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The design is number 122 in the book. (Because the designs don’t have names, I’ve come up with my own title of ‘standard rosebush’. (‘Standard’ = ‘tree-shaped rosebush on a long stem’ as opposed to ‘common/boring rosebush’).
I really like this design:
Closer up:
For once I don’t think I’ve got any really obvious ‘snags’ in it, that draw my eye away towards errors rather than towards the overall design. Instead I just enjoy looking at the shapes of the flowers and stem, and marvelling at how the heck I’d managed to cut such thin lines:
Closest up:
Even though I really like this design, I’m not sure I can think of an occasion when I might use it in future. However, I’m glad that this series of papercutting projects has caused me to cut it.
It took over two hours to cut, and I was listening to the audiobook version of Lucy Hounsom’s Starborn book at the time.
I’ve no idea how many of the designs I’ve managed to cut from the ‘922 Vector Ornaments’ book, yet. I’ll have to do a count-up soon, because I think I might be close to halfway…
This ‘Fleurs de Lys Border’ papercut is from the continuing papercutting project that I’ve been doing. (I’m trying to adapt and cut my way through all of the designs in the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book by Dover Books, and so have got 922 little papercutting projects to work on.)
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The design is number 126 in the book.
It was relatively straightforward to cut, and would make a nice border for a project, or even a suitable crown for a king in a fantasy image.
Closer up:
Close up it’s a bit more obvious that the little shapes aren’t symmetrical, but as I go along with these projects they really are teaching me things. (Like how not to hate that I’ve cut imperfect shapes and then let other people see them.) Instead I’m getting much more relaxed about enjoying them for the cutting process in itself, and then the very fact that they are slightly wonky.
What I especially like about this design is that I could cut the pointy tops of the fleur-de-lys shapes in just a single snip, thanks to my fantastic accidentally-damaged scissors.
A few years ago I bought a pair of scissors, with the intention of using them especially for papercutting. I got them from Ernest Wright & Son Ltd, because I wanted really good quality, and the city of Sheffield has been associated with producing cutlery and scissors for centuries. The scissors came with a protective case and a little certificate:
They were brilliant. So sharp, so precise, so capable of cutting tiny detailed shapes.
…and then in the first week of owning them, I managed to drop them. Onto a concrete floor. Point-downward.
I said a very rude swearword.
My poor, expensive scissors (if that’s not an oxymoron) were irretrievably bent:
But then I tried to use them. And discovered that I had invented The Best Pair of Papercutting Scissors Ever. They cut tiny little curved shapes!
I have now had them for several years and they’re still really sharp. But I’ve got no idea if I’ll ever be able to get them sharpened. I might ask the makers, actually, to see if they’re up for a challenge. In the meantime, I can cut the little curved tops of the fleur de lys shapes above in just one snip.
Have you had any serendipitous disasters-that-turned-out-to-be-triumphs? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.
This design is from my ongoing papercutting project (where I’m trying to work my way through all of the designs in the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book.) It’s a fairly simple flower-and-fleur-de-lys papercut design, and this one is number 703 in the book.
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I still need to cut the square edges more so it’s symmetrical, but on the whole I think I did an OK job:
Closer up:
Even close up I’m quite satisfied with the cutting of this one, for a change. The lines aren’t too jagged, the straight bits are straight, and the curved sections are curved.
It’s a nice simple design, and I like the heraldic-looking elements. I can see myself using parts of this design in future projects.
While I did the cutting I was listening to Sarah Pascoe’s Sex, Power, Money (as an audiobook). Very interesting book. It’s not actually the sort of book I would usually read or listen to, but I’ve been binge-listening to so many audiobooks recently that I’ve run out of my normal reading matter. It’s definitely opened my eyes (or ears, I suppose!) to a lot of issues…
So what started out as a therapeutic papercutting project, ended up including some interesting lessons in human nature as well.
(Continuing my papercutting project – trying to adapt and hand-cut projects based on all of the designs in “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” by Dover Books.) None of the designs in the book have names, they just have numbers. So because this design looks like a couple of bunches of grapes and a dangly vine-y thing, I’ve naturally called it “Grapes and Vine”.
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Grapes and Vine Papercutting K726
Design number 726 in the book was a challenge. (Sorry about the out-of-focus image, by the way. I’ll try to take a better version one day, but at least the closeup version is OK.) It’s got very very thin lines to cut for the vine-y bits, and then lots of very small, very curved sections (i.e. the grape-looking bits). I tackled these with a new scalpel blade, because by now I have got enough experience in papercutting to know that small round objects and thin lines should automatically make me reach for a fresh blade.
Closer up:
Even Closer up
I did tidy the design up a bit after I’d cut it, and overall I’m quite pleased with it. However, when you look at it really close up, you can see the places on most of the grapes where I’ve changed position of the blade or paper mid-cut. (See below, circled in red…):
The perfectionist in me obviously doesn’t like this. And yet the positive, celebratory, skill-learning, “evolving” person in me is very pleased that there are a couple of grapes where this effect isn’t as noticeable. (Plus this is VERY close up, and probably not even noticeable in ‘real life’!)
