Tsvetana Nedeva

Kinderlist

Paper artist

©Silvio Silvionov

©Tsvetana Nedeva

A life narrated in colourful paper

Tsvetana is a self-taught paper artist with a background in fashion
Her children prompted her to launch Kinderlist and develop her paper creations
Commissions vary from shop windows to sets for fashion shoots

Tsvetana Nedeva spent her time as a child inventing colourful worlds. "In my fantasies sheep had red ribbons tied over their hooves, rabbits wore my dolls' dresses, chickens sat with my family at the table and ate with forks," she recollects. Today her paper creations represent impressive and vivid sets from her imagination. Tsvetana pursued fashion at school and Library and Information Science at university. In 2016, inspired by her studies and her children, she started her own blog, Kinderlist, with the intention to present and review books from her home library. Over time Tsvetana enriched the photo posts on this blog by staging specific decors for each book. That is how her passion for paper work began, nowadays her sole profession. Tsvetana designs paper toys, custom pieces, home objects and entire sets, which transport viewers to a fairyland: lightness and vividness are mixed in with quirky shapes and fantastic creatures.

Interview

©Silvio Silvionov

©Silvio Silvionov

What do you like most about working with paper?: I really like how thick paper can not only bend under the impact of the creasing tool, but also be like plasticine in my hands and change shape under the warmth of my fingers. The process of working with paper requires a lot of patience and care.
What are your sources of inspiration?: My source of inspiration changes all the time – sometimes it is playing with my kids, sometimes it is a flower. Every so often I lose my inspiration and it takes me a while to find it again, but through it all I am guided by the idea and my belief that my everyday life could look like a page from a children's book.
What was the first figure you made out of paper?: A carousel with horses that I hung above my daughter‘s bed. This was the artwork that sparked me to buy coloured papers and get interested in creating paper figures.
What place does paper have in an increasingly digital world?: Digital technology could replace paper books in our homes, it could save our planet from the piles of paper used in offices, but in the art world paper is not just a practical necessity, it is a means of expression.

Tsvetana Nedeva is a rising star: she began her career in 2016