Tag: flower

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 6: Berries and Leaves

papercut 511 horizontal with scalpel - watermarked - LaserSister - KayVincent

Berries and Leaves Papercut #511

I’ve called today’s project “Berries and Leaves” papercut, for obvious reasons. It’s Day 6 of my Lockdown Project (which is a continuation of the ongoing papercutting project that I’ve been doing, for the last couple of years), but day 27(ish) of the actual UK lockdown.

The “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book doesn’t have titles for any of the designs (which is why I’ve come up with my own names for them) but in the book it’s number #511:

Closer up:

This was a really challenging piece to cut. The tiny berries were particularly difficult, because they were too small to cut with scissors, but cutting curves with a scalpel was tricky:

This design ticks a lot of boxes for me – I like the Art Nouveau style and the mostly-symmetrical pattern, and the overall difficulty/challenge level of the cutting itself. I can definitely see myself using it in a ‘real’ project one day – even if it’s just part of a birthday card.

I was watching The Tick on Amazon Prime while I cut this one out. Why did they only make two seasons? Whyyyyyy? It was funny and clever, and watching it made a good antidote to the Coronavirus weirdness out in the ‘real’ world. Oh well, when everyone else runs out of stuff to watch on Netflix and Amazon maybe they’ll give the Tick a try and realise how good it was.

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

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 5: Cornucopia

Cornucopia #519

This “Cornucopia” design is from my extended papercutting project, where I’m trying to adapt all 922 images from the book “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments“, to make them into papercutting designs, and then cut them out by hand. This one is design #519 in the book.

Closer up:

This is another one that I really like – even up close:

There are only a few shaky lines, and the rest seem fairly competently executed – even the really thin ones. And the outside edges don’t look too ‘lumpy’.

As with so many of these designs though, I’m not sure whether I’ll ever find a ‘real’ project to use it in. Especially since the current Covid19 lockdown period doesn’t really make me think of overflowing cornucopias or abundance at the moment…

While I was cutting it I was still listening to Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Ugh. Thank goodness it was an audiobook borrowed free via the library, instead of using credits or actual money – that would have made it even more disappointing to listen to.

Any comments about the design or the cutting? (or indeed, Mansfield Park?) You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 3: Art Nouveau Design Papercut

Art Nouveau Design #530

This ‘Art Nouveau Design’ papercut is part of my ongoing papercutting project, where I’m adapting designs from the book “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” to turn them into papercutting designs. This one is design #530 from the book.

Closer up:

I love this one! For a start the design is right up my street; it reminds me of William Morris and Arts & Crafts Movement designs:

But for this one in particular the thin lines turned out really well. I don’t think I accidentally ripped any of them, for a change, and even close up they seem OK.

This is a design that I can definitely see myself using in a ‘real’ project, one day.

While I was cutting I was listening to Tim Ferriss’s “4-Hour Work Week” audiobook. The world has changed a lot since it was released in 2008! Off the top of my head I can think of three things that have become extinct since then: faxes, Blackberries, and MySpace. The advice was still interesting and useful, but hopefully the companion website keeps readers/listeners up to date with new developments.

Any comments or advice about the ‘Art Nouveau design papercut’ or the cutting? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 2: Oranges and Ribbon

Oranges and ribbon #651

Day 2 of the continuing papercutting project, where I’m adapting designs from the book “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” so they can be turned into papercuts via scissors and/or scalpel. (And so that my sanity will remain intact during the Covid-19 lockdown, because I find papercutting to be very relaxing and therapeutic.) This is design #651 from the book, and I’ve called it “Oranges and Ribbon” papercutting.

Closer up:

Maybe they’re not oranges? But I don’t think they’re tomatoes, because the leaves look more citrus-y than tomato-y. And I didn’t know how else to describe the swirly thing, so that’s why I just called it a ribbon. I like that the papercutting is sort-of-but-not-exactly symmetrical.

To me the design looks half Art Nouveau and half Art Deco (ribbon and oranges, respectively). Close up some of the lines do look a bit ‘lumpy’ because I didn’t go back and tidy them up, but that was because I was fairly satisfied with it to begin with. Unlike yesterday’s design at least the lines are nice and thick, so I wasn’t afraid of stretching the paper and accidentally ripping it as I went along. To be honest I don’t think I’d make any changes if I had to cut it again.

I’m not sure I will ever be able to find a real-life project where I’ll be able to incorporate this design (unless I end up sending someone a card one day that says something like “Orange you glad it’s your birthday?”) but in the meantime I enjoyed cutting this one.

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

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Lockdown Papercutting Project: Day 1 – Tangly Rose

Tangly rose papercutting design: #534

A couple of years ago I set myself a papercutting project, where I adapted 100 papercutting designs (from the book “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments“), and then cut them out with a scalpel and scissors over 100 days. Since then I’ve carried on with the project, cutting about one design per week, but since we’re currently in the “2020 Covid-19 Lockdown”, I need a bit of occupational therapy to keep me calm, so I’m starting another 100-day project. Today’s design #534 from the book, and I’ve called it “tangly rose”.

Closer up:

This design seems like a bit of a strange mixture, to me. Those definitely aren’t rose leaves that the rose is sitting in. They remind me of seaweed or snakes…

But it was definitely a good exercise in terms of adapting and cutting the design. The rose was fairly straightforward to cut, but the tangly leaf/snake things were really tricky. The lines are very very fine. But my accidentally-bent scissors did a good job of helping me with a lot of the difficult bits.

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

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Papercutting project (continued): leafy corner sprig

Leafy corner sprig #686

This ‘leafy corner sprig’ papercut is part of my ongoing papercutting project, where I’m adapting lots of designs for papercutting from the book “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments“, and am then cutting them with a scalpel. This one is design #686 from the book.

