Author: LaserSister

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Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 085

papercut 085 with pen for scale - Kay Vincent - LaserSister

Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 085

This is papercut 085 (only 15 more to go!) of my papercutting project (using the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book.  I am adapting the designs for papercutting, and then practising by cutting out 100 designs in 100 days. Eventually I may may incorporate them in future papercuts that are made by laser and also by hand.)

Because of the many repetitive elements in this design I think it might be one of the designs that would look better if cut by laser.

However, I’m not too disappointed by the hand-cut version. The ‘sun ray’ bits are quite crisp, actually.

As well as the central sun/flower design, I can also see things in this design that remind me of fish.  (Or sharks. Or maybe birds.) When I move onto my next epic papercutting project (of creating all of my own designs from scratch) then I might remember this one, and try to hide some fish or animals in an abstract-looking design.

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Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 084

Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 084

This is papercut 084 of my papercutting quest (using the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book, in preparation for incorporating them in future papercuts that are made by laser and also by hand.)

I really like this design, and it didn’t seem to take very long to cut. That reminds me – I must start timing how long the cuts actually take, because I really have no idea how long each design takes to cut. I enjoy the process so much and find it so ‘therapeutic’ that sometimes I can be cutting a really big project and it feels like the time is just flying by. And then other times, of course, I could be fighting with a fiddly design, in fading daylight, and using a blunt blade that I can’t be bothered to change – and in those cases the cuts seem to take forever.

I’m also getting better at tidying up the cuts before I take close-up photos of them!

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Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 083

Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 083

This is papercut 83 of my papercutting quest (using the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book, in preparation for incorporating them in future papercuts that are made by laser and also by hand.)

This is a very simple-looking design, but sometimes they are the hardest ones to make a decent job of cutting…

…but even close up I think this one actually looks OK. My skills really are (gradually) improving, as I get closer to the end of my 100-day challenge.

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Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 082

Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 082

Papercut 082 : Oh dear! I’m in the process of changing over my website host, and have been a week without being able to access my blog.

I’ve moved the old pages and blog posts across to the new host, but there are still a lot of tweaks that I need to make in order to get the site fully working again.

In the meantime, I continued to do my papercuttings every day, so now (belatedly) I am finally able to update the website with my latest papercuttings:

Day 82 of my papercutting adventure (using the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book).

It might not look it, but this was quite a tricky design to cut. The design involved having to leave just tiny links of paper in order to hold the actual physical piece of paper together. So the overall piece got very lacy and delicate towards the end.

I’d cut similar designs to this one earlier on in this project (i.e. even before starting this ‘100 days’ project), but I didn’t really like the results, before. However, now that I’m getting more proficient at cutting by hand (and also at adapting designs so that they can be cut out but still look fairly attractive), the end result is quite close to what I had imagined in the first place:

Plus, it’s another art nouveau-style design, so that quite appeals to me, and it also makes any mistakes less obvious because the curves and swirls in the design make it harder to spot.

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922 Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 081

Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 081

This is papercut 81 of my papercutting adventure (using the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book, in preparation for incorporating them in future papercuts that are made by laser and also by hand.)

I thought this design was going to be a pain in the butt to cut, but it turned out to be quite enjoyable and therapeutic because of the repetition and the challenging aspects to it:

First of all I cut the teeny tiny little dots out. They are approximately 1mm across, so it’s a miracle really that any of them look even vaguely round. Especially since the blade was getting quite blunt by then, so I was having to hack them out of the paper instead of cleanly slice them.

Then I did the sort of stacked-hearts shapes, by cutting the left-hand curves first then rotating the paper so I could move onto the next shape, etc.

And finally I did what should have been the easiest bit, which was the hole in the middle. Which is the bit that turned out looking the most wonky! Never mind – I can always tidy it up later, I suppose:

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922 Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 078

Decorative Vector Ornaments: Paper cut 078

Day 78 of my papercutting adventure (using the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book, in preparation for incorporating them in future papercuts that are made by laser and also by hand.)

Weirdly, I think I might be reaching a stage where I’ve come to a bit of a compromise with the perfectionist in me. The image below looks OK to me…

…but then close-up I can see all of the flaws in the cuts (that I couldn’t even see with my magnifying glasses when I was actually working on it!) But the perfectionist in me is now getting a tiny bit less uptight, so although the annoying imperfections do still leap out at me straight away, there is also a little part of me that goes “Hey! Nice leaves at the bottom!”, instead of “Oh no – the entire thing is a total mess.”

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Laser-cut Personalised Jewellery Holders

Laser-Cut Jewellery Holder

Here is something I’ve been playing with this week – the design of a laser-cut jewellery holder.

I made one for my mum last Christmas…

As you can see, it can hold lots of different types of jewellery (rings, necklaces, bracelets, watches, earrings). However, it still needs some tweaks.

What I like about it is:

  • As mentioned above, it can hold nearly all types of jewellery. The only exceptions I can think of at the moment are hat pins, scarf pins or brooches.
  • You can see all of the jewellery in one place. It’s not in a drawer or box, so you get to enjoy your favourite pieces like mini artworks.
  • It’s personalised and therefore unique.
  • It’s versatile, so (e.g.) the same horizontal bar can take either hook-type earrings or post-type earrings, and the vertical side bits can hold either rings or bracelets or watches.

Things to improve on the design:

  • Create a way to hang it so that it is held away from the wall, to make it easier to hang earrings.
  • Have a way to store brooches and pin-type jewellery (e.g. a tray at the bottom)

As a very basic version though, this is the design that I used:

If you’ve got a laser cutter and you’d like to have a play with this design yourself, I’ve made a vector file available below.

(Click here for basic jewellery holder design for lasercutting)

Hope you found this post useful! If you think it might be of use to other makers/designers, please feel free to share the link to the post via Twitter (@LaserSister), Pinterest, Facebook (@LaserSister), etc…