I'm originally from Chihuahua, Chihuahua México, now living in White Rock BC Canada. I came to Canada in 2009 to study English and at the time I met Perry with whom I got married two years later in 2011. Perry is an artist, he is a jewelry designer and goldsmith, from the very beginning he instinctively recognize my "artistic spirit" even thought I did not see it and he encouraged me to explore my artistic side. I always have liked craft, I dabbled painting wooden boxes, as well as working with beads, stones and dried leaves in a variety of art projects, also I learned and worked making jewelry such silver smithing and stone cutting. However it is working with paper where I have found my true calling.

After I got married I was not able to work because I was waiting for my documents of Permanent Residence, so I had a lot of free time, and browsing the internet looking for a pattern to do some stitching on my jeans to cover up some chlorine stains I came across with a photo of a beautiful flower, searching a little more I found out it was made of paper with the technique "Quilling" by the artist Yulia Brodskaya. Quilling is a technique where strips of paper are rolled and bent into a array of shapes, and then glued together in a variety of designs. Yulia's work has been my inspiration.

I was very inspired how beautiful it was, so I was very curious to know how it was made. I'm self taught watching videos on YouTube, where I learned how to make flowers with what I had at hand at the time (white paper, scissors and toothpick as a tool to roll the paper). Next day Perry came home with a bunch of paper of many colours, so I started making flowers, later on framing them and giving away as a present (birthdays, mother's day, christmas, etc) to my family and friends and they began asking if I would consider to sell my "art" to them, so they started asking for "custom works", is how I started working with paper. I really love cutting, rolling, bending the paper to create from a simple flower to an intricate sugar skull and everything in between.

Working with paper has been an endless and very rewarding journey.

Thank you for your time reading and watching my paper work.

Armida Ortega