When first I spotted the beautiful piece above, I assumed it was some magical piece of enamel jewelry. Turns out it’s paper art. Magical indeed! This is the paper wizardry by Washington State native Cameron Garland. He makes small works of exceptional beauty, the largest which can be held in the palm of your hand.

When asked about his process for creating his imaginative pieces, Garland had this to say:

“My process is very organic and unconventional, which I attribute to learning the cut-paper medium purely through exploration and experimentation.  Often times, I will have a vague idea, and immediately begin gathering the colors I’d like to use and comparing what works.  I typically start with what I consider to be the focal point of the piece (usually the most difficult part) and then work outwards, adding details as I go along and expanding on my ideas and concepts.  I’m terrible about planning and sketching things out prior to cutting, but I greatly enjoy the “Aha!” moments of unexpected discovery and little surprises that come from this process. I like just ‘going for it’ and letting the piece evolve as I make it.  Doing this also really helps keeps me invested throughout the entirety of a piece, since they can take me quite a while to finish.”  

-Cameron Garland interview with LightGreyArtLab

You can follow the amazing Cameron Garland on his website and Instagram, and you can buy his pieces on NineteenEightyEight.

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Prepping a bunch of pieces to have available for sale soon🌊🏄‍♀️🏄🌊

A post shared by Cameron (@campluswhit) on Apr 25, 2017 at 4:20pm PDT

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ECCC is in 2 days😓😓😓😓 Find ya boi at table HG305 on level 4 in the Homegrown section✨👌✨ Also a special thank you to @excelblades for sending me some much needed upgrades to my cutting tools ✨🙏✨ I’ve sworn by Excel ever since I started paper cutting and I was super honored when they reached out to me, so thank you again Excel! . . . . . #eccc #eccc2018 #emeraldcitycomiccon #emeraldcitycomiccon #campluswhit #morrigan #morriganaensland #darkstalkers #nightwarriors #marvelvscapcom #capcom #vampiresavior #illustration #artistsoninstagram #paperart #cutpaperart #cutpaper #papercraft #papercrafts #excelblades

A post shared by Cameron (@campluswhit) on Feb 27, 2018 at 1:23pm PST

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Here's a closer look at my terrarium piece for @lightgreyartlab 's Botanica show that opened on Friday. Been getting a lot of emails about this one but unfortunately it sold…..well, not unfortunately for me! So happy this one found a good home!

A post shared by Cameron (@campluswhit) on Apr 17, 2016 at 5:56pm PDT

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Good news! My shop is finally open! Bad news, my computer's hard drive is completely fried 😭If you'd like to help me out by buying some art, I'll love you forever😘 Link is in my bio (campluswhit.storenvy.com)

A post shared by Cameron (@campluswhit) on Aug 17, 2017 at 4:53pm PDT

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Happy Thanksgiving everyone! For #tbt here's a snippet of the very first cut paper piece I ever made way back in 2010, which was a V-day card to Whitney, using the dullest blade ever and a piece of flimsy cardboard as my cutting mat. The rest of the card is too terrible to share, but it's fun to look at it every once in a while and compare it to my current works when I'm feeling kinda bleh

A post shared by Cameron (@campluswhit) on Nov 27, 2014 at 10:15am PST

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Hey👋 I’ve got a ton of pieces for sale over at @galleries1988 for a cut paper show that opened over the weekend (link is in their bio)! If you’ve ever wanted to purchase an original from me, now is your chance for a very very long loooooong time due to my new job being a dad💖

A post shared by Cameron (@campluswhit) on Aug 6, 2018 at 4:38am PDT

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More old works🍓This is one of my favorite pieces and I really enjoyed coming up with all the individual items to be found inside this little strawberry backpack made for a little adventuring woodland creature, along with exploring fun hidden elements like the star map and glow in the dark fireflies. If y’all missed my announcement in my stories, I’ve started a twitch channel under the same username campluswhit, or go to twitch.tv/campluswhit, where I plan on doing some fun and easy paper stuff to livestream and to be able to chat with you guys…..if anyone watches😅😅😅

A post shared by Cameron (@campluswhit) on Apr 28, 2019 at 10:53am PDT

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She’s ready for ECCC #eccc #eccc2018 #rosegold #witch #paperart #papercraft #artistsofinstagram #campluswhit

A post shared by Cameron (@campluswhit) on Feb 10, 2018 at 10:17am PST

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Just finished this guy for someone who was nice enough to throw their money at me during ECCC even though I was completely sold out and had nothing left on my table✨🙏✨ Also thank you to everyone that stopped by over the weekend, especially those that came first thing to grab a piece they'd been eyeing. Can't believe how supportive ya'll have been and how special you guys make me feel😁😁😁

A post shared by Cameron (@campluswhit) on Apr 12, 2016 at 5:22pm PDT

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Check out the detail in this Coco inspired paper cut from @campluswhit. INSANE. See all of the pieces from our current exhibit – made from JUST cut paper – at gallery1988.com and zoom in and click the image above to learn more about this gem…

A post shared by Gallery 1988 (@galleries1988) on Aug 13, 2018 at 7:31pm PDT

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Sent these guys off to their new home…..pretty sad to see them go😢 Buuuuuut super excited for Civil War!!!!! I'm still holding out hope for a pink pinstriped sock head Zemo eventually in the MCU….Anyone else seeing it tonight?

A post shared by Cameron (@campluswhit) on May 5, 2016 at 11:08am PDT

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My full Kiki piece, “New in Town” for the upcoming @Spoke_Art exhibition #MyNeighborHayao at @powwowworldwide in Honolulu, Hawai'i opening February 13. It’s been nearly a year since I’ve made anything and I was super scared if I still even knew how to cut. I took this one slow and worked on simplifying some things and I’m super happy with the final and felt so much relief to get something completed after so long. I’m looking forward to making more this year! If you want to inquire on my piece or to receive a collectors preview, please email events(at)spoke-art.com

A post shared by Cameron (@campluswhit) on Feb 2, 2019 at 1:12pm PST

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Repost because Instagram always takes a big ol' poo on my image quality😤 Looking forward to doing more mixed media pieces👍

A post shared by Cameron (@campluswhit) on Sep 2, 2017 at 8:48am PDT

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Since I don’t have much new stuff to post these days with being a dad, I have plenty of pics I never shared of old work. Making tiny things with paper got me a lot of exposure and good feedback over the years, but at the end of the day, it always felt so gimmicky and like I was taking a short cut from actually working through a compositionally sound illustration. Here’s just about the height of my tiny work, a Masters of the Universe piece I did for a Mattel show at @galleries1988 a few years back, based off the og 80s He-Man toys. Couldn’t get them all, but I got most of my favorites that we had growing up.

A post shared by Cameron (@campluswhit) on Apr 19, 2019 at 11:36am PDT

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⚡️⁉️⚡️

A post shared by Cameron (@campluswhit) on Jan 7, 2018 at 8:59pm PST

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Super honored and excited to be invited to contribute to the Arboretum show at @lightgreyartlab in a couple of weeks! Here’s a preview of my smalllll piece ✨🍋✨ . . . . #lightgreyartlab #lgal #arboretum #plants #botany #lemontree #campluswhit #paperart #illustration #best_of_illustrations #papercraft

A post shared by Cameron (@campluswhit) on Mar 11, 2018 at 3:20pm PDT

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Whoops forgot to post my finished Hela piece I got to do for @marvel last month. Swipe over to see the cool frame I put together for it!

A post shared by Cameron (@campluswhit) on Dec 4, 2017 at 6:06pm PST