An award winning paper artist from Sivakasi

A native of Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu, R Prabakar is a miniature paper-cut artist. His subject of fascination: printing. For starters, he pursued a bachelor’s degree in printing technology from Calicut University, Kerala. Later, Prabakar earned merit with his knack for miniature paper art.

He has worked in various printing and packaging units, book publication, security printing as production in-charge. Currently, he helms a business which creates innovative school study material plus his area of research is paper-making from agro items.

Small-scale art

Miniature paper art is the art of folding objects out of paper to create both two-dimensional and three-dimensional subjects, on a smaller scale in terms of size. “Creating records in big objects is simple. I selected a miniature scale, which is not easily record-breakable,” says Prabakar. “I have used 1x1cm of A4 sheet paper, and I have made a carton box, paper bag, and miniature diary. This bagged me an award at Kalam’s World Records on 20 February 2023.”

(l-r) Miniature paper bag, miniature postal cover and miniature diary

Prabakar talks about his preferred choice in selection of paper. His favourite is natural shade paper, which is a special paper generally used for stationery purposes.

“Currently, I purchase paper from local shops. In the future, I would like to purchase from a wholesale dealer. All miniature records were rendered with TNPL paper,” says Prabakar.

Miniature craft is not easy

“Miniature paper art by hand is very tough. It takes a lot of time, since the paper is as thin as 80 gsm. Also it is susceptible to tear while measuring, drawing, creasing and cutting operations,” says Prabakar. 

He adds, “Paper art-making needs interest and patience. It needs hard work, new ideas, innovative thoughts. This is my mantra.”

Prabakar the Grand Master

On 25 February 2023, Prabakar was inducted in the India Book for Records for creating a small-sized paper envelope of size 4x3mm. Sharing the highlight about his achievement with PrintWeek, he says, “I prepared a postal cover of the smallest size. Given the size, it was a tedious task, which involved cutting and pasting precisely.”

He added, “Through my craft, I wish to convey that the creation of a record is possible in the field of printing and packaging.”

Prabakar set the record for manually cutting the smallest sized part of paper on 16 March 2023. He marked the dimensions on a small part of A4 size paper and manually cut it out to measure 1x 2mm.

He is known as Grand Master for marking the dimensions of a small sized triangle , measuring 2 mm x 2 mm x 2 mm, on a part of an A4 size paper. On 29 March 2023, he received the accolade, by registering for the Asia Book of Records.