Category: Projects

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 17: Tall Fruit Basket

papercut 507 tall fruit basket horizontal - LaserSister - KayVincent

Tall Fruit Basket #517

This is from an ongoing papercutting project that I’ve been doing. (Basically I’m trying to work my way through all of the designs in the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book by Dover Books.) The book only has numbers next to the designs and doesn’t have names or titles for them, so I usually call them whatever they look like. Hence “Tall Fruit Basket”…

Closer up:

Although I think a tall fruit basket would actually be rather impractical in real life (What are those fruits? How the heck do you reach the fruit at the bottom? How do you clean it if a kiwi fruit goes all mushy? If it’s not hollow all the way down to the bottom, then why does it need to be such a tall plinth to just hold fruit? If you did stretch your hand down to the bottom and grab a big grapefruit, is the middle section too narrow to let you pull the grapefruit back up? etc…), I like the overall lines of the design.

But I’m guessing I won’t be using the design again in a hurry.

Any comments? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 16: Woman Reading

Woman Reading #531

Woman Reading…is me, at the moment! She looks very scholarly, and that reflects my current PhD-student status.

This is the latest design in the ongoing papercutting project that I’ve been doing. (Basically I’m trying to work my way through all of the designs in the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book by Dover Books.) Today’s design is number #531 in the book. (They don’t have names – just numbers – so I have to come up with titles for the designs.)

Closer up:

I originally thought that she was a bit of a funny shape, but now that I look at the design again, I realise that she is sitting down and the giant book is resting on her knees.

Her face was the trickiest thing to adapt for papercutting, because I needed a way to attach the eyes and mouth to the side of the face without the links looking too obvious. I think if I cut this design again then I’d tweak the design of the hands. They look a bit claw-like and grabby.

That reminds me – I’ve just rejoined GAP (the Guild of American Papercutters (not that I’m American, but I don’t think there’s a UK version (?GUKP?!))) and there’s still time to enter their “Ex Libris” call for artwork. I’ve got at least another four months to go until the deadline, so I might come up with my own design for a bookplate.

Any comments? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 15: Branch Silhouette

Branch Silhouette

This is from an ongoing papercutting project that I’ve been doing. (Basically I’m trying to work my way through all of the designs in the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book by Dover Books.)

Today’s design is number #505 in the book. As I’ve mentioned before in this project, the designs in the book don’t have names, so I’ve had to come up with my own descriptions. No prizes for guessing why this one is called “Branch Silhouette”.

Closer up:

I quite like this one, and I’m not even sure why, because the flowers and leaves aren’t that pretty. Maybe it’s just the branch itself that I actually like.

And I also managed to cut it out fairly accurately. There were lots of very thin lines that needed to be cut out, and they turned out OK.

If I ever do come up with a series of fairytale-based papercuts, I think this design will be a candidate for including within the design.

I was still listening to The Grand Sophy audiobook when I did this papercutting. I must read more (or listen to more) of Georgette Heyer’s books.

Any comments? Why not contribute via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 14: Mini Flower

Mini Flower #517

Day 14 of my accelerated papercutting project, where I’m trying to adapt and cut 100 designs in 100 days. Today’s cute ‘mini flower’ papercut design is number 517 in the 922 Decorative Vector Ornaments book.

Closer up:

As opposed to yesterday’s design, I like this one. It’s a tiny little flower and I really like the design, and I also managed to cut it out fairly well.

I should definitely be able to use this design in some other project. In fact I look forward to it!

While I cut it I was listening to the Audible book version of Georgette Heyer’s The Grand Sophy. I LOVED it.

Do you like the mini flower papercut? Are you a Georgette Heyer fan too? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 13: Berries and Leaf

Berries and Leaf #523

This “Berries and Leaf” tiny papercut is from an ongoing project I’ve been doing (working my way through all of the designs in the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book by Dover Books.)

Closer up:

Hmmm. This is one of my least favourite designs. The leaf is OK, I guess, but I don’t like the branch, and I definitely don’t like the berries.

Oh well, at least it didn’t take long to cut. And I can always make changes to the design to make it more appealing to me.

Do you hate it as much as I do? Let me know via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 12: Crocodile Flower

Crocodile Flower #516

This “Crocodile Flower” is from an ongoing papercutting project that I’ve been doing. (Basically I’m trying to work my way through all of the designs in the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book by Dover Books.)

