Lucy’s flights of fancy
From cardboard box creations to magical menageries, Sally Clifford chats to kinetic and paper sculptor Lucy Green about her scissor skills. Pictures by James Hardisty.
‘I grew up in the late ’90s and 2000s when children didn’t have the internet as much. As a kid, I was always making things out of cardboard boxes.’
PERCHED, peeping or dancing in flight their paper forms captivate the viewer of this magical menagerie. A sentry penguin stands to attention, his monochrome colour palette created by the tools of Lucy Green’s trade. With the skilful precision of someone creating art not with brush, pen, paint or ink, Lucy’s scissors skills set the artistic scene for her birds to take flight or be still in their paper environment.
“I grew up in the late ’90s and 2000s when children didn’t have the internet as much. We made things. I’ve always loved making things as a kid. I was always making things out of cardboard boxes,” she explains. Lucy credits her father, Stuart, a skilful maker, mender and general all round DIY-er as her greatest influence.
“My dad is quite creative. He does wood turning and he is a handy man around the house. I think I may have got a bit of it from him. We make a great team,” says Lucy, referring to the integral role her father’s wood turning plays in the boxed frames and bell jar bases he creates to display her works of paper art.
She showcases them on Instagram and exhibits and sells through her Etsy shop and at local fairs, including the Saltaire Makers Fair (taking place on May 5 and 6 in Victoria Hall, Saltaire).
Launched in 2018, Name and Colour ,inspired by the 29-year-old’s first name and surname, is the culmination of a professional career born out of the simplicity of creating things out of cardboard boxes with scissors.
“In school I was always drawn to artistic subjects. When it came to looking at university courses, seeing what I could do that looked
interesting, I did Three Dimensional Design at university.”
Lucy’s lucky break came when the Art Director from the BBC children’s channel, CBeebies, spotted the former Manchester Met School of Art student’s work at her degree show.
This led to the opportunity of work placement in the programme’s art department and, subsequently, the part-time role she has had as part of the CBeebies team for the past seven years.
She recalls her first assignment. “It was one of the first big moving sculptures, an owl in a frame with the wings moving forwards and backwards. It was for a scene in a headteacher’s office.”
Lucy’s role in the CBeebies Art Department involves helping to dress the sets in the CBeebies house into the requested theme.
“We do that and make the props for the inbetween bits. We also do the CBeebies bedtime stories,” says Lucy, whose artistic role has led to her meeting and working with many famous names including singer Harry Styles, the American actor Jason Momoa and Hollywood actor Tom Hardy.
The calibre of her work for her degree show earned Lucy an award which led to her first solo exhibition the following year. “That gave me the opportunity to make big things and new things while working part-time in the art department. I was developing my own stuff for the exhibition,” she explains.
“That was a good show so I carried on making things for art fairs and exhibitions.”
The Saved Butterfly, a motorised kinetic sculpture, was created for an exhibition for the National Trust in 2014 and was exhibited at Tatton Park in 2015.
In 2019 Lucy’s collaboration with a company to produce a seasonal window display at Bicester Village earned an award.
“I helped them make a seasonal window display with a moving owl and a rose which opened up with a diamond ring,” recalls Lucy.
Her university studies introduced her to working with metal and other materials, but when it came to learning about mechanisms and motors Lucy turned to her father. She is also a great advocate of learning by doing.
“Dad helped as well because he is good at wiring things, but it is learning by doing. I think what helped a lot towards this was growing up in times where we didn’t have everything on a screen – you had to figure it out with your hands.”
The brass mechanisms Lucy uses in her kinetic paper sculptures are all crafted by hand using various thickness of wire, brass rod and tubing.
Bigger displays are mechanised by motors but small sculptures in the boxed frames which her father creates, are turned by a handle.
“It’s from experience. Throughout my life using scissors to cut paper. I was quite shy as a child and was always figuring everything out
– I have that attitude to do. I also use scalpels to do finer cuts,” explains Lucy, referring to the coloured paper forms she creates through layering.
The pair of scissors, gifted to her many years ago, and the iridescent paint she uses to paint the tail feathers of her magpie designs are among the items laid out on the desk which wraps around the walls of her designated work room in her Mytholmroyd home.
Through Instagram – she has an impressive 122,000 followers – Lucy has connected with customers all over the world, with many of her commissions being sent to the States. Smaller pieces have found their way to Australia and Europe.
“I have sent pieces all over the world. Everyone seems to find me on Instagram,” she says.
A life-size and intricately detailed owl, originally created for an exhibition in the North Yorkshire market town of Masham – since sold to a customer in America – and a five headed dragon character for a Dungeons and Dragons fan are among the impressive pieces she has created, along with a flying parakeet for a customer whose feathered friend had passed away.
Designs can be encapsulated in bell jars or boxed frames for displaying or wall hanging.
“I put an audio tape on and listen to music and I just make – it is quite therapeutic,” says Lucy, who spends hours, often working late into the night, patiently and skilfully creating her paper sculptures.
She says she appreciates being able to make a living from something she loves and has her customers to thank for supporting her. Lucy believes the popularity of her handle-turning pieces are a nostalgic reminder of hands-on toys from childhood. The tactile nature of turning the handle encourages the operator to get involved with the design and figure it out.
Birds and mythology are a familiar theme in Lucy’s work. “I think it was the wings. I started with a phoenix.”
Wings, and the fluidity of flight proved the perfect combination for Lucy’s movement pieces which can take anything from two hours to create simple forms, such as hummingbirds, to months for the more complicated mechanised showpieces. “Anything that can fly is something that has always fascinated me,” says Lucy.
The combination of puppetry and automata is a feature of her work with stunning results.
“I started off with still forms and when I started writing my dissertation on puppetry I was doing hinged feet to make the birds feet move. I started looking at automata.
“I was looking into puppetry and how you forget about the puppetry when you are looking at the puppet itself,” says Lucy, explaining how the mechanisms for movement are hidden behind the scenes.
“It does feel like a kind of magic turning the handle and all this stuff happens.”
Lucy’s ambition is to continue creating and being able to showcase her work for the enjoyment of others. She was in talks to exhibit her work at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton, Wakefield, when we spoke.