Of all Greenwich Market’s artists, creators and traders, Wei Chen of Paper Moon is surely one of the most gifted. She’s certainly one of the most patient! Her exquisite paper art, which covers every wall of her small market shop, has to be seen to be believed. The fantastic, flourishing designs, traditional and modern, are painstakingly cut by hand, all by Wei, in a process that can take many weeks to produce a single piece.

The art of paper cutting has a long pedigree in Wei’s native China, stretching all the way back to the Han Dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE). Wei first turned her hand to the ancient art in her birth city of Shenyang (the modern megalopolis that, in the seventeenth century, was the Manchu capital, Mukden). She taught herself to cut as a hobby, while still a curious teenager. In 2005, she moved to the UK, started trading at Greenwich Market, and quickly fell in love with the creative community she found here. They inspired her to make her own contribution. Always artistically inclined, she studied textiles at Central St Martin’s College, graduating in 2012 and incorporated those skills into her paper-cutting practice. Today, pieces combining embroidery and cut paper are amongst her most beautiful and unique creations.

Some of the more elaborate pieces on show take Wei five or six weeks of patient scalpel work to create. Every piece is entirely her own work, testament to countless patient hours of toil. Wei’s traditional Chinese designs follow patterns and subjects established for festivals and events in the Chinese calendar, especially the New Year celebrations. Each year is named for one of 12 different animals, all of which are exquisitely represented in her designs. For example, the Year of the Rabbit commenced with the Lunar New Year on 22 January 2023, ending the Year of the Tiger and anticipating the Year of the Dragon in 2024. Wei’s traditional paper-cut representations of the zodiac signs are prized for the happiness, prosperity and luck they bring to their owners.

Other traditional signs are gorgeously represented within the frames Wei’s husband fits to her work: butterflies and flowers for love and a happy life, or fish for financial balance. While Wei will send pieces to a local framer, her husband fits all the special work displayed in her shop, including gorgeous creations suspended in double layers of glass to create shadow effects.

In recent years, Wei has expanded her repertoire from traditional Chinese designs, experimenting with scenes from European folk tales and motifs from nature. She also plays with styles and designs from Japan, including impossibly intricate ‘wave’ designs that clearly cost her countless hours of disciplined work.

Wei is always happy to show off her work and discuss it with the many admiring visitors who find their way to her shop. A true force within Greenwich Market’s creative community, and one of its longest-established makers, she can be found surrounded by her many fabulous creations, seven days a week!