Paper pushers: Artists launch business to teach paper sculpting

By Dan Daly, Journal Staff Writer | Monday, March 20, 2006

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RAPID CITY - For 18 years, artists Allen Eckman and Patty Eckman have been sculpting paper. Whether it’s American Indians on horseback or a butterfly hovering over a blossom, their work is known for its elaborate detail and monochromatic realism.

They have developed a variety of techniques to cast, mold, cut and shape the paper fibers into fine art pieces.

Now, the Rapid City artists are turning those techniques into a new business venture. Through kits and classes, they plan to teach their paper art techniques to others.

“I’ve always said we are not going to take this to our graves,” Allen said.

They’ve scheduled their first class, which will be Saturday, March 25, at the Radisson Hotel in Rapid City.

They are creating a series of paper-sculpture kits, called Patty’s Flowers. The first in the series is named The Rose. Using the tools and materials in the $45 kit, you can craft a life-sized paper rose.

They hope to sell the kits online and in art stores and galleries such as Creative Art & Supply and Prairie Edge Gallery. They also hope to persuade big-box hobby chains such as Hobby Lobby to carry the kits.

Allen was born in California and spent much of his childhood in Pennsylvania. After high school, he joined the Marines and did a stint in Vietnam. He returned to California and enrolled at the Art College of Design in Los Angeles, majoring in advertising.

That’s where he met Patty. She was born in Brookings. As a teenager, she moved to California with her family. She majored in illustration.

They’ve been married 31 years.

After college, they started their own advertising agency and graphic design business. During the next 14 years, they built a client base that included the Billy Graham organization, Bausch & Lomb and World Vision International.

Their years in advertising, Allen said, made them better fine artists. “It taught us discipline, and it taught us how to sell,” he said. “But we were unfocused … and there was lots of stress, which is not good for a Vietnam veteran.”

In 1987, they began the process of shutting down the agency and turing their attention to fine art. Their plan was to paint, but one day in Palm Desert, Calif., Allen came across some art work, called cast paper sculpture. He was fascinated and wanted to try it himself.

He did. Patty tried it, too.

Before long, the focus of their studio, Eckman Fine Art, was on this type of paper art. “It’s easy to learn, but difficult to master,” Allen said.

After a few years, they decided to relocate to Rapid City, in Patty’s home state. The entire lower floor of their Westberry Trails neighborhood house is Eckman Fine Art. At one end is their studio. Their work tables are a few feet apart. At the other end, they make the acid-free paper that they use in their art.

And now, it’s also where they are assembling and building the Patty’s Flowers kits.

Each kit includes a special tuck-tool burnisher, a wire for the stem, templates, a few leaf casts, a packet of bonding medium, a base for the finished product, an instructional DVD and enough hand-made, acid-free paper to make a single rose.

Customers will also be able to buy refills to make more roses. Later kit offerings will let crafters make tulips, daisies, bluebells, orchids and other flowers.

The Eckmans’ advertising and marketing background might serve them well as they try to attract big art supply chains. Hobby Lobby, for example, has 370 stores. If they could tap that market, Patty’s Flowers could quickly outgrow their Westberry Trails basement.

The paper sculpting class is a different tack. In the classroom setting, they hope to personally lead a room full of students through the process of making a paper rose. The class will also serve as a marketing tool: video footage of the classroom work will be used in marketing materials and instructional videos.

The class, by the way, will be a four-hour session that begins 1 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Rapid City. The cost is $65, which includes dinner. The registration deadline is Thursday, March 23, and you can register at Creative Art & Frame, Prairie Edge, Hobby Lobby, The Journey Museum or the Radisson Hotel.

Contact Dan Daly at 394-8421 or Dan.Daly@rapidcityjournal.com