The Master Paper Crafters of Paper-Oh
It is 2017. Tangible media is slowly-but-surely becoming extinct as digital media provides people with instantaneous access to nearly anything one can imagine. The digital revolution is in many ways a necessary, progressive evolution, but there is still something so tactile and satisfyingly human about etching emotions, events, drawings and thoughts into paper. This act marks our territory in time and place, while rendering our individuality in indelible, inimitable style. It is almost as if writing is the thumbprint of the mind. Perhaps it is a placebo effect, but I like to think that reading your own writing of your own thoughts completes a primordial circuit of body, mind and spirit. It just feels right...
All this considered, handwriting is still part of our lives and important to many people, but while it is common for folks to consider what and how they write, it is less common for people to consider what they write in. This brings a whole new level of consideration to the process of writing. For instance, much like one wouldn't display rubbish on their mantelpiece (unless it is turned into a beautiful low polygon mask of course) one wouldn't write a shopping list in a beautifully bound book - especially if the book in question reflects over 80 years of collective experience in design, publishing and bookbinding. The entity I speak of can only be Paper-Oh: one of our unique and special collaborators. A boutique notebook from Paper-Oh can be thought of as a luxury vessel for your deepest thoughts.
We first became aware of Paper-Oh when designer Wade Berridge got in touch with us about using some of their high quality, sustainable materials for a special Mask build. The results were stunning and since then, we have been corresponding with Wade as he sends us images of his incredibly beautiful builds. Below are some examples of Wade's amazingly clean constructions. The Reindeer Mask he built using Paper-Oh's Red on Black Circulo cover paper and for the Sabre Tooth Mask he employed the Grey on Orange pattern from the Quadro Collection. The textured detail is staggering to behold.
Not long thereafter, we discovered that there was not one, but two genius bookbinders involved in the design of these special notebooks. German Master Bookbinder Nadine Werner also expressed an interest in building our Masks and as expected the results were equally enthralling. Below, we see Nadine's beautiful Badger Mask that she brought to low poly life using the tessellated textures of her Metallic Grey Yuki-Ori cover paper. This incredible material was developed in collaboration with Japanese artist Yuko Nishimura, who fuses origami and origata (Japanese gift wrapping) to create an immersive three-dimensional visual effect.
We'd like to take this opportunity to thank Wade and Nadine for fusing their art with ours and creating these unbelievable custom Masks. This is a harmonious collaboration on many different levels (sustainable materials, meticulous design and our general ethos) but perhaps most importantly, it is all about turning ordinary everyday objects into beautiful, functional art...
Follow the links below to find out more about Paper-Oh and explore some of our other special collaborations:
https://wintercroft.com/blogs/news/from-crimson-depths-to-golden-skies
https://wintercroft.com/blogs/news/mining-the-shiny-mind-of-rachel-kiernan
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