(Some of the links below are affiliate links to Amazon. If you’d like to find out what that means then please check out my policies page.)
Fish Papercut K103
This week’s design is number 103 in the book.
This one was really tricky to cut. It’s got really thin lines and details. It looks like a cross between a fish and a plant, in some places. The fins and gills and tail look like leaves. The combination of flowing Art Nouveau-type lines and flexible fish forms is right up my street!
Closer up:
I was using a fairly blunt blade and felt like I was carving this piece rather than cutting it, but fortunately I didn’t accidentally cut through any of the lines.
Actually, I like this one so much that I might have to use it in a project.
Any comments about the design, or advice about the cutting? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.
I don’t really know how to describe the design that this papercut is based on, so I’ve just gone with “Bubble Design” because it sort of looks like bubbles at either side of the image.
(Some of the links below are affiliate links to Amazon. If you’d like to find out what that means then please check out my policies page.)
Bubble Design Papercut K128
This week’s design is number 128 in the book. It looks a bit like bubbles (or maybe grapes and a leaf?), that for some reason are placed on a Mobius strip.
Without my reading glasses on I’m fairly happy with the way I cut it out…
Closer up:
…but when you get close up it does seem a bit lumpy in places. Still, I like the flowing lines in it overall, and the natural/’organic’ feel to it.
As with many of these ‘decorative ornaments’, I’m not sure about when I might wish to use this particular design. But it was a nice quick cut to make, so was fun to knock another one off the list even if I don’t end up using it for anything in particular.
I cut this one while (half-)watching Stand up to Cancer: Sink or Swim on Channel 4. Wow. Part of me thinks, “What an amazing thing they’re doing! Trying to overcome their fears and self-imposed obstacles, and to go from being non-swimmers to swimming the English Channel.”
The other part of me thinks “I hope I don’t do what many of them seem to be doing; letting their subconscious fears convince their conscious minds that they physically can’t do something.” (Which is a nice way of saying, “What whiney little princesses! I’m surprised they’ve ever achieved anything at all.”) But then I realise that that’s a bit rich, coming from someone who spends a couple of hours a week practising cutting things out of paper instead of doing useful stuff…)
Anyhoo, I’m looking forward to the final episode next week, when we find out whether they managed to swim the channel. (My guess is yes. Otherwise there’s not much point to them showing it on the telly, is there?)
Going back to me wondering what the point is of continuing with this papercutting project, I think the answer is that it’s just really relaxing. Some people play computer games to relax, some people watch TV, some like to use adult colouring books. At least with my relaxing hobby I’m:
learning how to adapt all sorts of different designs so that they can be cut from paper.
looking at the designs and wondering if/how they can be incorporated into other projects and designs.
improving my papercutting skills, so that one day I’ll be able to make some lovely artworks of my own.
building up a sketchbook full of the papercuts, so I’ve got a record of what I’ve done.
Any comments about the design, or thoughts about whether it’s a complete wast of time or not? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.
This Japanese bird papercut is from an ongoing papercutting project that I’ve been doing. Basically I’m trying to hand-cut my way through all of the designs in Dover Books’ “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book. (The designs are all available as vector files, so I could theoretically just cut them all out with my laser cutter…but where is the challenge in that?)
(Some of the links below are affiliate links to Amazon. If you’d like to find out what that means then please check out my policies page.)
Japanese Bird Papercut K716
This week’s design is number 716 in the book.
I really like this design, and for once I’m happy with the way I cut it, too. (Well, except for the fact that the edges of the white paper have been cut on a bit of a wonk, but I can fix that later.)
Closer up:
Yep, even close up I’m happy with it! I was using a new blade and for some reason I was feeling particularly patient.
This design looks Japanese – is it a crane bird? I really like the little hearts and peacock-y teardrop shapes that form the feathers.
I’m not sure about the circumstances under which I might wish to use a crane bird design, but it was really satisfying to cut, even if I never incorporate this design into any other projects.
I cut it while (half-)watching Cake Walk on Amazon Prime. I do like cake shows but I haven’t made my mind up about this one, yet.
Here is another link to the book itself, just in case you wanted to buy it and do your own papercutting:
Any comments about the design, or advice about the cutting? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.
Rob and I are on holiday in the UK at the moment, and I’m recharging my ‘creative batteries’ by going to lots of museums and lovely English towns and castles.
The other day we went to the town of Nantwich, and none of the shops or museums that we visited seemed to sell fridge magnets. There is surely a gap in the market for them, because I actually know quite a few people who collect fridge magnets.