But the skill-learning, “evolving” person in me is also wondering if it is possible to improve my technique even more. If I keep practising and learning about papercutting techniques, might I eventually get to a stage where I can cut pieces without these little blips showing?
I think it would feel very satisfying to know that I had the skills to cut a ‘perfect’ design.
On the other hand, a laser cutting machine can already cut everything perfectly – and also much more quickly – and so is there any point in me trying to be perfect? And what if it looked perfect this close up, but then at a further level of magnification there were still some flaws that showed up? Where should I draw the line?!
OK – I think I’ve come to a conclusion. I am going to aim for “excellent” rather than “perfect”. Because perfection, as I’ve just realised above, is impossible anyway. There will always be one further magnification that can show more errors.
Mind you, what does “excellent” mean? Oh dear. Here we go again…
Do you have any advice about improving my cutting (e.g. to avoid making those little marks when I change the position of the paper or the blade)? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.
(Still working on the papercutting project where I’m adapting and hand-cutting my way through the designs in the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book.) I’ve called this one “Art Nouveau Waterlily Flower” but as I explain below, I’m not 100% convinced that it actually is a waterlily…
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Art Nouveau Waterlily Flower Papercutting K118
Design number 118 in the book is a nice little waterlily. Or maybe a lotus flower. Or some other flower. Now that I look at it again, I’m not convinced it’s a waterlily because waterlily leaves are the classic ‘lily pads’ that frogs sit on, aren’t they? Whereas these leaves are small and pointy (or long and sinuous). Oh well, maybe I could convince myself that it’s a waterlily if I think that the little pointy bits are its roots, and the long sinuous bits are representations of the water that the flower is sitting in.
I did tidy the design up a bit after I’d cut it, but it’s a bit ‘lumpy’ in places. Overall though, I really like this one. I can definitely see myself using it in a future project as part of a design.
Closer up:
I cut this one while listening to Mark Dawson’s Self Publishing Show podcast (previously the Self Publishing Formula show). Very useful information!
Any comments about the design (like what the heck kind of flower it is), or advice about improving my cutting? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.
What is a “sprue”, and why should I use sprues with my lasercutting designs?
(This is another article in “Money-Saving Lasercutting Tips” – a free tutorial series that demonstrates effective and efficient lasercutting techniques. Tip #3 is all about those awful moments when you watch your precision-cut laser pieces drop down into the guts of the machine … and how to avoid those moments in future.)
Definition of a sprue
Sprues are most commonly seen in injection-moulded plastic toys. For a fuller description check out the Wikipedia definition, but briefly:
In the image below, there are little links that connect the plastic toy components to the frame. These are the sprues. They are created as part of the moulding process, but the useful secondary function of sprues is that they hold the components securely in position within the plastic frame, until you twist or cut the components out. So below, the pieces stay safely in place until the user needs them, rather than rattling around in a box or falling on the floor and getting lost.
Why do I need to use sprues when I’m cutting with a laser?
In laser cutting projects, you often need to cut light materials such as paper or card. But because the machines often blow and/or suck air during the cutting process, it’s very easy for a lovely piece of personalised wedding card to just fly away while you look on in horror.
It’s also really common to need to cut very small pieces from plastic or wood. But if they are smaller than the holes in the cutting bed of the laser machine, the pieces often fall through the holes as they have been cut. Then you either have to fish the pieces out of the cutting bed, or cut them again. This can potentially be a big waste of time and money.
Oh no! Where have three of my little circles gone?
This will happen to all lasercutter users at least once, but not everyone knows what to do to avoid it.
It might seem like it doesn’t matter very much because they are only tiny pieces and you can always cut more of them. But in the example image above I have lost 75% of my pieces. And what started out as a cutting job of only a few seconds, has now turned into either a search-and-rescue mission to retrieve the three little circles, or a waste of more time and material because I need to cut more pieces.
So we therefore need a way to cut the pieces that automatically stops them falling down or blowing away.
One solution is to use sprues, and to include them in the cutting design right from the start.
When to Use Sprues
Generally speaking, use sprues if the piece to be cut is less than 1cm squared, and anytime you are cutting a design from a piece of paper.
How to Design Sprues
You can create sprues very quickly and easily in most vector-based drawing software (e.g. Photoshop or CorelDraw). I happen to use CorelDraw, but the principles are the same for most other apps/programs.
For most lasercutting projects, a sprue is just going to be a small break in the cutting line. It should be:
Big enough that the cut piece remains connected to the paper/wood/plastic
Small enough that the cut piece can be pulled or pushed out of the sheet of paper/wood/plastic by hand
There are two main ways to create them. The first is to ‘manually’ make a tiny break in the cutting line, and the second is to use the Weld function to make the break.
Method 1: Make a ‘manual’ break in the cutting line
Step 1) Make sure that you can edit curves and manipulate/add nodes on the cutting path of the design. (In CorelDraw the “Shape Tool” lets you do this.)
