In this section, you will find inspiration, tutorials, events and successful Paper Artists who made of paper their bread and butter. And don't forget to follow us!
My name is Susan Beech and my company is A Petal Unfolds.
Instagram: @apetalundolds; Facebook Page.
I’m originally from Staffordshire in the UK. I was lucky enough to have been brought up on a farm, living very close to nature. I currently live in Brighton, which is on the UK South Coast. I went to university here and I love the interesting people and vibrant art scene.
My passion for DIY started when I became disheartened with the photographic work that I had been doing since university. I felt a need to start making art with my hands again rather than working digitally. After starting to read crafts magazines, I stumbled across an article on paper flowers. I was immediately taken by them, as they seemed so unique and beautiful.
I started working with paper when I took an online class by Brittany Watson Jepsen in August 2013. I was so excited to take the class, where I made my first 3 types of flowers and this is where everything started for me. I learnt about the qualities of crepe paper for the first time and how the paper could be manipulated. I also learnt how difficult it was at the time to source great quality crepe paper in the UK!
I love the qualities of crepe paper and how it can be transformed to make wonderful sculptural shapes. It is so satisfying to take a flat piece of crepe and transform it in to a petal for a flower. Now that I have access to 180gsm paper from Cartotechnica Rossi I am looking forward to being able to experiment with making flowers on a larger scale in beautiful ombre paper.
At the moment my favourite papers are the 60gsm papers from Cartotecnica Rossi. They are a great weight for making the paper Cosmos and Daisies I’ve been working on recently, with a lovely fine grain and a good amount of stretch. I also love the range of colours.
I realised this could possibly be a profession when I was contacted by Grace Bonney of the well known blog Design*Sponge. She had seen my work on Instagram and I was so amazed when she asked me to write a DIY tutorial for the blog. It was a dream come true when I saw my Ranunculus tutorial on the site and it had a big effect on me, I felt so determined to learn more and make my flowers even better.
I came to know about Cartotecnica Rossi through a friend on Instagram. Instagram has a great little community of paper flower makers who are very supportive of each other. I mentioned on there about how I was finding it difficult to find a good natural green crepe paper in the UK and my friend Jennifer Tran mentioned Cartotecnica Rossi. I am very grateful that Cartotecnica now ships to the EU.
My recent projects have included a series of 9 paper flower tutorials for a new Paper Craft book by Dorling Kindersley. I feel very lucky to have been contacted to contribute and seeing my work photographed professionally has been such a dream and very inspiring. The book is due out in October this year.