Washi love.

Believe it or not, this sculpture is made out of traditional Japenese paper - washi. 

Japanese artist Kyoko Okubo crafts her art pieces entirely out of washi with an incredible attention to details. Her figures are usually no more than 12 inches high and they all tell some story that wakes your imagination. She sculpts only female figures and animals which usually interact in some way. The author says it's because the figures are symbolic self-portraits that express her deep feeling for nature.

I personally adore washi paper. It has such a lovely structure and creates a feeling of warmth and softness in viewer's eye. Plus washi is famously receptive to light which makes it a perfect material for making lamps. Just take a look at this cloud shaped lamp made out of washi designed by DCS Corp. It gives a genuine feeling of floating, I would love one in my room.

Now moving on to another impressive use of washi.

Eriko Horiki is one of Japan's most successful contemporary artists who started experimenting with washi for fun and soon fell in love with it. She now uses this incredible medium for expressing herself  through installation art. Below are some of her works. Each gigantic piece is handmade, some took more than a year to be produced. Horiki partially throws water drops on the surface which creates the interesting texture and shade and enhances washi's appearance. She likes to experiment with lighting as the expression of washi paper dramatically changes as the degree of lighting gradually changes.