staceythinx:

Peter Gentenaar’s makes beautiful paper sculptures that appear to float weightlessly like petals or leaves in an imaginary breeze. This resemblance to leaves begins with his process: 

Because I started out as a printmaker and sculptor, it took time to lose the idea that paper was a helpful carrier for prints or a filler for moulds. Gradually I found that the single sheet of paper, which had not dried yet, had all the possibilities I needed. A paper sheet is thin and strong and can be compared to the leaf on a tree or plant. Reinforced with very thin ribs of bamboo that look like the ribs of a leaf, the analogy between the sheet of paper and the plant form is emphasized even more. By beating my pulp very long, an extraordinary play of forces occurs during the drying processes of my paper sculpture. The paper will shrink considerably, up to 40%, and the forces associated with this, put the non shrinking bamboo framework under stress. The tension between the two materials transforms itself into a form reminiscent of a slowly curling autumn leaf.