A cut above - five papercraft trends
"There are lots of different styles of papercraft, but here we look at the five that are really popular."
The art of papercraft has become more and more popular, and with advances in materials and technology it has come on a lot in the past few years. Crafters can create anything from a simple Christmas card, to intricate lacework decorations, to pop-up photo holders.
Lacework (tattered lace)
Paper lacework has come long way since the days of the doily on your grandma’s dining table. Lacework designs are becoming increasingly popular as works of art in themselves with many detailed designs depicting landscapes, still life images and even portraits done in paper cutwork.But the intricacy of modern lacework designs can mean that when cutting by hand, one slip of the knife or a simple miscalculation can put an end to hours of work sketching and cutting. As a crafter there’s nothing more frustrating than seeing your painstaking work wasted.
Cutting lacework can also be very time consuming, which is not great if you live a busy lifestyle. However, modern technology, like the advent of precise scanning and cutting machines like the ScanNCut, allows crafters to create intricate patterns directly from their sketches for use in standalone pieces or as part of larger projects.
Appliqué
Traditionally, appliqué has been the domain of the home-sewist, quilters and other textile-based crafters. However, there is an increasing trend for using appliqué techniques in papercraft projects. In particular for card makers and, more recently, for creatives making personalised 3D wall art.Many papercrafters make use of mixed materials to make their papercraft designs pop. Scanning and cutting machines can now easily cut out appliqué designs in card, fabric, foils and other materials, which opens up a range of exciting possibilities for the creative papercrafter.
Embossing
Embossing is a staple papercraft trend, but like lacework and appliqué is one which is changing in its usage and style. Previously favoured by card and stationary professionals for adding personalisation to formal stationary and to add texture to images or maps, it is now being used to create highly detailed patterns on cards, decorations and artworks.Modern embossing trends take detailed patterns, lettering and debossing (negative embossing) to create uniquely textured makes that can be complicated and time consuming to complete by hand.
Papercut Florals
The growing trend amongst brides for everlasting bouquets (and memories) has seen a boom in the trend for papercraft florals. More and more couples are also choosing papercraft flowers in a bid to add a sustainable slant to their big day, especially as many of the flowers deemed worthy for the big day are grown abroad and flown in.Papercut florals are also growing in popularity for home decoration projects. Without the need for fresh cut flowers they cost less than their traditional counterparts and don’t need to be refreshed every few days. With papercraft flowers, crafters can create their own bespoke pieces that reflect their true personality and style – with no more relying on what the local flower shop has in, or being constrained by the seasons.
Paper engineering
The recent availability of affordable, quality paper products have led to a growth in paper engineering crafts, with large format artworks and sculptures making use of both papercut and origami techniques amongst others.Home décor styles have continued to favour the handmade in recent years and paper engineering is an ideal way to tap into that.
Paper engineering is by no means a new trend. It’s been a used by architects and designers for decades as a means of demonstrating how a product, or a construction project will look.
More recently paper engineering has entered the crafting domain. Crafters are using distinctive designs and quality papers to create eye-catching 3D pieces, including large format quilled pictures, 3D still-life and even colourful animal busts.
