Cut Paper Works by Hina Aoyama

Last week Meg and I were up to our elbows in paper shreds for a design project, and as we bonded over our shared lack of cutting skills we got to talking about our favorite paper cut artists and their seemingly impossible creations. The works I’ve been marveling lately are by Japanese artist Hina Aoyama. Her designs truly amaze me; I’ve never seen such delicate and perfect paper cutting on the scale of Aoyama’s work, and I’m particularly impressed with the cursive text cuts shown below.

I’ve always been curious about a paper artist’s process, especially when the pattern is so small and detailed.  I was very pleased to see that Aoyama has posted a video of her process, and I was surprised to learn that her primary tool is a small pair of scissors! I know that this kind of work takes painstaking patience and precision, and the fact that Hina Aoyama  makes it look easy speaks to her amazing skill. Her work was included in the book Tangible: High Touch Visuals, which came out last year. I highly recommend this book and the rest in its series for visual inspiration, and the next time I’m on a paper cutting assignment I am definitely going to follow Aoyama’s lead and get myself a pair of those scissors!