are based on the traditional Polish folk art decoration often called a porcupine ball, a style of ornament making that dates back beyond a hundred years. To me, they look like stars or sea urchins, so I call them Star Urchins, but their spiky form has been likened to seed pods and fireworks, too.”

Kathleen’s mother taught her to make porcupine balls when she was a child and her family has been in the “star business” for half a century – definitely a good tradition to pass on and make a living with! Kathleen also adds that “I have developped some of my own techniques and expanded my ability to work with pretty much all different kinds of papers to produce consistent results”.

The Star Urchins and Star Flowers can be found in Kathleen’s shop kissa design on etsy – and I might add that they’re definitely worth a look (and purchase) not only during Christmas season!

BEUTE lamps by herrwolke

Michael Konstantin Wolke / herrwolke is the designer behind the amazing BEUTE lamps made of found and “looted” old cardboard.

To understand the concept you have to know that BEUTE is the German word for “loot” and only by reusing and rearranging the “conquered” cardboard these lampshades can be built. They’re all one-of-a-kind and I find that very aesthetically promote the idea of reusing discarded materials. The colorful bits and pieces of the original imprints and logos on the boxes contrast beautifully with the industrial look of the rolled corrugated cardboard edges.

Michael Konstantin Wolke’s interest in the reuse of found materials and their transformation into useful everyday objects shows in all of his work – and he’s also available for comissioned work in case you’re looking for something special (a note: the studio is based in Cologne, Germany).

The BEUTE lamps can be bought in the dua shop (beware: you’ll need some time admiring all the beautiful furniture there) as well as on the herrwolke website. They’re all one-of-a-kind and special sized can be comissioned as well.

Some weeks ago we shared the first two paper flowers made by Linda’s parents with you here and your feedback has been overwhelming. Thanks a lot for all the comments and emails – Linda’s parents experienced for the first time how many paper lovers can be found online!

Since then they’ve made many more paper twine flowers … it seems that the whole family is infected by the “paper twine – virus” by now (it’s very contagious, we have to warn you!). Today we want to show you three of the latest paper twine flowers and we would love to see your creations, too! So don’t be shy and send us a picture or two to office (at) paperphine (dot) com !

UPPERCASE magazine – Issue 12

We’re a joyful trio of girls here at the PaperPhine studio and we can get pretty excited about all things paper and a lot more. And sometimes even our neighbours know that we’re happy because it can get slightly loud… and on the day UPPERCASE Issue 12 arrived it definitely was known in the whole house!

We’ve long been avid readers of Janine’s UPPERCASE blog that is a mixture of posts about design, paper and print as well as inspiring pictures and interviews with creative people around the world. Oh, and paper lovers, of course – a lot of paper lovers!

PaperPhine in UPPERCASE Issue 12

Currently there is already UPPERCASE Issue 13 in delivery (but you can get back issues as well as subscriptions here) but we had to wait for our copy to come back from its tour around Europe to have a closer look at it and tell you all about it. Tour around Europe? Yes indeed – the “can I borrow it for one day” by an illustrator friend stretched to a full tour around Europe, the magazine being passed on from hand to hand until it ended up in our studio in Vienna again. Luckily we had removed the great insert – a hand-made seed paper card by Porridge Papers – before passing it on… otherwise it might not have come back!

One of the questions Linda answered on behalf of PaperPhine in UPPERCASE Issue 12:

For someone who hasn’t used paper twine or yarn in a craft before, what would you suggest as a starting project?

I would suggest to just get some paper twine and start doing – there shouldn’t be a lack of ideas once you have the material in your hands! Paper twine is stiffer than other twines so if you start bending, knotting or wrapping it around stuff it will acutally really nicely keep the shapes you create. Combine it with paper or cardboard to create tags and cards and slightly undo the paper twines’ cut ends for a more romantic effect. Paper twine is smooth so you can glue it onto things if you want to – or put a needle with thread through it to sew it onto your latest DIY project as the final touch. And of course if you’re comfortable with knitting needles or crochet hooks you’ll be amazed by the possibilities that this material offers.

Issue 12 also features a story by Justine from upon a fold about her Japanese papermaking adventures and much more to keep you occupied and reading (and it’s definitely not a magazine you can just flip through in 15 minutes!)

So – all we can say: grab a copy or even a subscription of UPPERCASE in the UPPERCASE online shop or at one of the stockists stockists.

For some reason the studio has recently been obsessed with paper stars. Yes indeed – springtime is coming in Vienna but who says that paper stars are only suitable for the darker winter months and the time around Christmas? After all stars can be seen all year round (weather conditions allowing) and they’re a very basic and classical shape – so nothing can go wrong as long as you choose non-Christmasy colors for your decorations and gift wrappings.

Today we’re sharing some pictures from our good friend Helle who runs Stjernestunder and who is folding paper stars (nearly) every day of the year. Her new and elegant gift wrappings with small hand-folded paper stars in all colors and some of our paper twines are really divine.

We’re wishing you a colorful start into the weekend with our two new paper twine colors: coral/pink and aubergine! Available in the PaperPhine etsy shop

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One of the frequently asked questions concerning our paper twines is if it’s suitable to make paper flowers and yes, it is!

These paper flowers were made by Linda’s Mum & Dad (thanks again!) out of small left-over pieces of our strong colored paper twines. The basic technique is quite simple: carefully open up cut pieces of paper twines to make them into leaves and petals, leaving a pointy tip to get the desired shape. You might remember the blog article about gift wrapping with “leafy paper twine” – it’s the same principle though flower petals need to be a bit bigger.

The blue flower was made using strong colored paper twines in: white, fresh green, grayblue and jeansblue (tiny pieces of aubergine paper twines were glued on to form the stamen).
The red flower was made using paper twine in fresh green, red, aubergine, white (stamen).
Both flowers are fixed onto skewers made of bamboo.

Yvette Hawkins: new experiements with folding and drawing as well as folding and stitching

We wrote about Yvette Hawkins’ sculptures made of folded books some time ago on the blog. Yvette’s newest work is equally fascinating. Instead of books she’s now into folding huge drawings and maps into geometrical patterns.

The first works of this new series are the origami tessellated drawings (picture on top) that Yvette developped further into folded and stitched pieces. She says that this “feels more sculptural and I find the process of marking the paper after folding more interesting. These pieces are quite small and now I’ve got the hang of folding and stitching I might have a play with scale and see how it develops.” (These works somehow remind of the Japanese Shibori dyeing technique, no?)

Yvette Hawkins: A Wishful Topography, 2011; Folded Map, 55 x 110.5cm (Images by www.rosellastudios.co.uk)

“A Wishful Topography” was made especially for a charity auction. You see a bit more about the folding process on Yvette’s Paperfaerie blog. Even though parts of the map are concealed by the fold it is still easy to recognize it as a map. Probably this would be a lot different when a less colorful map was used – or even a sea-map where the geometric pattern would probably remind of waves. Yvette promised to go looking for more maps so surely there will be more fascinating pieces soon.