Friday, April 19, 2013

On My Bookshelf



Oh.My.Goodness. What a day, what a day!

This is the first opportunity that I have had all day to create and post on the blog due to some craziness in the office and due to the demands of a client.

So, anyway--now the best part of my day: sharing one of the treasures that is found on my bookshelf.

Today's book was recently published in the United States and comes to us from Japan: Decorative Papercutting by Akiko Murooka.

I can say that I have had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Murooka at one of my exhibits in Japan and she came over and introduced herself. She was a little surprised that I knew who she was and I think that she was flattered and taken aback because of it.

I had collected the Japanese versions of her first two books that were only available in Japan and in Japanese. When it comes to papercutting you really don't need to read too many instructions--you simply need to follow the folding and cutting instructions. Please keep in mind that this is the Japanese concept of papercutting. In other words, this is Kirigama which is the tried and true form of folding paper and cutting a (usually repeating) design. Think snowflakes on a much more artistic scale.

There are 150 patterns in this book and for those people who are interested in this type of cutting then this book is a must. My only complaint is that none of the patterns are shown in unfolded templates for people who do the style of papercutting that I do.

Regardless, this is a wonderful for any paper artist or craftsperson.

Full Disclosure: Neither Amazon.com nor the author have provided any compensation for this review. This book was purchased online without a personal perusal before purchase.

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