I’ve been sitting on this for a while for no good reason, and today’s the day I finally get it out the door. The last few hours I was in Paris over the summer, I remember having to go to the bathroom. I was running around Le Marais like a mad woman, looking for a bar to pop into, when I realized there was a department store across the street. I dashed inside, ran to the eighth floor, then realized, with 15 minutes to spare before heading to the train station, I was upon a paper mache mecca.
Just like we have our Legos, our rubber band jewelry and embroidery sets in America, an entire tenth of this floor was devoted to children’s paper mache. There were robot, bear and penguin bases alongside decorative papers, paints, buttons and markers. Interestingly, it reminded me of a show I had seen earlier that weekend at a gallery lining the Place des Vosges by Hausey Leplat.
Leplat’s a sculpture artist who creates life size animals covered in burlap. They’re incredibly intricate, rough and emotive. It’s an interesting thing – this parallel of the art domain alongside the DIY craft world. It may seem coincidental, but after comparing palettes, themes and construction, the trend has legs, and hopefully, will be making it’s way overseas.
