Love: Polly Verity

POLLY VERITY, the daughter of artists,  grew up in an environment where there were a great deal of art materials to hand and as a result was encouraged to experiment with creating from an early age. 

'Your Book of Paper Folding', authored by Polly's step-grandfather; Eric de Mare in the 60's, was gifted to her before she reached the tender age of  ten inspiring her to start her journey into paper folding. 

"The idea that you could transform a flat sheet into three dimensions was very exciting" 

Whilst origami has been practiced for thousands of years, a pure abstract tessellated form is relatively recent with the Bauhaus first experimenting in the 1920’s. Polly’s paper folding designs follow this more recent investigation.

In the late noughties Polly happened upon something that she likens to a spontaneous 

university of geometric origami. These were halcyon days of folding and discovery. 

Without the help of books in this new style of paper-folding Polly connected with people from all over the world via the internet, sharing and exploring new ideas and ways to work with paper.

"It felt like a specialised University course of tessellations and corrugations forged in real time, as it went along, by its students."

This time led Polly to attend the Origami Convention in New York (OUSA)  where she 

was lucky to meet and share ideas with international folders at the top of their game.

Polly's abstract geometric folds developed into a more free folding style later in her career which are now purchased by collectors all over the world. 

Polly’s foray into folding faces within the paper began when she had an idea to fold the profile of a face in repeat, like a geometric tile. She folded the initial profile and realised that she could gently coax the rest of the sheet of paper into a form suggestive of a face. From here she continued to experiment and found that the other side of the folded profile could also be worked up into another face. This is how the folded kisses became manifest. There is a trajectory of exploration as Polly tries something new each time. 

The paper is worked in a dampened state and during the folding process the paper gradually dries. If the timing goes well, the paper dries to a rigid state just as the sculpture is completed. The process is one where the artist might start with an idea but goes into an almost meditative state and also works with the paper, encouraging any suggestions of form that the paper throws up.

Despite working with paper folding for over 30 years, Polly continues to be experimental, constantly exploring new ideas.