Nayan & Vaishali

Nayan & Vaishali are an Indian creative duo who make hand-painted paper cut artworks, accessories, and miniature scenes. Their practice combines paper crafting, illustration, and model making, with each piece built from cut layers of paper and finished by hand. They work under the studio name NV Illustration.

How did they start making paper work?

Paper making began as a childhood interest for both artists, then developed into a shared professional practice after university study in art and design. Before setting up their own studio, they worked in the business world and as miniature model makers, which gave them a practical grounding in scale, composition, and precision. That background shows in the tight construction of their work.

In December 2015 they founded NV Illustration and began with smaller paper cut jewellery and display pieces. Those early objects helped establish the vocabulary they still use now: cut paper shapes, hand-applied colour, and careful layering to create depth without relying on heavy materials.

What does their work look like?

Their pieces often start as flat paper forms, then gain complexity through stacking, carving, and painting. A single work may combine fine contour cuts with dense colour fields or tiny figurative details, producing the effect of a miniature scene caught between illustration and object. The paper itself is not hidden; its edges, shadows, and overlaps are part of the visual language.

As their practice expanded, they moved beyond jewellery into more elaborate dioramas and layered paper artworks. That shift matters because it shows paper can operate not only as a surface for drawing, but as a structural material that can hold narrative, space, and texture.

Why does their practice matter?

Nayan & Vaishali sit within a wider renewal of hand-crafted paper art, where artists use a modest material to produce technically demanding work. Their practice connects design training with traditional making, and it also reflects a contemporary concern for materials: they have spoken through their work about experimenting with innovative tools and sustainable materials.

Their approach is important for the way it treats paper as both intimate and architectural. Small works can read like accessories, while larger ones become miniature environments. That range has helped define their studio identity and made their work legible to audiences interested in craft, illustration, and object-based design.

What is NV Illustration?

NV Illustration is the studio Nayan & Vaishali established in 2015 to house their collaborative paper practice. It functions as the name under which their paper cut artworks, display pieces, and related commissions are produced. The studio format gives their work a clear professional frame, even though the making remains personal and highly manual.

In practice, the studio name signals a hybrid field: part illustration, part craft, part three-dimensional design. That combination is central to their output, which depends on drawing, cutting, painting, and assembly rather than on a single technique alone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Nayan & Vaishali fine artists or designers?

They work across both fields. Their training in art and design, and Nayan’s background in furniture and interior design, shape a practice that is as concerned with form and construction as with image-making. The work sits comfortably between gallery-style paper art and applied design objects.

What materials do they use?

Their core material is paper, often cut into fine layers and then hand-painted. They also use tools and methods associated with miniature making, which help them build depth and detail at a small scale. More recently, they have explored innovative tools and sustainable materials alongside their paper-based process.

Why are their works often small?

Small scale suits paper cutting because it allows for exact control over edges, layers, and shadow. It also aligns with their early interest in miniature model making and with their initial jewellery and display pieces. Even when their compositions grow into dioramas, the sense of miniature remains central to how the work reads.