A Love of Paper

Papier-mâché is one of the oldest materials in the applied arts. Its origins are traced to China, where during the Han Dynasty paper was already being shaped into three-dimensional objects — masks, ceremonial helmets, precious boxes: light, yet surprisingly resilient. Over the centuries, the technique traveled along trade routes to the Middle East and Europe, where it found particularly wide application between the Renaissance and the Baroque.

In these periods, courts and theaters used papier-mâché to construct elaborate scenic apparatuses for the most varied occasions — canonizations, religious feasts, coronations. Its lightness, strength, and malleability made it especially suited to the theater, where vast stage settings were built in service of the nascent opera. From the mid-eighteenth century, there survives a remarkable lacquered papier-mâché vase mounted in gilded bronze — an almost perfect imitation of blue porcelain. A striking testament to the chameleonic nature of this material, even in the making of everyday decorative objects.

Papier-mâché is a surprisingly versatile material. Its strength lies in the capacity to build complex volumes — capable of imitating stone, wood, or bronze while remaining extraordinarily light. It is in this dimension that papier-mâché defines itself as a sculptural material: not merely a decorative technique, but a system for generating presence, form, and narrative in space. For these reasons, and for the simple abundance of paper itself, it has always held a deep fascination for me.

As a child, I collected different kinds of paper — kept in a box, taken out whenever I wanted to experiment with a new construction, a new game. Over time, my relationship with paper grew closer, more intimate. By combining different types, I could achieve different results — building larger objects or crafting smaller, more delicate things. The results were not always what I had hoped for, but the willingness to keep experimenting allowed me to find my own personal recipe for papier-mâché.

From my love of the Baroque came a series of small sculptures and a collection of Chinese-style vases — like that lacquered bronze-mounted piece — imitating porcelain, decorated by hand with great care. Since paper has always felt precious to me, it came naturally to pair it with other precious materials: silver, gold, stone. Drawing on my background in jewelry design, I began my adventure in the world of author jewelry.

An adventure that led me to conceive wearable micro-architectures: spatial systems that do not simply decorate the body, but organize it — through rhythm, balance, and formal construction.
An adventure that continues to surprise me, and to hold me.