3D Cardboard Sculptures

Sculpture built from slices

Each of these is a solid three-dimensional object assembled from flat cardboard layers. The pieces are numbered, they thread onto slim rods in sequence – two rods through every piece, so nothing can go on backwards – and the ends lock the stack tight. No glue, no tools, nothing to cut.

What you get is not a model of a lion. It is a lion, built the way a contour map is built, and the stepped edges where the layers meet are the whole visual effect. Sort the pieces by number before you start; everything else follows from that.

Which one to choose?

Difficulty scales with piece count and nothing else – there is no technique one model needs and another does not. The Unicorn at 67 pieces is the shortest build and the one to start with; the Staffy at 130 is the longest and the most anatomical, all bone and muscle under the steps.

Between them, each has its own reason: the Lion for the way light fans through its mane, the Cat for the finest tips the technique can cut, the Dragon for horns that leave the block on their own rods, and the Locomotive for being the one machine – long, low, with windows cut right through it.

What are they made of?

Recycled cardboard, threaded on slim rods. The assembled sculpture is light enough to sit on a shelf that would not hold a wooden equivalent.

Marked 14+, which is about patience with sorting rather than about anything sharp.

Where they go

These are desk and shelf objects rather than wall pieces, and they need to be seen in the round: the layer lines change as you move past them, which a photograph does not capture and a flat position wastes.

Keep them out of damp. Cardboard is cardboard.