Paper craft is a collection of crafts using paper or card as the primary artistic medium for the creation of two or three-dimensional objects. Paper and card stock lend themselves to a wide range of techniques and can be folded, curved, bent, cut, glued, molded, stitched, or layered.

Papermaking Papermaking is the manufacture of paper and cardboard, which are used widely for printing, writing, and packaging, among many other purposes. Today almost all paper is Pulp and paper industry, made using industrial machinery, while handmade pape ...

by hand is also a paper craft. Paper crafts are known in most societies that use paper, with certain kinds of crafts being particularly associated with specific countries or cultures. In Caribbean countries paper craft is unique to Caribbean culture which reflect the importance of native animals in life of people. In addition to the aesthetic value of paper crafts, various forms of paper crafts are used in the

education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...

of children. Paper is a relatively inexpensive medium, readily available, and easier to work with than the more complicated media typically used in the creation of three-dimensional artwork, such as ceramics, wood, and metals.Carol Tubbs, Margaret Drake, ''Crafts and Creative Media in Therapy'', "Paper crafts", (2006), p. 221-34. It is also neater to work with than paints, dyes, and other coloring materials. Paper crafts may also be used in therapeutic settings, providing children with a safe and uncomplicated creative outlet to express feelings.

Folded paper

The word "paper" derives from

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'' or ''papyruses'') can a ...

, the name of the ancient material manufactured from beaten reeds in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

as far back as the third millennium B.C.H. Idris Bell and T.C. Skeat, 1935. "Papyrus and its uses"
(

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

pamphlet). Indeed, the earliest known example of "paper folding" is an ancient Egyptian map, drawn on papyrus and folded into rectangular forms like a modern

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

map. However, it does not appear that intricate paper folding as an art form became possible until the introduction of wood-pulp based papers. Origami is also a Folded paper art. The first Japanese origami is dated from the 6th century A.D.Lang, Robert James. 988(1988). The Complete Book of Origami: Step-by Step Instructions in Over 1000 Diagrams/48 Original Models. Courier Dover Publications. In much of the West, the term origami is used synonymously with paper folding, though the term properly only refers to the art of paper folding in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

.Nick Robinson, ''The Origami Bible'' (2004). Other forms of paper folding include Chinese '' zhezhi'' (摺紙), Korean ''jong'i jeopgi'' (종이접기), and Western paper folding, such as the traditional paper boats and paper planes.

Cut paper

Papel picado, as practiced in Mexico and other places in Latin America is done using chisels to cut 50 to a hundred sheets at a time, while Chinese paper cutting uses knives or scissors for up to 8 sheets. Wycinanki and other European forms usually are done on one single sheet. In either of these traditions, paper sheets are folded prior to cutting to achieve symmetrical designs.

Paper model

A technique in which you can recreate a 3d model. The polygons of a 3d mesh are unfolded to a printable pattern. With the help of glue tabs, cutting lines, mountain fold lines and valley fold lines the pattern comes together.

Paper pulp painting

Images built using colored paper pulp are a form of paper art that started in the 20th century.

Chuck Close Charles Thomas Close (July 5, 1940 – August 19, 2021) was an American painter, visual artist, and photographer who made massive-scale photorealism, photorealist and abstract portraits of himself and others. Close also created photo portraits ...

, Lynn Sures are among contemporary artist developing this medium. Paper pulp craft is widely used in rural India for making kitchen utility baskets.

Types

* Scrapbooking * Cardmaking * Paper Flowers * Decoupage * Papier-mâché * Origami ** 3D Origami * Origata * Paper Cutting * Quilling * Paper Making * Book Binding * Paper Layering * Paper Model * Chinese paper folding * Paper marbling

References