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Origami Artist Creates Medieval Knight With a Sword and Shield From a Single Piece of Paper

By Margherita Cole on September 21, 2021

What can you create from a single sheet of paper? Well, take a look at Juho Könkkölä‘s portfolio and you'll find incredible possibilities. The Finnish artist creates detailed origami sculptures by meticulously folding and scoring a single piece of paper. After impressing social media with his model of a samurai, he has made another amazing human character: a medieval knight wielding a sword and shield.

While it seems impossible that such an intricate piece of art is made without cutting the paper or using any glue, it's the truth. Könkkölä spends a great deal of time planning the numerous folds required to create one of his sculptures—spending days, months, or even years coming up with the perfect folding pattern. Once he has a solid plan, however, he has to see it through by carefully folding the paper, perhaps thousands of times. The medieval knight required 41 hours of work, which Könkkölä documents in a time-lapse video.

Not only is the swordsman impressive from afar—in its proportions and pose—it is also equally impressive up close. Konkkola was able to include tiny details along the ridged armor of the knight and even add a pattern on the exterior of the shield. The sword required an astonishing 50 layers to make it appear as solid as it does. “Before I started designing my own origami figures, I was inspired from the works of other origami artists, such as Robert J. Lang and Kamiya Satoshi; but nowadays, history, mythologies, folktales, fantasy and such inspire my pieces,” Könkkölä tells My Modern Met. “I also have a decent collection of all sorts of figures I have designed and folded over the years, that I have used to develop new ideas and perhaps find some old gold nuggets that I haven't made into finished artworks.”

You can keep up to date with Könkkölä's latest projects and exhibitions by following the artist on Instagram.