lacy lovelies

As more of our labor and production becomes automated, and machines and robotics increasingly carry out our goods and services, my appreciation for all things handmade increases exponentially. When I first saw Aoyama Hina’s work, I immediately assumed her lace-like paper art had been done using a laser cutter. I was blown away to discover Hina had made her intricate and delicate paper cuttings by hand – using standard scissors no less.












The Japanese artist, who now resides in France, first sketches her design on paper, then with epic patience applies her scissors. Hina’s most impressive work is perhaps her “Sentences” series, which consists of phrases she cuts out of paper while utilizing the most intricately flourished of fonts.










































As stated by the artist herself: “My passion is to create a finest cutoff beyond the level of the very time-consuming needle lace making. I don't follow traditional but I am trying to create a mixture of the traditional and modern styles and to produce my own world through this super fine lacy-paper-cuttings technique.” Hina’s innovative applications of her technique include the creation of a paper-cut comic strip – here the contrast between lace making as a traditional craft and the modernity of the medium she uses coupled with the output she produces is evermore present.