Papercutting: Geometric Designs Inspired by Nature

These 25 projects show how ammonites, lichen rosettes, honeycomb, and other natural forms can help you apply the rules of mathematics to create complexly beautiful works. Clear, paper-art-focused explanations teach you the principles of mathematics we see in nature, including the Golden Section and Golden Angle, Fibonacci numbers, and symmetry. Learn about using flaps and piercings with various projects, including A Murmuration of Starlings. Benefit from lessons in the Japanese art of kirigami and geometric principles, with projects such as Kirigami Cascade and Rotational Symmetry. Tesselations and 2-D weaving, 3-D form assembly, woven 3-D forms, and stacked layers come into play for projects such as Radiolarian and Sea Urchin. The role that display plays in your work is covered too, including flexagons in the Undersea Frieze, black light in UV Jelly Fish, and light-box effects in Art Deco Scarab and Diatoms through the Microscope. Art really does mirror nature, as these fascinating cut-paper sculptures show. AUTHOR: Patricia Moffett is a designer and illustrator focusing on technological and time-based media. Her work ranges from prize-winning surface pattern design to work on the West End musical adaptation of Bend It Like Beckham. She is the author of Enchanted Kirigami.