Origami – When Life Gives You Lemons

Papyrophilia

At last, I have found a word that expresses my particular obsession: with all things to do with paper and related products. In my case, these include pens, pencils, ink and art supplies – but paper is my first love.

In this digital age, such a passion seems at best quaint and at worst reactionary. Who needs a book when you can read a tablet? Who needs beautiful stationery when you can send an email? And as for entertaining yourself with paper, how could it compete with the endless variety of Instagram?

**Who can resist cute stationery?** Image: Karen Costello-McFeat

Before casting me into the role of Luddite, I should let you know that I hugely value the convenience and sheer magnitude the cyber world. I’m writing this on my laptop, send endless emails, learn Italian on-line and like nothing better on a rainy afternoon than to indulge in endless YouTube videos showing you you how to make stuff. Because for me, the Internet is a valuable tool, but for beauty and inspiration, I like something more concrete.

Sending love

Despite the postal service doing its damnedest to put us off ever sending anything, (from which I preclude my darling postmen), most of us like nothing better than a letter or card sent in the mail. An actual letter will be read and read again and when I reply, I can remind myself to ask after developments in their news.

A card can be perched on the window sill and remind us that we are remembered and cared for, days or even weeks after the date of celebration. My mother’s mantelpiece and countertops are filled with greetings on her 90th birthday. One cannot feel lonely surrounded by such signs of affection.

**A selection of cards**
Image: Karen Costello-McFeat

Of course, I cannot resist the chance to make cards and where possible to match them to the recipient. And if anyone makes one for me, it will be cherished long after the wrapping paper has been recycled.

Paper meditations

Yes, you read that correctly! Papers can be used as a form of meditation. The attention required is likely to expel all other thoughts from your mind. Ideal for this is the Zen craft of origami. Since it requires no creative thinking, only a very intense attention to detail in following instructions, it is the very best way to filter out the chattering of the monkey brain.

**An origami menagerie** Image: Karen Costello-McFeat

There may be quite a lot of paper wasted, as you fold the wrong way or struggle with instructions. Just as in life, things don’t always go to plan, but in origami, we learn to keep on trying until we succeed. As an incentive, origami papers (especially the Japanese ones) are the most exquisite papers around with elegant designs in rich, opulent colours. Simply looking at them is a joy.

Paper play

I haven’t been very well these last few weeks and when not in bed have been on self-imposed house arrest to avoid spreading my germs. When awake enough, I have indulged in my latest paper fetish: junk journaling. I came across it on the Internet and suspect I have found my calling. Junk journaling (or scrappy crappy journaling as my husband refers to it) uses papers you have to hand, magazines and packaging to create exquisite journals with all sorts of interactive elements. It is no holds barred paper play and includes book binding and repurposing old books – in other words, heaven.

**Extras for journals** Image: Karen Costello-McFeat

My box contains some of the additional elements you can add to your journal pockets and spaces: a mini memory book, pretty envelopes, a wallet and posh pockets for ephemera. If you’d like to learn how to make these things, I’d recommend the expert from Treasure Books on YouTube. Tutorials are free and endlessly inspiring.

And when you get even more serious, you can start to make and bind your own books. Below are some of my early attempts: a cookery journal with staple binding; a travel journal with stitched binding and a triangle book I copied from one I had been given. This has a sort of concertina paper fold.

Practical papers

The best part of all of this is that you can make things to use or give as little gifts and favours and which cost nothing but time. It is completely bespoke, so my travel journal contains tickets and maps and sketches from our trip, as well, of course, as a written account of our travels.

I shan’t go into details, now, but perhaps I shall in future when I get a little more competent. I’ve also started getting seriously into repurposing books – watch this space.

Sensory fulfilment

Our senses are vital to our well-being. Jon Kabat-Zinn has just written a book about it, but what I know already is that if we deprive our full sensory self, we deprive our deepest self.

The digital world is primarily visual – but in a false, pixilated form. Convenient, but not conveying the rich intensity of a brush stroke. It can contain music and voice too – but again – no matter how good, it is disembodied. I doubt anyone who has gone to see a live performance would quibble that, in terms of satisfaction, the live show is far more satisfying than watching the video.

For me, creating with papers and colours fulfils the spectrum of my sensory needs. I love choosing hues that complement each other; papers textured with flowers or a thick grain; the smell of old books and new. Handling the paper, folding, cutting and shaping it, allows my hands to work in harmony with my material. The hush while I work is itself soothing.

