Ruti’s Roots Creates Intricate Hand-Folded Sculptures from Discarded Tea Bag Wrappers

The Israel-based designer collects and sorts through discarded paper to create these intricate and labor-intensive sculptures, sometimes consisting of over 400 small pieces of hand-folded paper! The designs range from small boxes and pots to elegant swan pencil holders – a perfect and peculiar addition to a cluttered desk. Each original piece is constructed using a durable cardboard base to ensure the structure is a sturdy storage solution or 3-D form.

The 26-year old occupational therapy student behind the design label says she has been drawn to “the magic of folding recycled paper and creating various works of art” over the last few years. “This kind of art combines my passion for shaping and color-matching, with my love for nature, while attempting to preserve and reuse pre-existing materials.”

Along with many other artists using origami methods to create fantastic tea sets or stunning lamps, we can’t wait to see what delightful paper designs come next!

Images courtesy of Keren Gavish and Ruti Ben Dror


Ben Dror’s Etsy shop displays masterful origami bowls, magnets and swans made from as many as a couple hundred individual pieces of paper that have been painstakingly chosen for their color or design. Scraps from old maps or Earl Grey tea bag wrappers are purposefully folded together to create visual harmony, or different colored papers are combined in order to create geometric patterns and designs.

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Inhabitat® was founded in 2005 by designer Jill Fehrenbacher as a forum for investigating emerging trends in product, interior and architectural design. Since then, it has evolved into a website focused on important developments in environmental policy and technology, as well as on design projects that give equal weight to environmental and aesthetic considerations. Inhabitat is dedicated to solving the world’s most pressing problems through the power of smart design.

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What have we learnt?

Some notes…

  • Some sculptures consist of over 400 small pieces of hand-folded paper.
  • Each unique piece is constructed using a durable cardboard base.
  • Hand selected and color-coordinated pieces of paper construct each item.
  • Each original design is carefully thought out.
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