When I meet new people, and I'm asked what I do, the follow-up question usually is "what do you make the models out of? Paper? Balsa?" Well, most of the time it's plastics and timber, for the architectural work at least. The model kits are mainly made from thick card (although many people mistake the browned, laser cut edges for timber), except for those made of metal. I use these materials as they are hardwearing, and can be treated in lots of ways for different finishes. However, I rarely use paper, which is a shame in a way, although it's usually unsuitable for the models I make.
Paper has amazing qualities, being at once delicate and structural, having the ability to take the intricacies of a both craft knife and pen or pencil. An art or architecture school favourite is making the tallest/strongest/longest structure from a single sheet of paper - I've seen a photo of my dad in his college days standing on a chair to balance a brick atop a structure made of a sheet of A1 paper. At the same time, it's the first material we often turn to when planning a new project, or even just writing a shopping list.
I'm pretty sure I'll have mentioned this artist before, but the work of Peter Callesen is a fantastic example of what can be done with a single sheet of paper. Usually, there's not a mark on the paper, just the cuts, and what at first can appear simple must in reality take massive amounts of planning and attempts to get it right.
I was recently told of Popupology, which is a more familiar type of paper model, but incredible with it too. Bearing in mind that each design has to be able to fold flat, then re-construct itself without assistance, I'm amazed at how beautiful these cards are, and how accurate they are to the buildings they represent.
The workshop I ran at the Merchant City Festival at the end of July was a simple exercise of cutting shapes out of thin card, and slotting them together to make representations of the buildings of the Merchant City. While nowhere near as intricate or structurally sound as the two examples above, it's a great place to start exploring modelmaking and 3D forms (photos coming soon!). It would definitely be nice to do more of this type of thing.
If you fancy a crack at making something out of paper at home, why not try the Model Me Real models we produced, available to download from the F&F website?