Though paper is edible, I have not tried it!

**A mini notebook made from scrap paper and an old calendar.** Image: Karen Costello-McFeat

So before you throw that card or paper away into the recycling box, consider how it might be reincarnated into something new. Start with a card or a tiny note book and soon, I think you’ll find, that you are as addicted to paper as I am.

Magazine Make-Overs

Make-overs in magazines generally take the form of adapting a living space or person to make them more glamorous. But what if, instead of the make-over occurring in the pages of the magazine, it used the magazine itself?

Print quality today makes magazines far too good to waste. If, like me, you want to give your magazines a second life, here are some ideas to make the very most of them. Fortunately, many of my friends feel the same way and some of their ingenious projects are shown here.

Inspirations

My first task when taking a creative textiles course was to look at illustrations and choose the ones which spoke to me. What colours and textures did I find myself drawn towards? What moods did they express? It was a fun exercise, not least because it made me better aware of colour combinations and the effects they have on our mood.

When faced with the seemingly endless choices of paint and fabric in the world, it can be a good place to start to narrow the field. We don’t need to copy the rather curated ‘set’ of the magazine spread, but we might pick out features that we can replicate in our homes and clothes. Perhaps it will nudge us to try something new knowing that these two colours, for example, really can look good together.

Purposeful play

As most of you know by now, I am a bit of an origami fan. When I find gorgeous illustrations in a journal, I cannot help but pull them out to add to my rather capacious store of papers.

By using these papers, if the project doesn’t go well, nothing is really lost. It can go straight to recycling. If it does go well, then you have something original and beautifully illustrated to enjoy.

My favourite activity when I have a few minutes and have the urge to create is to make little boxes or envelopes. They are perfect for tiny things like paperclips, post-it notes or sweets brought by a friend. When they get tired, I make a new one!

As for envelopes, what is more perfect for seeds than those already adorned with vibrant flowers?

20 minute collage

Don’t have time to work out how to make all these? Well, perhaps the next idea will appeal. It requires absolutely no skill and only twenty minutes. I confess that I took longer due to my inability to just get on with it and my perpetual desire to doodle in the margins.

This activity is both a creative and thought provoking one. It was suggested by Julia Cameron in her book The Artist’s Way (yes, that again) as a means to bring a more playful approach to creativity. If free-writing took a visual art form , this would be it. Find a quiet moment, a few old magazines, supplements or even advertising materials and rip out anything that appeals. Next, stick them on a big piece of paper in whatever order seems most pleasing.

For artistic play, it is quick enough and satisfying enough to quell those little creative urges. As a visual free write, it reminds us of what we really love. Often life and responsibilities cause a certain amnesia in this regard. I have to work in the city, because that is where the work is etc. But if, like me, you are constantly pulling out pictures of the countryside and seascapes, perhaps it is time to think about remote working or a new job.

Our sensible brains will often block what we actually want and make us miserable. If we can find a way to discover what we really want in life, and work towards achieving it, we may well find the happiness that eludes us at the moment.

A second life

This week, my friend rather serendipitously said that she couldn’t throw away her magazines because they were just too lovely. I know what she means. Some she stores, but when she sees an especially pleasing image, she uses them to wrap old boxes and give them a new lease of life as waste paper baskets.

**Pretty paper baskets** Image: Jenny Timberlake

Another friend chose to use her old magazines to design a very bespoke card for her husband. I love the diorama effect with layers of depth. In addition to the gorgeous images, inside is a tiny chair made from a bottle top and wire. Who needs a present after receiving such an art work?

**A very special card**. Image: Jane Belcher

The delights of decoupage

What prompted me to write this post is featured below. My copy of Uppercase magazine had gardening as its theme and the pages were crammed with the most adorable images. One set were of old fashioned and imagined seed packets and I simply could not throw them away. Some were used to make cards and the majority were used to decoupage my little table. I’d found the table for a bargain £6.99 at the charity shop and knew it would be perfect for my she-shed.

All it needed was a little zip. Originally, I planned to paint it in the shed colours, but the seed packet illustrations called out for a life reimagined and longer lasting.

It took some time to cut them all out, but it was a quiet and relaxing activity. Having laid them out and arranged them as I thought best, I only needed to stick them on and give it several coats of varnish. Washi tape served as a nice edging device.

