Eric and His Papers......

Eric Joisel was a Frenchman who set new standards in the art of origami. He began to develop his skills when he lost his job as a printing company manager during the last recession spends up to two weeks to create each figure and his work can sell for as much as €5,000 (£4,400).

A single scuplture takes up to three days to design and he might spend two more days to pre-crease the paper. “I then soak the paper in a substance containing glue and fold it while it’s wet,” he said.

Mr Joisel, 52, from Sannois, northern Paris, claims not to be appreciated at home. “I sell most of my pieces in Japan and America because Europeans see origami as being for children, but what I do is much more advanced.”

Many of his figures can be seen at ericjoisel.com, where Eric Joisel is considered by his peers to have been among the finest origami masters in the world. This French artist and sculptor created stunningly beautiful and complex sculpted origami paper models. Origami is the Japanese art of forming sculptures out of paper only. Moreover, Eric Joisel took this to a whole new level. His pieces are not regular origami models, but completely different interpretations of a very ancient art form.

Most of Eric's models are three dimensional and lifelike in appearance. Eric could spend hours folding a  single piece of paper in order to create his amazing pieces of art.

"Origami is very difficult", he said. "When people ask how long it takes me to make a sculpture I say '35 years', because that is how long it's taken me to get to this level."