As for the rest — what to make, which paper to use, how to hold the paper, which blade to utilise — he picked up over time. “After I completed high school, I enrolled in an animation institute but I dropped out as they stressed only on 3D animation while it was 2D art forms that interested me. I am pushing myself to try something beyond what I’ve already done. This is challenging both during the sketching stage and cutting stage because if I make a single wrong cut, I have to do it all over again.” Previously too, Parth’s notebooks at school would be filled with doodles, he calls them a “canvas for (his) sketches”. “I pictured the stencils (I was using) to be inversed I followed the idea and was fascinated.”. “To create a black artwork I have to visualise it in my head and work on it on white paper; so until the end — that is until I paint the papercut black — I am unsure of the final output. Every piece that he creates presents a fresh set of challenges.

Initially it was a hobby; but once I had enough artworks, I exhibited them at the Kanoria Center of Arts in Ahmedabad, displaying 84 paper cuts,” he says. While he would initially need 3-4 days metallurgy lab equipment Manufacturers to finish one work, after two years, he can complete even the most intricate of pieces within 15 hours. Making use of papercuts with modern machinery can bring out some excellent products, so that is on my mind too. In Parth’s own words, he hails from an “average middle class Marathi family; born and brought up in Ahmedabad”. “I was never a bookish guy,” Parth says. But nothing pushes him to create more than the uncertainty of what each of his pieces will look like after the final cut has been rendered. During this time, I filled up my sketchbooks, and once I quit the animation institute, I began sketching full-time. As for what comes next, Parth says he is guided by intuition. And his family was very supportive of his talent and ideas. “Anything that I feel like cutting, I go ahead with,” he explains. Parth counts among his inspirations the German artist Bobsmade, who creates hand-painted, one-of-a-kind products.

“I am experimenting with other possibilities for papercuts, like combining lamps and layers with it. “My mother has been painting ever since I can remember, perhaps I get the artistic trait from her. My family has influenced me immensely,” he tells us. To create one of his “papercuts”, Parth uses a 120 gsm paper, surgical knife and pencil. Also, shadow playing with light creates a three dimensional effects through the papercuts, this adds much more life to the artworks,” he explains.Parth Kothekar cuts through a sheet of pure white paper with a surgical knife. How did the transition from sketching works of art to cutting them out of paper occur Parth shares that the idea emerged from his graffiti practice two years ago. Parth’s paper-thin patterns have found quite the fan following on Etsy and Facebook. His hand doesn’t hesitate as he makes precise cuts, creating intricate details — the delicate span of a dragonfly’s wings, the ruffled dress of a little girl, the flowing tresses of a woman, the spokes of a bicycle wheel. His craft requires a steady hand of course, but that Parth picked up during his graffiti years, cutting out stencils