Raya Sader Bujana makes paper art for a living, which she admits people still find extraordinary. “People sometimes ask me what I do for a living and I never know how to explain it without showing them photos,” she relayed in an interview with Brown Paper Bag, “and even then, they say, ‘OK, so this is your hobby, but what’s your real job?’ haha.”
Her creations, which attracted almost 125k followers on Instagram, include intricate paper food pieces and plants. But naturally, her journey to becoming a paper artist included some stops along the way. After studying architecture in Venezuela at the UCV, she moved to Barcelona, where she tried to continue her studies at the UPC. But after three years of struggle, Bujana decided to drop out in 2008 and focus on what she does best: paper art and design.
“I feel like what I do is sculpt paper,” she notes, “I wouldn’t describe it as typical paper crafting which is usually a little more geometric, I guess… I think my approach to paper is more organic.” According to Bujana, her work is very much influenced by her background in architecture, as well as her love of nature and it’s intricate patterns.
“I think architecture has influenced everything I do” she admits. “I feel like I apply in some way everything I learned, everything from color, composition and model making, to structure, architecture taught me to see the world differently (I love it so much) and I feel it’s always present in what I do.”
Take a look at some of her work in the gallery below.
