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Li Hongbo is an artist based in Beijing, China and creates unusual and surprising art pieces from paper. A designer and book editor, Li Hongbo started collecting and experimenting his ideas with paper after being inspired by the festive ‘paper gourd’ decorations and traditional Chinese boys’ toys. Both of these pieces have a simple but amazing ‘honeycomb’ composition and can be molded into any shape.

He takes thousands of paper sheets and glues them together to make a large block of paper. He then carves into the paper by the use of an electronic saw and makes a form that is stretchable, just like an accordion. This transforms the final piece into something that is very different from the original pieces of paper. From a distance, these pieces look like they are made of porcelain or marble. However, these characteristic changes when the pieces are stretched and expanded. It is possible to snap everything back to its original position after the expansion without losing the qualities of the sculpture.