Tina Kraus

Paper artist

Recreating the bizarre and the beautiful

Tina is inspired by nature and evolution
She wants to show the value of disregarded species
Her first paper animal was a goliath stick insect

Two of Tina Kraus's most precious talents are a keen eye for detail and enough patience to dedicate herself to extremely delicate artworks, painstakingly assembled in a time-consuming labour of love. She studied design and illustration at the University of Applied Sciences in Münster, Germany, where she’s based, and lived in Seoul, South Korea, for a while as an exchange student. Crepe paper is her material of choice; she is constantly experimenting with it and developing new ways to create something original. When she’s not in her studio, she’s either cooking some delicious vegan food or exploring the world on her bicycle.

Interview

When did you fall in love with paper?: I've been making things since I was a kid, and I started to create my own pop-up cards when I was in my teens. I remember seeing some botanical crepe paper sculptures a few years ago, and I was totally fascinated.
Do you master any specific techniques?: I specialise in lifelike, detailed paper sculptures of animals and plants made out of crepe paper, but also in paper engineering for pop-ups, paper toys and paper objects.
Why do you often make insects that are not conventionally beautiful?: I try to recreate the beauty and weirdness of nature in paper. I want to show people that species that are often disregarded and threatened also have beauty and value. And I get hugely inspired by nature and the vast variety of creatures that have developed through evolution.
Paper art has a long tradition, but how do you express innovation?: Even though the craft of crepe paper is not new (especially in China and Mexico), it’s been on the rise in the past few years. For me the interesting part is to create motifs that are different from traditional decorative crepe paper flowers.

Tina Kraus is a rising star: she began her career in 2017