(light upbeat music)
-: Hi, my name is Maria
and I'm a visual artist/teaching artist.
So today we're gonna explore making some papel picado art.
So, papel picado is a traditional Mexican art form.
It's a very
creative, explosively colorful,
paper art experience.
So we use a lot of papel picado
to make flowers
or decorations around different holidays
or cultural, significant days
like Día de los Muertos.
So papel picado, the literal translation is shredded paper
because we shred a lot
or we crumble and shred a lot in this art form,
the tissue paper.
So, we're gonna do two different styles of flowers.
So in the creative world,
we visualize a lot,
either plant or animal life,
and so in botany we analyze
what makes a plant a plant or a flower a flower.
So the basic thing of a flower is gonna be the stem
and the petals and the base,
so this is what we're gonna be working with today.
So we're gonna be creating a stem.
So you could for the stem,
you can grab one of the tissue papers
and just kinda cut it rectangularly, like a rectangle.
Or you could also grab like a bark, piece of bark
or one of these - I keep forgetting the...
so this, you can grab one of these.
So these work
and so
if you do it with the tissue paper,
the way you create a stem
is you're gonna fold it in half.
So, see.
And then you're gonna keep folding it until,
so one more time,
and then
until you have
kinda like a very stringy, long paper.
So this is gonna be the stem of your flower.
So you can see here this one.
So there's different ways
we're gonna be working with the stem
but in this,
in this creative project,
if you can have it all flattened out.
Okay, and then you're gonna grab the petals,
the colors that you want your pedals to look like.
So here I got a variation of colors.
I got some pinks, some reds, some yellows, oranges,
'cause I want my flower
to be very,
very kinda like sun-setty.
Kinda like a sunset type of energy.
So you're gonna grab your papers
and also cut them out in squares like this
and then you're gonna grab your scissors
and you're gonna fold this in half.
So the squares, cut them in half
so you have the,
in the middle you're gonna have a line
that you're gonna cut through.
So then you have all these really long papers
and so
you're gonna cut the edges in a curved manner.
So you're gonna make sure they're curved.
And so you're cutting the angles
so that you can have kinda like a curved petal
to your flower.
So you have your petals here, so you see the curve.
And they don't have to be necessarily symmetrical
because you'll see when we crumble it,
it's not really gonna be very defined.
So then you're gonna grab your stem,
you're gonna put it over
and then you're gonna,
you're gonna grab the middle part and kinda squish it
kinda like a bow tie.
So yeah, and then you have this
and then you're gonna fold it over and tie it.
So you're tying your stem to your petals
and I like to hide this little part
just kinda inside the,
inside there so that you don't see it.
Then you start.
Okay, so see
how I kinda did the knot
and so then you're gonna squish it some more
so that it's super tight
and then you're gonna grab your petals,
put them upm and then slowly,
and then you're gonna start slowly spreading them out.
So you could do it individually,
or like a group of them at the same time.
So it takes a little bit to spread them out
'cause there's so many layers so take your time.
(light upbeat music)
Okay, and once you have it mostly spread out,
you can start molding the petals with a pencil.
So usually I'll grab the end of the petal
and then
put the pencil, roll it up,
roll up the petal with your pencil
and then slowly take it out
and then you can start seeing kinda like the different,
so you'll do this with all the petals throughout
so that's like another way of getting like a petal texture.
Another way is you just,
you can literally just like crumble,
start crumbling it.
So this will take usually like about 5 to 10 minutes.
It takes a little bit of time to get like the,
kinda like the structure of your flower together.
And then, yeah.
And don't be afraid to like crumble the bottom, the top,
to get kinda like the shape of the flower.
Okay, so take your time crumbling it around.
So I pre-made one
'cause it does take a little bit.
So I crumbled it, the bottom and then what I did
was I kinda tightened it up at the bottom
so I could have kinda like a, this type of shape of flower
or like a lily type.
So you can explore with your petals
you can do them upward if you're like,
so just experiment the shape of your flower.
This is the fun part, the experimentation,
'cause the rest is just like the basics
of your flower creation.
But the base, the petals, and then the shape of it,
that will be up to you how you want it to look like.
And that's your creative freedom as an artistic being,
how at the end like you're given these tools
and then you decide your end product.
So with any paper art,
it's gonna be you the final person
that's gonna be like this is how I want it to look like.
So don't be afraid to experiment.
If you don't like certain colors,
you can just slowly take it apart and redo it.
That's the beautiful thing
about the fact that you're just working with paper
is that you can easily take it apart
and put it back together.
So this is like a method.
This is one way of doing flowers.
Then there's another method
that's kinda like a rose type of shape.
So I'm gonna make one of those.
So if you have paper left over,
you can use this to make confetti
so you can it up in tiny little pieces
and save it up and make confetti with it.
So I always encourage people to recycle
and to be mindful of the tools that we use
because where does paper come from?
It comes from trees
and so we need to be,
as creative people and artists,
mindful that these tools and resources
also come from other plants or other materials.
So this will make a fun confetti
that you can use for like a birthday party
or you can even put the confetti
inside a balloon and blow it up
and you can see the different patterns so.
So ask your parents if there's any balloons after left
and you can put it in there
and then when you pop it,
you will see all the confetti in your space.
So switching back to the flowers that we're making.
