Atamjeet Singh Bawa revels in creating warheads, airplanes, bikes and ships – an unusual skill where he can make machines out of paper.
In a span of a decade, he has created 30 highly detailed scale paper models. To term his vocation as a hobby would be a gross understatement. His models are the result of pure engineering, ingenuity, passion, and love for design converge.
Back in 2004, when Atamjeet was pursuing his B.Tech in textile chemistry, the idea to create his first paper model struck him. After a month of hard work and eight layers of aluminium paint on the paper, the model of F4-F Grumman Wildcat, a World War II airplane, was ready. “It was an ‘engineering accident’. But once it was ready, I knew where my passion lies,” said Atamjeet, during an interaction with The Hindu at the recently held TEDx at GITAM University.
Since then, Atamjeet has been surprising the world through his extraordinary art. Why he did choose paper as a medium? “I didn’t have time and resources to invest in other mediums. Paper is cheap for me and allowed me to make mistakes,” said Atamjeet, who works in a Delhi-based software firm.
In a country where scale paper modelling is still in a nascent stage, it wasn’t easy for Atamjeet to propagate his artwork.
“People would tell me not to waste time. My family was also clueless about the path ahead,” said Atamjeet. All this happened till 2006, when he was selected as the ninth most famous artistes of the year out of the 40,000 artistes shortlisted from across the world.
Future plans
Atamjeet conducts workshops in Gurgaon and Delhi for children on paper modelling and plans to get into teaching as a full-time profession.
“You can also do wonders through customization. If someone wants me to create their bike’s scaled down paper replica, I can also make the model of the bike with them sitting on it, just using paper,” he said.
He is also planning to reach out to the corporates and make a highly detailed paper model of the new car launches.
“I can create the replica of the car to showcase in the launch event with a unique message for its customers. The USP being hand crafted, highly customized and light weight,” Atamjeet added.
Techie makes a mark with his extraordinary art
