Category Archives: paper toy

Tokyo based artist Makiko Azakami began her paper making career while working as a 3D modeler for Sony Creative Products, where her interests led to the Sogetsu School of flower arrangement where she further studied under hat designer Akio Hirata. An impulsive urge to create a sculpture of Godzilla led to a more serious interest in the arts, culminating in her first exhibition in Tokyo in 1985. The works in the exhibition were displayed as photographs, and the “cute” reception that the diminutive subjects received bothered Azakami. Many years later, when visiting an exhibition of Australian sculptor Ron Mueck, Azakami was impressed by his approach to subjects and their scale. Taken by the character and charm created by the simple combination of scale and material, Azakami tried her hand at recreating an assortment of objects. Taking everyday objects, such as cameras, typewriters or even a calculator, and recreating them in a variety of scales by shrinking them down, making them into paper toys or blowing them up beyond their usual dimensions, each crafted out of paper.