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Necklace - paper

Momoko Kumai

I use tactile material to create jewellery that evokes a spectrum of memories and address inner landscapes in my mind. I fold, twist and roll paper using my hands, at times unconsciously. The uneven layers of texture emerge from light and shadow, conveying emotions of permanence to impermanence that reflect the ephemeral breath of nature with its fragility.

I divided my works into three series representing the characteristics and the sentiments of the material - the transformation from permanence, semi-permanence to impermanence.

In the permanent series, I made rings with silver and gold. As I like yellowish gold, I make my own gold alloys. I took inspiration for my design from bundles of copy paper because the repetitive arrangement of paper creates delicate layering patterns through overlapping lines.

In the semi-permanent series, I combined permanent material, silver with impermanent materials, silicon and yarn. The design comes from twisted paper.

I used paper in the impermanent series. But I wanted to make more wearable paper jewellery after the work in progress show. I found tissue paper and Washi (Japanese paper) are so strong when I twisted them. I keep my design simple because I want to emphasize the beauty of paper’s shades.

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