© Peter Dahmen

Paper engineer's 3D pop-up art leaps off the page magically (Video)

WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE @  https://youtu.be/Qew7PHcKIN0

With their ability to have animals, characters and other constructions spring off the page in all their three-dimensional glory, pop-up books have delighted children for many decades. So it may surprise you to discover that the genre (broadly termed "movable books") was initially aimed at adults, back when the first movable books appeared during the thirteenth-century.

German artist and paper engineer (we love this moniker) Peter Dahmen creates intricate paper pop-ups, suitable for grown-up appreciation. Immortalizing subjects like flowers in full bloom, spiralling forms, buildings and more in ephemeral paper, Dahmen develops his ideas primarily by hand, starting simple and progressively developing the concept with more complexity. This short film Christopher Helkey gives us a glimpse of how Dahmen got started in this fascinating field:


The Magic Moment from Christopher Helkey on Vimeo.

Peter Dahmen© Peter Dahmen
Peter Dahmen© Peter Dahmen
Peter Dahmen© Peter Dahmen
Peter Dahmen© Peter Dahmen

Beginning in his university studies, Dahmen loved working with paper, due to its relatively lightweight yet strong qualities. In completing a school assignment to build a three-dimensional model out of paper, Dahmen had a problem: he had no car, and he knew he wouldn't be able to transport his model on the train easily. Finally, he realized he could make it fold in half, and thus began his journey into pop-up paper art.

Peter Dahmen© Peter Dahmen
Peter Dahmen© Peter Dahmen

Only recently has Dahmen started using a computer to scan individual elements of a design to refine these moving parts further, ultimately using a cutting plotter to cut out those intricate details. It can take Dahmen days, sometimes even weeks, to fully flesh out a design from start to end, depending on whether he's doing a single pop-up piece, or a series.

Peter Dahmen© Peter Dahmen

For Dahmen, it never gets old:

I've opened pop-up cards for so many years, but it's still a magical moment, a moment of wonder, that happens. It's a dead material, yet you grab it with your hands, open it and something appears in front of your eyes. It's always a moment of magic.

Peter Dahmen© Peter Dahmen

Paper is indeed an amazing medium, versatile enough to be indispensable and yet also the perfect material to use in creating papercutssculptures or pop-up art. To commission something, see some tutorials or take a look at more of Peter Dahmen's works, visit his websiteand Instagram.

You need to be a member of Ashtar Command - Spiritual Community to add comments!

Join Ashtar Command - Spiritual Community

Email me when people reply –

Replies

  • Watch more of his videos on YouTube 

This reply was deleted.

Topics by Tags

Monthly Archives

Latest Activity

Sirian Starlight replied to Sirian Starlight's discussion Debate: Me Versus You, And The Solution That Matters
"Yes, self realization is the first step towards multi-self coharmony and I believe it's the central point of focus between balanced chakras, and chakras in balance. a crossroads of mutual importance either way, for an energy nexus gate to stabilize…"
8 hours ago
Sirian Starlight replied to Sirian Starlight's discussion Debate: Me Versus You, And The Solution That Matters
"I updated this thread with more information.

In truth this is a mission calling more so than a debate at this point, but it will happen in stages. And both are highly needed and relevant to today's future for tomorrow's promise of one to build a…"
8 hours ago
Movella replied to Sirian Starlight's discussion Debate: Me Versus You, And The Solution That Matters
"The answer is self-realisation. I choose this path whether I have people behind me or not, because I know it to be true. Blessings.🪷"
8 hours ago
Sirian Starlight posted a discussion
In short, I need your help to change the future. But first, you need to understand how I got to this point, and more specifically, why a solution for this longstanding issue can become real and is truly needed, to help us move forward with ascension…
9 hours ago
Movella left a comment on Comment Wall
"Nothing was ever lost, we had all simply forgotten who we were for a while. We are all divine sparks of the same Creator.
This piece that I’ve never heard concluded a meeting I was in this morning, and the lyrics resonate with that truth. The era of…"
10 hours ago
rev.joshua skirvin posted a blog post
Posted on 06/29/2026 by EraOfLightYou often ask yourselves whether you have fallen in love.But what if you have not fallen at all?What if you have risen?What if this love was never created by another person, but had always been there, quietly…
11 hours ago
rev.joshua skirvin posted a blog post
Posted on 06/29/2026 by EraOfLight — Leave a reply One of the greatest differences between humanity in its current stage of evolution and the advanced civilizations that form the Interstellar Alliance is not their technology—it is the way they…
12 hours ago
Justin89636 left a comment on Comment Wall
"Oh whoops my bad lol didn't think that was a site glitch like you said."
14 hours ago
More…

THE PHILOSOPHER´S STONE-THE ARCHE


 

          

                                                                         THE ARCHE

To create the internal bodies, a small artifice is necessary, which is also the Secretum Secretorum of the ancient…

Read more…
Views: 8
Comments: 0