The PaperCrafter team loves paper in all of its forms and guises — whether it’s a greeting card, decoupaged item, ornament or decoration for the home, each hand-crafted piece can evoke that ever-desirable cry: “Is that REALLY just paper?”
Beautiful paper cuts, paper sculptures and stunning artworks are popping up ever so frequently, and just one of the marvels that has caught our eye is the charming concept of paper jewellery. Below, paper jewellery-maker Anna Van Tuinen of Paper Anniversary shares her story and processes with us about how she creates her beautiful pieces.
Anna Van Tuinen’s paper journey started when she was just 10 years old, with a single origami crane. Her class read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, a classic tale about a young girl who was inspired by the legend that if one created a thousand origami cranes, they’d be cured by the gods.
It was this story that inspired Anna to make her first origami paper crane, and from there, her hands took to origami paper like second nature — and she hasn’t stopped folding paper since!
She is now founder and designer of Paper Anniversary by Anna V., a line of paper jewellery made from rare and exotic papers, which Anna personally sources from around the world. When you see Anna’s jewellery in person, it’s difficult to believe it’s made of paper — but her secret is a proprietary glaze that protects the delicate papers, making the jewellery solid, durable and water resistant.
Although Anna’s workshop is based in Montreal, Canada, her artistic journey takes her all over the world, and recently, she travelled to northern Thailand to meet the local craftspeople who craft the colourful Thai bamboo paper she uses by hand.
“It was fascinating to see the traditional techniques they still use to create the paper. The process starts by boiling bark over a wood fire overnight, then hand-picking impurities out of the pulp.
The craftspeople make each piece of paper individually, using adept fingertips to mix pulp evenly in a deckle. It’s then dried under the hot Thai sun for 12 hours”
The rich jewel colours of the Thai bamboo paper make it the beautiful foundation for her Neptune Paper Jewellery. Enter our competition with Anna to win one of her stunning jewellery sets here.
So what can we expect next? Anna is planning an upcoming trip to Japan, to learn how to make traditional Chiyogami Papers, which have been around since the 17th century. You can follow her adventures by joining her Facebook page or Blog.
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