Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Giorgia Migliarini. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Giorgia, thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Curiosity is my best precious teacher. I could lean on to every time I feel stuck or even hopeless. I’m a self-learner so basically, what I did and constantly keep doing, is to explore the technique step by step, from easy to complex, by using all the resources I could reach. I’m a teacher too, so I really know what step by step process means and, to be honest, I love to learn, so was really fun doing that.

Once I learned the technique I was able to test myself with the artistic aspects as well.
Origami art is something pretty strict and meticulous so if you want ‘to be in charge’ you must be a genius, which I’m not, or you can try to think outside the box and invent something completely yours.
Do you remember what Picasso said about painting? I quote: “I learned to paint like Raffaello; now I have to learn to draw like a child.” I’m not such an inventor, but what I really love to share with you is that if you wonder to be good at something you haven’t tested yourself with yet, don’t be scared about, put yourself into it and look at the masters, go deep and come back with your personal ideas. We all are self-learners in the end, so it’s totally up to you.

I love folding because it gives me the chance to express the ultimate essence of people. Representing all them with such a few folds, I try to capture their infinite complexity and translate it into a simple but special illustration.

The only and one obstacle I can think about is timing. So little time for so much to figure out. So, be organised, pick a method and follow your rules.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a folding artist. I do love pleats and their magical power to transform something very common, a bi-dimensional object like a piece of paper, into a little masterpiece.

What I do is to use the most beautiful paper available on this planet, especially from Japan, to craft tiny origami jewelry, colorful illustrations, mobile toys and last but not least, paper portraits. The concept is to provide our loved ones or ourselves with some special gift ideas.

As you may know, the ancient art of origami comes from religious rituals and prayers, so I wish my creations could bring meaningful messages into your lives too, like peace and prosperity or having a long and happy life.

I started thanks to my curiosity and immense love for details and Japanese culture, but also to my admiration towards modern origami artists who during the last couple of decades enhanced folding til such a mastery level.
But I’m not a traditional origami artist, I’m not such a genius. What I try to do is to make traditional origami younger and closest to the present time by selecting the best shapes for this purpose. My origami hoop earrings would like to get this goal.

Also, my special expertise concerns making custom portraits of solo, family, couple, with pets and other significant elements by using a folding technique I sort of invented. I really love doing that, first of all because It’s a way to express how much we care about someone, and second of all because simplification helps us to see the heart of things, their very essence and brings to light what is really important and what really counts. So, for that reason I must say, what I do love even more is making origami paper portraits of the most iconic characters from music field, movies and comics. I am (and I’ll always be) a child of the nineties and everything I watched and loved so bad during those precious times, is my material. From Sailor Moon to Pretty Woman, Back to the Future and Star Wars, from Micheal Jackson to Micheal Jordan, from Simpsons to Heidi. That’s my peculiar. My interests and passions are multiple and different from each other. Where I see good characters, good feelings, effort and ideas, I start dreaming and I fall in love.
Music and Visual Arts are the best to me and I intend to celebrate the glory of all those stories, emotions and fun, with my humble work and with all my heart.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Be creative means not get bore, ever.

I’m not always satisfied or happy or fulfilled as a professional of course, but I always find new energy to survive thinking how to survive. And that is funny!
I realize I always pick words like ‘try’, ‘seek’, ‘effort’, ‘attempt’, ‘failure’, ‘vision’, ‘goal’, ‘wish’ and of course ‘dream’ to speak about my job. Regular people likely use terms like ‘schedule’, ‘teamwork’, ‘commitment’, ‘meeting’, ‘profit’ and of course ‘salary’. And that is less funny!

My point is, being in the arts is hard.
Being in the arts means doing something unnecessary but not superfluous. In a world of surface going deep is hard, because the edge has become thicker. But hope is the last one to die. So if you can do something to go beyond, even in your small way, do it, and do it seriously.

The best reward is to be free. You feel alone sometime, but who is not?
You’re the boss and you’re the slave. You’re not labelable no matter how hard they try. You can be only but yourself and that’s fantastic. And when you’re lost and you don’t know what to do next, what you have to do it’s just pick yourself up and get
back in the race. There is no other way and I swear you, it works all the times.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

People are used to classify things they see, that gives them the illusion to understand the entire world. Unfortunately that isn’t always correct. Speaking about people and their ambitions or lateral talents, it’s not easy to understand what it could be useful or not.

What I’ve noticed is that normally art is considered something you can explore and have fun with when you’re young. During childhood it’s highly recommended you to be a little artist, but then, how dare you being such naif. Art helps children well grow, develop and practice their manual skills, their coordination, It gives them some social life training examples and build their self-esteem. And then? What happen to all those beautiful and well prepared creatures?
As adults don’t we need those skills anymore??
Our society and its values are responsible for that crazyness. But aren’t we part of that society too?

If you want as much as me change a bit our world be an artist, be rebel!!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://howtofold.shop/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/howtofold/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/howtofold

Image Credits
Giorgia Migliarini by HOW TO FOLD – ORIGAMI RIMINI THANK YOU!!