(Some of the links in this article might be ‘affiliate links’. If you’d like to know more, please check out the small print page…)

Closer up:

Are they leaves, or are they flowers? I’m not sure. But I like the overall effect of the swirly vine-y pattern. I think it would look really nice as a repeated decoration in the four corners of a larger design:

Now that I’m a couple of years into this project, I can definitely see that my cutting skills have improved. The cuts seem to look a lot cleaner and more accurate than they used to.

However, I must admit that the reason is due to a bit of a cheat, really. I cut each piece out … but then leave it aside for a few days or weeks. Then when I come back to it again I ‘edit’ it by snipping at it a bit more and smoothing and neatening lines. Each piece usually only needs a few tweaks, but those little tweaks really do make a big difference, overall.

Before, I used to just keep cutting until I either ran out of leisure time, or my eyes got tired, or I got frustrated with all of the mistakes that I was making. But now I’ve realised that if I’m making mistakes and ripping the designs then it’s either because I’m tired, or because the scalpel blade is getting dull. Both of those causes are easy to fix – I either need to stop and have a rest, or to change the blade.

I can’t remember exactly where I bought my replacement scalpel blades the last time, but it must have been either Ebay or Amazon. I bought a pack of 100 and I’m still using them, over two years later. These are the sort of blades that I searched for when I was looking at buying the replacements.

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

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Papercutting project (continued): triangular flower and leaf sprig

Triangular flower and leaf sprig 722

My ongoing papercutting project continues, where I’m trying to adapt all 922 images from the book “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments“, to make them into papercutting designs, and then cut them out by hand. This one is design #722 in the book, and I’ve called it “triangular flower and leaf sprig”.

You might think that if I’ve got to #722 out of 922 designs that I might ‘only’ have 200 designs to go before I finish the project. But I’m not cutting them in any particular order. Maybe I should check how many I have cut, so far. I don’t even know if I’m halfway yet!

(Some of the links in this article might be ‘affiliate links’. If you’d like to know more, please check out the small print page…)

Closer up:

This design reminds me of 1960s Chinese papercuts. This Wikipedia page calls the style “chuāng huā (窗花), window flowers or window paper-cuts.”

I like the way the elements of this triangular flower and leaf sprig join together. I’ve tried to make the joins between the pieces flow into each other and look fairly natural.

And the actual cutting of the piece is fairly ‘clean’ as well, with only a few lumps and bumps in it when you look at it up close.

While I was cutting it I was listening to “Blood’s Pride”, by Evie Manieri:

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

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Papercutting project (continued): convolvulus flower

Convolvulus flower #525

My ongoing papercutting project continues (where I’m trying to adapt 922 images from the book “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments“, to make them into papercutting designs, and then cut them out by hand). This one is design #525 in the book, and it looks like a convolvulus flower, so that’s what I’ve called it.

(Some of the links in this article might be ‘affiliate links’. If you’d like to know more, please check out the small print page…)

Closer up:

This design reminds me of 1960s Chinese papercuts. (Wikipedia calls the style “chuāng huā (窗花), window flowers or window paper-cuts“, because the finished papercuts were often displayed in windows.)

It appeals to me because it’s sort-of-symmetrical-but-also-not-symmetrical.

The design was a fairly ‘forgiving’ piece to cut, because the cuts are mostly angular and jagged. And the lines that are curved tend to make nice sweeping lines rather than fiddly little shapes. So yes, overall it was very satisfying to cut, and even close-up I’m pretty happy with it.

While I was cutting it I was listening to “Blood’s Pride”, by Evie Manieri:

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

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Papercutting Project (Continued): Pomegranate and Leaves Papercut K708

Pomegranate and Leaves Papercut – From Decorative Vector Ornaments Book

The ‘Pomegranate and Leaves’ papercut design is from an ongoing papercutting project that I’ve been doing, for the last couple of years(!) I’m trying to adapt and cut all of the designs in the book “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments“. I’ve forgotten why I even wanted to do it, now, but I’ve got so far into it that I might as well continue 🙂

(Some of the links in this article are affiliate links. If you’d like to know more, please check out the small print page…)

The book doesn’t have titles for any of the designs, so I’ve called no# 708 “Pomegranate and Leaves”.

Closer up:

This design has got some extremely tiny shapes to cut out, and they were a real challenge. Some are only a little bit bigger than a pinprick:

I really do need to count up how many of these designs I’ve cut now, but I think it’s close to 400. And with each one I feel like I’m getting just a bit more confident and competent at cutting. I’m also getting better at adapting images so that I can make papercuttings from them.

I particularly enjoyed adapting and cutting this piece, because it’s got the traditional floral shapes of an Art Nouveau design. The curves of the leaves appeal to me, as well as the stylised pomegranates (at least, I think that’s what they are!) I can definitely see myself using some of the elements of this design in a future project.

While I was cutting it I was (half-)watching Cake Walk on Amazon Prime (Amazon Prime might still have a free 30-day trial if you haven’t tried it already).

Cake Walk really is a guilty pleasure for me – the finished cake designs don’t always look 100% professional, but I just enjoy watching the processes that the contestants go through. And I suppose I feel a bit of camaraderie with them as well, because when the Zombie Apocalypse inevitably comes, then it will turn out that cake designing and papercutting will both be among the least useful hobbies that people could have spent their time on…

Any comments about the design or the cutting (or my taste in TV shows)? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

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Papercutting Project (Continued): Standard Rosebush Papercut K122

Standard Rosebush Papercut from Decorative Vector Ornaments Book

This ‘standard rosebush’ papercut design is from an ongoing papercutting project that I’ve been doing. (I’m trying to cut my way through all of the designs in the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book.)

(Some of the links in this article are ‘affiliate links’. If you’d like to know more, please check out the small print page…)

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…

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