How is paper cutting connected to Denmark?
In most parts of Denmark it’s farming culture. For centuries, what was available was paper and colour. That was about it. So in the countryside the way that people would be creative was to work with paper and colour. The most famous example is Hans Christian Andersen.
Why did you decide to work with paper?
All these traditions of working with paper in the countryside, combined with my own wish to make something else, and my desire to work with materials that are closer to nature… these three things are the most important reasons why I chose paper.
© Marianne Eriksen-Scott Hansen
What was the first paper creation you made?
The first one I felt had potential was a gift for my cousin, for his 40th birthday. I was broke, so I collected all of my scrap paper, even some tea bags he had bought me from Fortnum & Mason, and I made a present. Every tiny piece of paper that connected him to me, I put into the work.
Do you use any specific techniques?
I don’t like to use techniques I have learnt from others. I want to invent my own techniques. It’s a lot of work, but I am a curious person so I like to find new ways and new ideas to really make myself a pioneer in the paper world, that’s what really drives me.