About a week or so ago, while browsing through VISI Magazine‘s weekly newsletter, I came across the amazing, unusual work of Haruka Misawa. The little floral images were eye catching, but were it not for the fact that I stopped to read what he said, I don’t think I might have been as awe struck by his work as I am.

This is what stopped me in my tracks: “Sharpening my pencil, the pencil shavings presenting an arrestingly beautiful form. Curled up in a ring-shaped crown, they looked like the petals of a flower. This kind of personal experience becomes the source of my ideas,” he explains.

The Mind of an Artist:

That then is the musings and working of an artistic mind. A mind that goes where mine would not even begin to think of going. He looked down at regular shavings coming out of pencils beings sharpened, and he saw a form of floral art to be explored. WOW!! I wondered at that moment if  I would have seen the potential of a floral art form in mere pencil shavings? I think not. In fact, I know not.

It is for this reason that we are sharing this “different type of art” with you today.

Pencil Shavings to Paper Flowers:

Haruka, taking inspiration from his pencil shavings, decided to recreate the same effect but with paper. He used many layers of paper, some graduating in colour, to created a tight cylindrical roll of multicoloured paper – a “paper pencil” so to speak. He then sharpened the paper cylinder with an ordinary pencil sharpener just as one would a normal pencil. The resulting shavings transforms into a beautiful and delicate paper flower, no more than 15mm to 40mm in diameter. On closer inspection one can clearly see the various coloured paper layers.

“Depending on how you sharpen it, the shavings may be thick and heavy, or so thin as to be almost transparent, so you can’t make the same flower twice,” Haruka explains. “Each Paper Flower will bloom quietly and softly on your desk.”

[Images via Haruka Misawa]