Straw Flowers

Here are some straw and raffia flowers and hairclips that I found recently at a local swap meet. My cousin Justine and I did some research online and found out these come from the Marshall Islands.

post by Armilyn

Katagami

On Sunday, we had a date night and headed into LA to check out a museum exhibit on cut paper. Jennifer Linssen creates beautiful works of art by handcarving intricate patterns into cardstock-weight paper, painting or coloring it, and using aluminum rods and wire to form all kinds of intricate shapes. The object in the picture above was about 16" across and about 12" tall.

What Jennifer is doing is practicing the ancient Japanese art of katagami or paper stencils. These stencils were used for printing patterns on to paper or fabrics, but the stencils themselves were an artform on their own. She and other artists have taken this artform to the next level.

The exhibit was at the Craft and Folk Art Museum which is right across Wilshire Boulevard from the La Brea Tarpits.