Note: If you can’t see any nodes to edit, you may need to convert the shape to curves first (e.g. by right-clicking the mouse and selecting “Convert to Curves”):
2) Zoom in really close to the object (e.g. so that a 3mm line fills the whole screen), then add two new nodes as close to an existing node as you can manage:
3): Select the middle node of the group of three nodes, then break the path of the curve. (e.g. by right-clicking and choosing “Break Apart”):
Screenshot from CorelDraw: breaking a curve
4) That middle node should have broken in two, so take one of the two resulting nodes and drag it about half a millimetre outside the curve. Then do the same for the other new node. This creates a small break in the cutting line, so that when you cut the piece it should now remain fixed in place until you’re ready to push or tear it from the material you were cutting.
Screenshot from CorelDraw with broken curve zoomed in
Screenshot of object with sprue at the top
5) Use the laser cutter to cut out the shape.
The object can now be pushed or pulled out of the sheet of material that it was cut from.
(You may need a knife or scissors to help cut it free, and a file or blade to cut off any extra material left over.)
Extra material at the top of the flower can be cut off with scissors
Conclusion
Using sprues helps laser cutters to save time, money, and annoyance. Instead of wailing in anguish as you watch another tiny precision-cut object fly away or disappear down a hole, consider using this little ‘design hack’ to avoid those problems.
Basically, whenever you’re lasercutting and you think “tiny” or “paper”, you should also think, “use sprues!”
I hope you found this article useful.
Method 2 (using the ‘Weld’ function to create sprues) is coming up later, but in the meantime if you have any comments or questions, please feel free to share them in the comments section or via the contact form.
(Still working on the papercutting project where I’m adapting and hand-cutting my way through the designs in the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book.) This week is a really tiny and fiddly design, of a vine and leaves.
(Note: some of the links below are affiliate links. If you’d like to find out more then please check out my policies page.)
Leaves and Vine Papercutting K112
Design number 112 from the book is a simple-looking image, but because it’s so small it was really tricky to cut.
Unlike the previous (owl) design, I didn’t tidy up the piece after I’d cut it, and so it’s got loads of ‘threads’ hanging off it, and has gone a bit thin in one section of the vine. But that is only when you see the piece really close up. When I just look at it without any magnification, it seems fine.
Closer up:
So yeah – I could definitely tidy it up a lot more, but I think I’ll just leave it as it is for now, because I still like the design.
Any comments about the design, or advice about the cutting? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.
This cute little owl papercutting is part of my ongoing papercutting project that I started a couple of years ago. (Adapting and hand-cutting my way through the designs in “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” by Dover Books.)
(Note: some of the links below are affiliate links. If you’d like to find out more then please check out my policies page.)
Owl Papercutting K107
Design number 107 in the book was easy to name, for once! It’s an owl. This one took quite a few tweaks to turn it into a papercutting, mainly because the central dots of its eyes were just ‘floating’ and not connected to any other parts of the design. I needed to extend the feathery outer bits of the eyes so that the pupils could ‘hang’ from them.
This ended up as one of the neatest cuts I’ve made so far. In many of the previous cuts I’ve said “what a shame I didn’t tidy up the cut before I photographed it”…
… but I seem to have suddenly realised that there is nothing stopping me doing the tidying! So instead of leaving any ragged bits and bobs I snipped them off before I took the photo. Duh.
Closer up:
There were lots of little curved lines in this cut, but the scalpel did a pretty good job.
Even up close I like it.
While I was cutting it I was still listening to the audiobook version of Brandon Sanderson’s Elantris. I am coming round to the idea of audiobooks as a ‘productivity tool’. Sanderson’s books are normally huuuuuuge big chunky tomes, and take days to read. Being able to listen to a book while doing gardening and household chores has been a real bonus, this week.
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’m still working on the papercutting project that I started a couple of years ago. (Trying to adapt and (hand-) cut my way through all designs in “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” by Dover Books.) None of designs in the book have names – they just have numbers. I’ve called number 106 “Sunrise Flower” because it looks a tiny bit like a cross between a flower with leaves, and a sun with rays spreading out from it.
(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.)
Sunrise Flower Papercut K106
As mentioned above this week’s design is number 106 in the book (in case you want to hunt it down and cut it yourself).
It might not look like much, but it was very enjoyable to cut.
Closer up:
I think I was using a fairly new blade, so it was very easy to cut the flowing curved lines. Even the tricky delicate bits cut from the central parts of the design felt fairly easy.
Yes, up close it’s a bit asymmetrical and that thin curved line of the ‘sun’ goes a bit too thin…but that’s the difference between hand-cutting and laser-cutting these designs. The hand-cut pieces aren’t meant to be perfect – that’s what gives them their individuality and charm 🙂
I’m still using the pack of 100 scalpel blades that I bought a couple of years ago, but at some point I’ll need to get some refills. Here is a link I found to some new ones:
While I was cutting it I was listening to an audiobook version of Brandon Sanderson’s Elantris. I’m still not sure what I think of audiobooks. I definitely prefer to read physical books (or even ebooks). Partly because I like so see how names are spelled, I guess. But if I’m using my hands for something else (like crafts or chores or driving) then I love listening to podcasts because I’m still learning new stuff all the time. So audiobooks are a bit of an experiment that I’m dabbling with at the moment, instead of podcasts.
Any comments about the design, or advice about the cutting? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.
(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.