So the rose shaped flower,
so you're gonna grab a paper in a square, another square.
So I like working with flowers with square shape
because it gives me a wide space of paper to work with.
So if you cut it in, even if you cut it smaller,
your flower's gonna be shaped smaller
but it's up to you.
Also the length and width of your paper
'cause that's gonna determine the size
of the shape of your petals and your flowers.
So with this rose type of flower,
you're gonna, similarly like, fold it in half.
But instead of cutting it, we're gonna keep it like this.
So you can do a variation of colors
so you're gonna stack them on top of each other.
So that's like the difference from this technique
then the other technique,
is we're not cutting it.
So you're gonna fold them.
So I'll do maybe like three colors for this one.
And so you're gonna grab one of the corners
and then you're gonna do a small inserted fold like this.
So see and then make sure you always press tightly
and then you're gonna do it one more time.
And then this is the fun part.
So you're gonna grab this part, the bottom,
and then you're gonna start crumbling it.
So see how the shape is kinda like a rose petal at the top?
So this process,
you're gonna constantly be folding your petals.
So it's a little bit different,
'cause you're gonna make sure that when you're crumbling,
that you don't crumble the top
so you wanna keep the top kinda open
and then the bottom crumbled.
And then you're gonna grab another paper similar,
fold it in half
and then you're gonna continue
where you left off at the last paper,
and then go around crumbling at the bottom.
So, see how I'm going around crumbling at the bottom
and then bring out your petals.
And you wanna keep it really tight
so that it doesn't come loose easily
so super tighten it up.
So see my rose shape.
So this is the petal, the petals of my flower.
And then if I wanna add like a different,
like a yellow in there,
like a different color,
I just cut out one of these papers
and then I can cut it out in half,
'cause I wanna make it just a small little red.
So just like a square, like a small square paper.
And then this one, similar you're gonna crumble the edge
and then, or flip it in half,
fold it a little bit inserted
and then start crumbling it.
And see how with my fingers just super tightening it,
the bottom,
so that it doesn't come loose easily.
And then I can slowly put it in here.
And then you can either use one of these
and just kinda put it in, insert it
and then crumble it around
and glue it with hot glue or regular glue.
And then you have your base
and then you can cover it with green
or
another way is with paper stems
like we did with this one.
We're gonna do something similar with this one.
So this style is a little bit different.
So instead of being just like a, just flatten it,
you're just gonna fold it and then fold it one more time
but instead of folding it super like small,
you're gonna leave it maybe like half a width of your finger
so that's maybe like an inch,
you're gonna leave it like that.
And then you're gonna open it up
and then put your flower inside like this
and then you're gonna tighten it up at the top
super super tight.
And then you're just gonna tighten it around,
the top keeps falling off so I gotta
I'm just gonna make a small one again
and then put it back in there.
(light upbeat music)
And then you have your rose! And then,
fix the petals,
and if you notice it's having a hard time sticking,
you can always glue it, it's totally fine.
This one, like if it keeps coming out,
I can always glue it in there
and make sure that it stays put.
But while I'm crumbling, that's when I don't glue it
because then it's gonna be really difficult
to get all the papers to fold into petals so,
but once you have your structure and your petals all folded,
then you can glue in place
either certain parts of the stem
or the inside of it, so.
Yeah, so then we have these two formats of flower making
and then if you're like why don't they have any leaves,
I want leaves because flowers have leaves
'cause they need leaves to eat.
So, you can just grab either the same tissue paper,
like grab a, like, just a green tissue paper
or you can just grab a regular paper that's green.
And then you're gonna just cut out the shape of the petals
so I'll do this one just with regular paper
and then I'll do one with tissue paper.
So, I always think of the shape of, like, a leaf,
kinda like a shape of an eye.
When I'm cutting it out,
I'm thinking oh maybe it's like an eye.
So that's when I cut it out,
so you have your leaves
and then you can just glue them
with the glue.
So I usually use glue sticks with this.
It does a really good hold with this paper, so,
but
yeah, so you don't need to put any hot glue
or anything else,
just regular glue works fine.
And then you have your flower art.
And then you can just decorate your space with it.
So this is like an art form
that is very significant, culturally,
for a lot of Mexican-decent communities
and so I actually been doing these paper arts
for most of my life with my family and my aunts
for celebrations,
so like quinceañeras or Día de Muertos,
or any sort of family gathering,
you always found me as a little kid with my aunt
helping her make all the decorations.
So it's a very communal, very, like, collective process
making these flowers.
So you can always make flowers with your siblings,
with your parents, with your cousins, your aunts.
Like if you don't have tissue paper,
you can always grab newspaper and make flowers with that,
just grab like acrylic paint
or even like dip them in watercolor paint
and then you will get color texture on your flowers.
And newspaper flowers are also incredibly beautiful
if you wanna experiment
with different types of paper.
So you can use like tissue paper
from like if somebody gave you a gift
and it has tissue paper,
you can use that tissue paper.
Or if you're like,
if there's a box that comes in with tissue paper
you can always use that.
And also encourage your parents
if there's tissue paper
that comes with any materials you buy,
to save it so that you can make crafts with it.
So yeah, so I hope you had fun making flowers
and learning about basic plant botany.
So learning about the structure of a flower
through a creative process
and I hope you continue making lots of art
with paper or recyclable materials around your house.
(light upbeat music)