Aline HD

Paper artist

Pushing the boundaries of paper

Aline graduated from the École Duperré in Paris in 2007
She is a trained textile designer
She regularly collaborates with major luxury brands

Growing up with a sculptor mother, Aline Houdé-Diebolt visited museums from a very early age, nurturing a passion for colours and materials. In 2013, after several years as an event and art manager, she felt the need to work with her hands and set up her own workshop. She started by drawing textile patterns, then transformed them into larger pieces, with paper becoming her favourite material. Aline’s work pushes the boundaries of what is possible with paper. Though paper work is a profession that has recently been added to the official list of crafts in France, there's still no school offering training, so “everything remains to be done to ensure that it continues and is passed down”.

Interview

Why did you choose to work with paper?: Being a paper designer allows me to combine my passions for colours, shapes and materials. With paper comes a multitude of fields of application; what I design ranges from window displays and advertising campaign sets to content for social networks and commissions for individuals.
Do you master specific techniques?: I am constantly trying to expand my areas of expertise. I like to learn new techniques to go even further in my creations. But what I like most is to transform the materials through relatively simple processes like folding or cutting, that I push to the extreme.
What attracts you to a new subject matter?: I like that each project is different, and I enjoy taking on increasingly crazy challenges! I partnered with Clément Demarson, a materials 'hybridist'. Together, we explore a multitude of subjects, which allows us to further expand our creative potential. Everything is possible, we have no limits!
How does Paris inspire you?: Paris is full of remarkable buildings, but it is architecture in general that inspires me. Some individual clients come to me with visuals of a building or simply the name of a city. We then choose which fragment of the building or which monument is interesting to rework using paper.

Aline HD is a master artisan: she began her career in 2013 and she started teaching in 2016