Read an Excerpt

My love for nature and my passion for making art are intrinsically intertwined—and they always have been. As a child growing up near the Gulf Islands National Seashore in southern Mississippi, I spent many afternoons canoeing in the bayous and wandering trails in the woods. I’d construct giant dream catchers by pulling up ivy from our garden, twisting the vines together, and adding whatever treasures I found that day: feathers, shells, or acorn caps. I started art lessons at just eight years old, planning my artistic future at a young age. They led me to study painting at Memphis College of Art, before I moved to New York City to follow my art world dreams.

Although I love urban life, I took a break from the city a few years ago to work for a season on an organic farm in northern California. My tent dwelling allowed me to wake with the dawn each morning, and my days orbited around plants. I picked basil in the morning, weeded arugula after lunch, and patiently waited for tomatoes to ripen day after day. My favorite moments were once again merging nature and art together by creating mixed floral bouquets for the farmers’ market and arranging the farm stand’s vegetables in an appealing way. I brought that state of mind back with me to Brooklyn, where I currently live and work just a few blocks from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and Prospect Park, both of which I visit nearly every weekend. These outdoor spaces are invaluable to me for inspiration, fresh air, and a much-needed respite from city life. They’re also where I discovered many of the plants that you’ll find in this book.

Nature fuels and inspires me . . . whether that means backpacking the Appalachian Trail, taking a stroll in a park, or even just finding some small corner of my apartment where a few houseplants can survive. I began making paper plants because I wanted a fiddle-leaf fig tree in my windowless living room. From their verdant hues to their whimsical gestures, these paper creations give me the same joy as my live plants. Though the paper is temporary, especially when compared to a plastic plant, I believe the care and attention I put into each leaf while creating the plant makes me appreciate it even more.

Paper wasn’t always my medium of choice. For many years, I made paintings, collages, and fabric sculptures. I began working with paper at the request of my longtime mentor and friend, David Stark, who wrote the foreword for this book. David’s always known and trusted that I was a person who could make things. Even if I didn’t know how, he knew I’d figure it out. I’ve worked at his company, David Stark Design and Production, for many years, and it’s become my second home. My job gives me endless opportunities to be ambitiously creative, and I never know what I’ll be inspired to make from one day to the next. This exciting variety at work gives me freedom to discover new ideas in my own studio, sparking inspiration—like my current obsession, paper plants!

From my very first paper challenge of building a life-size baby giraffe out of kraft paper, to all the variations of flowers, birds, butterflies, and more, paper found its way into my heart and my own studio. I love to revel in the wonders of taking the ordinary, like paper, wire, and a bit of paint, to create an object that I truly cherish. As you craft your own versions of the projects in this book, I hope you start (or continue) your artistic journey in this manner. Celebrate the pure pleasure in the act of creating something new with your hands. Not every leaf needs to be perfect, not every cut or mark needs to be made exactly the same. Enjoy the process! Enjoy making these plants for yourself, for your home, or as a gift for a friend.

In this book you will find detailed instructions for making thirty of my favorite plants, plus five bonus projects demonstrating how to showcase the plants in artful ways. Many of these plants will probably be familiar, while some may seem more exotic. I chose Pilea peperomioides and fiddle-leaf figs because they are popular, and also because the real plants are difficult to come by or hard to take care of. Sometimes, I chose to make a plant simply because I love the color or the shape of the leaves. No matter the reason or inspiration, the great news is that paper plants don’t require you to have a green thumb or a sunlit home. They simply require a set of willing hands, a few crafting supplies, and a good pair of sharp scissors!

Many projects in this book are easy and can be done in an afternoon, but a few may take a weekend to make. In most of the projects I’ve tried to closely mimic the real plant. But whether your muse is a realistic version or something cut from your own imagination, let yourself experiment and play. After all, creation at its core is whatever inspires, intrigues, or compels you. Are you ready to craft your own indoor garden? Let’s make some paper plants!