I couldn’t think of anything else to call it. (Hopefully I’m not the only person in the world who sees it like that?!)

Closer up:

It was quick and fun to cut this one, and I’m really pleased with how it came out.

I don’t know if I’ll have much use for a scary flower in any of my ‘real’ projects, but at least I enjoyed cutting it out at the time.

Do you agree that it looks like a cross between a flower and a crocodile? You can let me know via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 11: Lantern

Lantern Papercutting: #713

This “Lantern” papercut is from my Lockdown papercutting project. I’ve already been doing an ongoing papercutting project for a couple of years, but during the 2020 Covid19 Lockdown I’ve put the project into overdrive and am trying to adapt and cut 100 designs in 100 days.

The designs come from the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book by Dover Books, which is a collection of royalty-free images for artists and designers.

Today’s design is number #713 in the book.

Closer up:

This design looks quite straightforward, but because it’s got a lot of parallel lines – therefore they need to be as accurate and consistent as possible. And the bottom looks a bit skew-wiff, but I can ‘edit’ it with a tiny snip from my scissors or scalpel.

It’s a nice simple motif, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to find a use for it in many of my future projects. Maybe I could combine it with some of the other Chinese-style motifs from the book – e.g. the recent ‘window flower‘ papercuttings. All the same, I enjoyed cutting it at the time.

Any comments, or suggestions? You can contribute via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 10: Leafy Sprig

Leafy Sprig Papercut #508

“Leafy Sprig” papercut is from an extended papercutting project that I’ve been doing. Basically I’m trying to work my way through all of the designs in the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book by Dover Books, but at the moment I’ve accelerated the process by trying to adapt/cut 100 designs in 100 days.

Today’s design is number #508 in the book.

Closer up:

Funny how the really tiny ones look so chunky and lumpy when they’re magnified. Never mind – to the naked eye this one looks fine.

I don’t know where the designs come from in the book, but I suspect that this particular design comes from the same original reference source that the recent Bouquet design came from. They are very similar:

Now that I think about it, with the Bouquet design I was considering combining it with other similar-looking motifs to make a bigger design. This “Leafy Sprig” design would be perfect for that.

Again, it would go quite nicely in a Mother’s Day or birthday card, with the design done as a filigree papercutting, plus a personalised calligraphy message.

Any comments or suggestions? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 9: Triangular Sprig

Triangular Sprig #127

This “Triangular Sprig” design is from Day 9 of my Covid19 Lockdown papercutting project.

…which is part of an even bigger papercutting project that I’ve been doing for the last couple of years. I’m trying to adapt 100 designs for papercutting, from the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book by Dover Books. Then I’ll cut them with scissors and/or scalpel over 100 days.

This design is number #127 in the book.

Closer up:

I’m really on a roll with this papercutting thing – I don’t think I’ve accidentally ripped any for ages! And either I’m getting much better at papercutting, or I’m getting better at forgiving myself for all of the tiny little errors that happen when you hand-cut paper designs. (Or maybe I’m getting better at both.)

It reminds me of a similar design that I cut/posted fairly recently, of a triangular flower and leaf sprig. And that one in turn reminded me of 1960s Chinese papercuts, that a Wikipedia page calls “chuāng huā (窗花), window flowers or window paper-cuts.”

Because it’s symmetrical, I’m thinking about creating a sort of Chinese and Mexican mash-up/fusion design, where I turn it into a ‘papel picado’ motif.

Any comments? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 8: Bouquet

“Bouquet” papercut: #506

This “Bouquet” papercutting is yet another design from the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book by Dover Books.

It continues the papercutting project that I’ve been doing. (Basically I’m trying to work my way through all of the designs in the book, but at the moment I’ve got the added challenge of trying to adapt/cut 100 designs in 100 days.)

This week’s design is number #506 in the book.

Closer up:

This was yet another really enjoyable papercut because of the challenge/difficulty element, combined with the overall look and the small size. It took just less than an hour to cut, and involved lots of tiny tiny shapes and curves. There’s one particular line that jumps out at me as being a bit wiggly wobbly, but I actually don’t mind it.

And because it’s another Art Nouveau-type design, that just immediately appeals to me anyway.

I can see this design being useful just by itself, for a Mother’s Day or birthday card, with its cute little bouquet of flowers and leaves. Or on a more ambitious scale, being joined by other similar designs so that they all form a great big filigree card full of flowers and leaves.

Any comments, suggestions or ideas? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.