Nigeria: decorative items made from recycled paper

Decorative items made out of recycled paper. The project of Funmi Adubi, a self taught Nigerian artist transforming paper waste into attractive eco-friendly items.

She offers class sessions at this art studio in Lagos, training her students on paper craft.

According to her, she wanted to make good use of unwanted paper and develop her passion for handcrafted decor as a means of artistic expression.

“The main story behind this is practically recycling, instead of trashing paper, like the benefits or the uses of paper you can actually use old magazines and make flowers out of them and frame them, you can use them to make boxes, you can use then to make decorative pieces for your homes, so it is basically about recycling and not trashing them,” she says.

Paper craft is a stylized art form that uses paper as its primary artistic medium.
It requires a range of techniques such as folding, cutting, moulding and layering to achieve the desired result.

Funmi says it can take up to 15 days to make complex designs.

She however faces some challenges in her work.

“The challenges I first encountered was actually convincing people to buy the craft but overtime when I was consistent and I didn’t stop people understood that this is actually beautiful and I had to post the uses, the various uses of paper flowers not just limited to backdrops you can actually use them to beautify your wall space in your homes, your office space decorate your child’s wall space, revamp your office, events.

The events she’s referring to include photo shoots, birthdays and weddings among other things.

She uses social media to market her work which cost 40 dollars and above, depending on the complexity of the designs.

“Nigerians are actually adapting to it like whenever they see my flowers they are like wow is this really paper, can I touch it, what materials do you use, how did you do this? And that’s why I train people to make them know that they can actually make something beautiful out of just papers.’‘

Funmi who began her craft in 2016 says she wants to experiment with more paper craft techniques and grow her services to reach more clients in the country.

She also hopes to impart this knowledge to more people who wish to develop the skill of paper craft.