À la carte

Alexander Rodchenko, photo from Animaux à mimer, 1926

When I was a child, I spent countless magical hours making worlds out of paper...

paper dolls, playing cards, collage paper, postcards, stickers, I loved them all!

Even today, I am still very attracted to beautiful paper toys.

In this collection you'll find a few great vintage zoos

and some irresistible new entries.

 Reconstruction of Cut-outs for Noah's Ark, Madrid, 1932

from the exhibition Toys of the Avant-Garde, via Mondoblogo

 Victorine Leblond, Animaux domestiques articulés: Découpage et montage sans collage, 1941

Elephant animal paper cut-out toy from Billiken magazine, 1966, 

thanks to Il favoloso mondo di carta di Totò

Attilio, Lo zoo di carta. I used to have this as a kid!

 Shigeo Fukuda's flying paper animals

Junzo Terada's Magical Menagerie

ABC Punch Out Animals from Japan, thanks to Ribambelles & Ribambins

Alice Melvin's Cut Out and Make Menagerie

Forest Friends and The Yolk Folk by Mibo

Jungling by milimbo

Sunday Safari - Bee Buzz

 Klaus Haapaniemi

 Alain Grée, 1967, thanks to Pour toujours...

Golly Bard, Swarm of honeybees

Paper sculpture by Elsa Mora

Illustrations by Janusz Grabianski and Joanna Zimowska-Kwak, 1989

thanks to Garaż ilustracji książkowych

Illustrations from The Honeybees by Colette Portal and Animals at home, The Bee by Iliane Roels, 

both published in 1967. Thanks to the amazing flickr gallery of Arthur Van Kruining

  Another illustration from the lovely Animals at home, The Bee,

 this time thanks to Joey's Dream Garden (click to enlarge!)

André Francois, ad from Graphis 1961, thanks to the wonderful Sandi Vincent

Seijiro Kubo

Illustration from Anne and Paul Rand's Little 1

I discovered Angie Renfro thanks to Hazel Terry, 

the lovely curator of The Art Room Plant

Try a Little Tenderness

 I have recently fallen in love with Kyoko Okubo's small sculptures, 

delicately handcrafted from traditional japanese washi paper.

Okubo is a self taught artist who began playing with washi as a child, 

and in her mid-30s began making dolls for herself. After sharing 

her works with family and friends, she first exhibited them on a 

sidewalk Tokyo’s Harajuku district. Since these humble beginnings, 

she has gone on to show internationally and is currently represented 

by Mobilia Gallery in Cambridge Massachusets.

Okubo's miniature scenes realistically portray intimate moments from her poetic 

dream world, a soft universe inhabited by gentle and enigmatic wild animals

mysteriously bonding and interacting with lovely girls and young children. 

"Washi, meaning “Japanese paper”, is a crisp, sturdy material created from fibers 

from the bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub or the paper mulberry. 

While today the material is often mass-produced, it is still handmade 

in rural communities throughout the country."

From an article about Okubo at American Craft Magazine.

You can also read a nice post on her work at Art Found Out.

Stay tuned for more January in Japan findings!

Serpent Safari

naga-gogo by tarudesign

Some sinuous slithery snakes and lots of great new artists!

The First Book of Snakes cover by Paul Wenck, 

thanks to Calsidyrose and Freaky Fauna

Rainbow Snake Huichol yarn painting by Justo Benitez Sanchez

Cro talo e qualo by Andrea Marescalchi

Hannah Stouffer

 Aguis by Jason Laferrera

 Paper Vipers of Inequity by Dan Funderburgh

Obrigado Snake by Skinny LaMinx

Serpentis by Harry Diaz

 Snake Christmas card by Sergio Ruffolo

Guerra de la Paz

Rainbow Snake Dreaming by Malcolm Jagamarra

spread from El Leon Kandinga by Elisa Arguilé

Olimpia Zagnoli