**My floral table** Image: Karen Costello-McFeat

An afternoon (post cutting out) was all that was needed to transform a rather sad looking table into a vibrant one. It certainly isn’t perfect, but it does always make me smile.

With all of us having to take care of our expenditures at the moment, finding ways to reuse and repurpose the things we have is a ideal way to enjoy very cheap entertainment, with little waste and hopefully, beautiful results.

Confessions of a Paperphile

Of all the materials available to mankind, none beats paper. It is the medium for books, for art and for writing: pretty much everything I hold dear. Like water, it is almost ubiquitous: like water, it holds little value until it is scarce.

Indeed, in the past, paper was the preserve of the rich, but now it is so cheap that it is used and thrown away without a thought. This post hopes to rectify that. I’m not suggesting that you hoard every scrap but that you come to love paper, as I do, for the infinite ways that it can bring you joy. When planning this piece, I realised that I would have to limit my enthusiasm to just one aspect of paper use and I have opted for the three dimensional. Paper, like plastic, can take an infinite variety of forms, but unlike plastic, can be safely and easily recycled.

**Paper snap dragons** Image: Karen Costello-McFeat

Inception

My paper obsession started in childhood. Television was rather more educational than entertaining then and I remember finishing a programme and rushing off to find some old newspapers to make palm trees. They did, sort of look like palm trees, but the final result didn’t matter too much – what did was the pleasure of creating them. And unlike other toys, they didn’t clutter up the house before being relegated to the back of the wardrobe; they were created and returned to the bin.

When I was a little older, the playground craze was for snap dragons (see above) – a simple origami form that opened up to reveal your fortune. Why nine-year-old girls trusted their fates to such inventions is by the by, but it did introduce me to the idea of origami, which I have loved ever since.

Keeping it simple

What makes paper play perfect for children is that the materials are cheap and readily available. Though my paper play has become a little more sophisticated over the years, my basic materials haven’t changed much at all. I’ve added a scalpel, a bone folder, a cutting board and specialist ruler, yet all I really need are scissors, paper and glue.

**Everything you need** Image: Karen Costello-McFeat

Once one’s paper obsession begins, it is quite hard to keep restrained. After all, there are so many amazing papers out there and costing little more than a cup of coffee. I try to keep my collection under control by getting only specialist origami papers and the occasional Flow paper book. Leafing through my paper books alone can bring hours of entertainment, crammed as they are with paper projects of every kind. Below are some little houses, pre-printed, that I made up as 3D models.

A tiny project to amuse for a little while Image: Karen Costello-McFeat

Art for free

Yet, enjoying making art from paper, doesn’t require expensive paper books or Japanese origami papers, absolutely any paper will do. Old newspapers, magazines, music paper, wrapping papers and old books can make the most elegant pieces. I often cut up old calendars for their beautiful images and then reimagine them as cards. The art of collage, that I have yet to master, thrives on found images reconfigured. Book lover that I am, I adore things that are made from old books. These tomes can be made into clocks, jewellery, decorations, sculptures and even clothes. It has become its own art form with exhibitions of the most stunning creations made from whole books to the pages of old telephone directories. The delicate and almost ethereal qualities of paper only adding to their charm.

Having dug out my Playing with Books edition, I decided to make some spring blooms in honour of the season. An added advantage is that I shan’t have to water them.

**Who needs silk when paper will do?** Image: Karen Costello-McFeat

Inspiration

For me, the hardest part of any venture – especially creative ones, is getting started. What if I fail? What if my beautiful lily turns out looking like a turnip? (quite a few of my early attempts did). The beauty of working in paper is that every failure only results in a slightly more full recycling bin. Whatever time you have ‘wasted’ will have taught you valuable lessons about working slowly and carefully – rush with paper and it will rip. Sometimes, even when you don’t rush, it will rip.

Though working with paper requires absolute and methodical concentration, it generally does not take long. Making my granddaughter’s quilt took me the better part of a year; making my paper flowers, an afternoon. With only a few materials needed to get started, it is the perfect occupation for when you have a little time spare and want to achieve something rather than watch something.

But if you prefer paper play as spectator sport, there is no end of amazing content in books and on-line. Whatever you choose, take a little time to appreciate the paper in your life. Who knows, you may end up a paperphile too.