We’ve partnered with our favorite makers to showcase the best in paper engineering. Explore our latest collaboration with Hiromi Takeda, a pop-up artist from Japan who uses paper to capture the ephemeral beauty and essence of blooming flowers.
I first consider what I want the pop-up movement to capture. I figure out the mechanics and then select plants that will suit the composition. After creating many prototypes to perfect the movement, I create a paper pattern. Once the pattern is scanned in and the digital die lines created, I paint the art and finalize the color files.
The tools I use are quite ordinary: paper, a utility knife, and a light table. (Until I bought the light table, I used to trace all my patterns using a window. I soon realized I could only do this on sunny days!) I paint with acrylics and sometimes incorporate traditional Japanese pigments.
I fell into paper engineering unexpectedly. My first memory of touching a pop-up card for the first time is so distinct! I was 22 and inside a greeting card shop. As soon as I opened a pop-up, it felt like all my cells started boiling, starting from my fingertips to my entire body. I thought to myself, “I want to pursue this!”
Since then, I have learned how to create pop-ups on my own and continue on this journey today.
I like to think of each individual flower that I’m popping up as a person—what kind of person they are, how they behave, and what makes them unique. Then I try to reflect this into four-dimensional space, including time.
I also follow my own set of rules—each piece must showcase each curve in a beautiful way, be easy to assemble, and use the least parts needed for the design to be effective.
My first pop-up piece, Let Me Bloom, is the most special to me. The flower I chose to feature is imaginary. I’m using a similar pop-up mechanism for the Rose card I designed for the Paper Artisan Series.
I want to make a piece inspired by the butterfly-filled buttercup meadows that I saw in Ireland. The scenery was so beautiful and peaceful. I wish I could visit there again!
I would absolutely say Mr. Keith Moseley! He is a wonderful paper-engineer in England. When I saw his flower pop-up book for the first time, I felt so inspired. After six years of teaching myself how to create pop-ups, I visited him to share my work; that was the most special day in my life.