Here are a couple of examples below of buildings that I think would look nice as fridge magnets:
Heck, you could even make your own mix-and-match village of cute little black and white buildings on your fridge or freezer if only you had a few of these buildings cut out as fridge magnets.
I am now on a mission to create some magnets for myself, to see if they come out as well as I imagine they will…
Art Nouveau Rose Papercut K113 from Decorative Vector Ornaments Book
Technically I guess this is papercut 102 of the (now-extended) papercutting project, but I’m starting a new numbering convention because I’d cut other pieces from this book in the past and so actually there are already lots more than 102 in total. So now I’m starting to refer to them by their numbers in the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book. (It’s not enough to just call the designs things like “Art Nouveau Rose Papercut”, because there are a lot of Art Nouveau-style designs in the book!)
This one is really cute:
Closer up:
I was really concentrating hard on this one, and also using a new blade, and I think it really shows. Most of the lines are really really crisp and clean, and there are some quite fine lines in there as well.
The design is one of my favourites, actually. I might incorporate it into the next card that I develop.
There are still hundreds of designs left in the book that I haven’t adapted or cut, yet! And even if I do one papercut per week then that means that if I’ve got 500 designs left to adapt/cut, then I’ll be doing this for another 10 years. Wow. I hope my eyesight stays good enough to manage it! For the first time this year I have had to start wearing reading glasses for close-up work.
Oh well, I’m still enjoying myself. And I really do like today’s design.
I’ve been learning how to make automata and mechanical toys so far this year, and so this week I downloaded a seagull automaton kit from Rob Ives’ website.
Well, I’m not currently cutting one design per day, but I’ve decided to carry on with my papercutting project. This is papercut 101 of the (now-extended) papercutting project.
(Using the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book for inspiration, I was adapting the images for papercutting, then practising by cutting out 100 designs in 100 days.)
This one is a bit of a mix between Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles. It’s got swirly plant-based design elements in it, but it’s also got straight geometric designs as well:
Closer up:
I cut this one while listening to Mark Dawson’s “Self Publishing Formula” podcast. (Very informative and inspiring, as always.)
(Using the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book for inspiration, I was adapting the images for papercutting, then practising by cutting out 100 designs in 100 days.)
I saved a great big complicated design for the 100th papercut.
And I think this might also be my favourite so far. The design needed quite a few tweaks to make sure that all of the black pieces were linked and didn’t just fall out when I’d just them. And of course, it’s an Art Nouveau-type design, which I particularly like:
Closer up:
When I compare the roses at the top to some of the designs I cut earlier in the project, I can tell that my cutting skills have really improved. All those teeny tiny lines, and none of them got accidentally snipped off:
Maybe I did lose a little bit of concentration and patience when I got to the bottom. There are a few straggly fibres of paper sticking out here and there that I should have tidied up. It’s still nice though:
I was watching “Couples’ Retreat” and then “The Boat That Rocked” on Amazon Prime while I did the cutting, so I guess it took about four hours to finish (although obviously I was watching films at the same time, so it would have taken less time if I hadn’t been watching them).
So…now the project is finished! What shall I do now??? I’ve kind of got used to spending an hour or so each evening working on an art/craft project. Plus the book didn’t just have 100 designs in it – it had 922…
Er, no. I don’t think I’ll carry on cutting one per day. That will take me over TWO YEARS. I’ll have to come up with another project instead. And this time it should actually involve the laser cutter, and not just designs suitable for lasercutting.
Penultimate piece from the 100-day papercutting adventure!
This one does something really strange to my eyes/brain. When I first look at it, all I can see is a three-headed white heron (or seagull or something) hiding its beaks behind its necks. Or just some blobby three-armed white shape in the middle of a background of triangular-ish dots.
Closer up:
…but then a bit later I suddenly realise (especially when the design is this way up instead of the way it was oriented in the above photo) that it’s a design of three birds (?cranes?) with black bodies on a white background:
It makes me really want to try to play with the design, so that I can try to make the white bird’s beak look more beak-y. Then it really will turn into one of those mess-with-your-head optical illusions.
This one seemed to take a very long time. It was a mixture of straight and curved lines, and that always seems to take me longer to cut accurately, for some reason. I listened to about 2.5 episodes of The Bestseller Experiment while I was doing the cutting, so it probably took me a couple of hours.
Oh! I’ve just realised that I still need to cut out some of the feathers in the left wing of one of the birds! How did I miss that?? I will go back and finish it once I’ve finished the final papercutting. Apart from that I was pretty pleased with this one. I tidied up the cuts so that they were cleaner and more crisp-looking, so even close-up I really like this one.
