Japanese Artist Creates Amazing Sculptures Out Of Food Packaging, Turning Trash Into Treasure

Japanese food packaging sculptures

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Food packaging is something that we don’t normally pay attention to, but Japanese paper craft artist Harukiru manages to repurpose them into stellar sculptures. Harukiru’s craft is the epitome of the proverb “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”, taking the act of upcycling to the next level.

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From Nissin cup noodles to sentai superheroes

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Image credit: @kharukik97

Power Rangers, fans gather up – Harukiru has transformed our everyday Nissin cup noodle packaging into sentai superheroes that pack quite a punch. The sentai superheroes in the Super Sentai series are known to be the main inspiration behind the Power Rangers series in America.

Image credit: @cupnoodle_jp  

Harukiru’s craft even impressed Nissin as the social media team of their cup noodle division featured his paper sculptures in a promotional tweet. The tweet promoted their new flavours as different sentai superheroes battling it out for first place in terms of sales.

Image credit: @cupnoodle_jp

Nissin then followed up a week later to announce the flavour that won – Cup Noodle & Shio.

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Repurposing Pringles cans into dapper gentlemen

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Harukiru’s most striking masterpiece would be the one that he made out of Pringles cans, giving us a glimpse of what the iconic mascot would look like if he had a body.

Image credit: @kharukik97

Harukiru uses every part of the Pringles can to make each figure, including the lid that’s upcycled to become the figures’ stands. The red paper seal that’s normally tossed away upon opening is also fashioned into sleek vests for the Pringles gentlemen. 

You can watch his full process of creating the Pringles figures here:

Video credit: 空箱職人はるきる HARUKIRU

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Transforming Charlotte boxes into Ghibli-like towns

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Image credit:  @kharukik97

Besides creating figures, Harukiru can also make part of a town with detailed shophouses using the packaging of the popular Japanese chocolate brand Charlotte.

Image credit:  @kharukik97

Making use of the different illustrations of colourful houses on the boxes, Harukiru arranges them to represent various shophouses in a quaint town. He even utilised cutouts of the human and animal illustrations to make the town more dynamic.

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Inspiring sculptures made by Japanese artist using food packaging

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Harukiru’s paper craft expertise is an inspiration to us all, giving new purpose to often discarded food packaging and gaining much recognition from it. He held an exhibition back in 2019 and recently in December 2021 to showcase his amazing work.

If you are currently residing in Japan and wish to attend his future exhibitions, do follow him on Twitter or Instagram for the latest updates.

Also check out:

• Japanese grandpa makes papercraft food models
• Japanese papercutting artist
• 9 easy Japanese craft ideas
• Miniature models of rooms in walls
• Japanese artist transforms cardboard boxes into art sculptures

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Cover image adapted from: @02ESyRaez4VhR2l