Just about everyone who grew up in Asia, grew up with origami. It’s a given; the norm – it’s a part of the culture; a school hobby.
So much so that when she first heard about the traditional Japanese myth that one thousand origami cranes would grant you one wish, five-year-old Hannah Ng gave it her best shot.
‘At one point I did attempt to do that,’ laughs Hannah, a paper artist now living in Liverpool. She grew up in Hong Kong and moved here aged 16. 'I used to practice making traditional paper cranes as small as my fingertips. Origami is such a norm in Hong Kong that just about any stationary shop would have an origami DIY selection, in all kinds of patterns and texture papers, all different sizes, and it was like a candy store to me.
'I have always loved learning how to make things on my own.'
She's determined – a perfectionist, you could say – and origami has always been a form of therapy for her, incorporating it into her textile arts degree at the University of Central Lancashire and creating her first paper commission just after: a paper wedding bouquet for her best friend.
Flowers turned into house plants, and house plants into stars and snowflakes (just check our her Etsy shop, Joyful Array. The listings will wow you better than any words can) and Hannah now spends her time solely making paper art.
She's a one-woman band – with the help of her trusty silhouette machine to pre-cut shapes – and she's busy pre-making her best-selling white Christmas stars.
It's her busiest time of year, and she’s excited about the prospect of paper art becoming a reusable alternative to plastic decorations. ‘Now that we are living in more of a conscious mind, we are more careful of what we are buying and its impact on the environment,’ she says.
‘Paper decorations will be the next big thing. They are versatile; you can use them every year. I’m trying to produce more styles in different colours that can be used all year round.
'I want to make things bigger and more grand and luxurious, so there’ll be more colour to come.’
There’s a secret to it, she tells me, to sharp lines and crisp edges. ‘It is quite mathematical. You have to be very accurate with your folding and your lines. The more symmetrical your fold and the shape is, the better it will look.’
Looking good is a given for Hannah’s decorative shapes and figures, and it was noticed. Last year she commissioned by Fraser Hart Jewellers to make Christmas stars for their 2021 marketing campaign, to be displayed in stores across the whole of the UK.
At just two months' notice, she made more than 1,000 stars. ‘That was a big one,’ says Hannah, who works between home and her Liverpool studio. ‘I had to hire an assistant to help!’
There was a commission by the University of Liverpool, too, to make a bespoke paper origami Liver Bird as a mascot for this year’s Liverpool Literary Festival.
You see, it's all in the detail. Everything is folded and glued by hand, and although most models take only up to 20 minutes to make, it's a precise 20 minutes, and completely dependent on the size of the model, how many pieces are needed and how complicated it is to make.
'It is really therapeutic once you get into the groove of making and it can be easy enough for anyone, young or old, to have a go,' Hannah adds. 'It's fascinating how a simple technique can transform a flat sheet of paper into an intricate three-dimensional art form.
‘Paper art varies so much; there are so many things you can make out of paper. I don’t think people realise that. It is so beautiful and intricate.’
Visit the Joyful Array Instagram page @joyfularray or head to stockist Merseymade in Liverpool. joyfularray.com
