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 648 in the book. And yes, I have officially run out of creative names for these designs. Hence “Scrawny flower”. This one in particular is a bit of a puzzle – it’s got a fairly pretty leaf with some nice tendrils around it, but the flower itself is a bit … myeh.
Closer up:
I’m not sure I’ll use this design again, but I must admit that I do like the curly vine-tendril element.
Now that I look at it, I think I should probably have rotated it 90 degrees anti-clockwise, (so that it would make the top right element of a design, rather than the bottom left as I’ve currently shown it). And I’m also thinking that the fruits might be apples instead of oranges. Double oops!
Closer up:
Anyway, this is another design motif that I find particularly pleasing, so I think I will almost certainly use it in a future project.
As for the actual cutting skills, I’m fairly happy with the outcome. It’s a very forgiving design anyway because there aren’t any thin straight lines and because it’s asymmetrical, but all the same I’m pleased with the curves that I managed to cut.
In the background I was listening to The Story Studio podcast. It’s one of my top 5 writing podcasts to listen to. Probably a bit sweary for some people, but has given me some great writing ‘mindset’ tips over the last few years.
Today’s design is number 654 in the book (but I’m not cutting them in any particular order). But…
… it’s the 50th cut in my 100-day lockdown papercutting project. Half way!
Closer up:
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, faces are tricky to adapt for papercutting, because you need to find ways to link the eyes, eyebrows, nose and mouth to the rest of the design so they don’t fall off and disappear. Also compared with yesterday, this one feels a bit more forced and a bit less natural in the way I’ve linked some of the elements. I’ve had to drag the wavy hair a long way across the face so that the lips can link onto something, and the line of the nose has extended into the eyebrow so it has turned into a giant big conk.
I do like the individual elements though – especially the eyes – and so I think that with just a bit of a tweak to the nose I would use this design again one day.
“Deco Rose Woman” 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 659 in the book:
Closer up:
For once it should be fairly obvious how I’ve chosen the title for this design. It’s a woman with an Art Deco style rose in her hair. Easy!
And since there’s already a face deliberately included in the design, my eyes aren’t trying to trick me into seeing other little faces in the design (like they were in yesterday’s design and also this one).
I loved cutting this one, but especially adapting it. Faces are often really hard to adapt into realistic-looking papercutting designs. After all, how do you link people’s eyes, noses and mouths etc., without making the linking-pieces seem really ‘forced’? But in this case the design was very forgiving, because the nostril just hooks onto the rest of the nose, and the eyebrow and eye extend fairly naturally into the hair.
The expression on her face is a bit dour, so I’m not sure what I could use this particular design for. But if I adapted the expression a bit then it might work in a general illustration that required a woman’s face in it.
Today while creating this post I’ve been having a bit of a 1980s flashback, by listening to some of John Denver’s greatest hits.
Today’s design is number 689 in the book. For once I haven’t had to scratch my head too much thinking of a title/description for the design. It’s just got roses and ribbons in it (and leaves, I suppose). I don’t think any of the other motifs have had just those elements, so hooray – I’ve got a unique title for the piece.
Closer up:
Oh dear. That weird thing has happened again, where my eyes have spotted faces in the design that aren’t supposed to be there, and now I can’t un-see them. Where the two bits of ribbon meet in the middle at the top, I can see two faces touching each other. They look like those Greek tragedy masks, with the exaggerated lips and eyebrows:
…and so what started out as a perfectly lovely design of ribbons and roses has now become two Greek tragedy masks just on the verge of having a passionate kiss. Eeew.
Anyway, until I started to see it that way I had particularly liked this design. And I certainly enjoyed cutting it. I think I can see myself using it in another project in future, but I will definitely have to do something about those two kissing masks, first!
Any comments? (e.g. is it really just me who sees those masks?!) You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.
Today’s design is number 691 in the book. As always I’ve had to come up with a name for it myself (because in the book the motifs just have numbers and not names), but as so many of the designs involve flowers, I couldn’t just call it “Flower” because that wouldn’t differentiate it from all of the other flowers. This particular flower has got jagged, spiky lines in it. Hence the name.
Closer up:
I especially enjoyed cutting the extremely thin middle section of the flower – that was a real challenge. Looking at it again now, I’m not even sure how I managed it!
Although I like the overall look of this motif, a couple of elements don’t really seem to match the rest of it. It’s those very thin lines that don’t fit (according to my eyes, anyway). On the other hand, if the lines were made thicker then they would mess up the look of the design and make it hard to tell what they were. As the moment it’s obvious that they are the edges of leaves, but if they were thicker then they might look like side shoots or something.
So I almost definitely won’t be using this design again ‘as is’.
Never mind though – it wasn’t a wasted exercise. I’ve gained more experience in cutting, and I’ve got another design to put in my papercutting sketchbook.
On a completely different note: Oh goody. Look what Rob’s brought home from the supermarket because they had a ‘reduced’ sticker on them:
Now I get to hoik their guts out and descale them. Yay. Oh well, at least the meal should hopefully be better than last week’s effort.
Today’s design is number 707 in the book. It’s a bit of a tonguetwister – a trio of three leaves:
Closer up:
I enjoyed cutting this one. Thin tendrils combined in filigree-type elements. It makes for a delicate-looking design that looks a bit more complicated than it actually is.
When I first cut it I really liked it. But then I encountered a problem. The problem is that with a lot of floral or leafy designs, quite often my eyes spot little faces in the pattern that aren’t supposed to be there. In this case, the ivy-leaf designs look like Venetian carnival masks. The kind that just cover your eyes and nose. To me they always look a bit creepy – but the ones in this design look especially mean, with their slitty eyes and cruel leafy beaks.
Is it just me, or does anyone else see creepy faces in wallpaper designs etc?!
“Art Nouveau Corner Swag” is from the ongoing papercutting challenge that I’ve been continuing during the 2020 Lockdown(s). 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 720 in the book. As always I had to come up with my own name/description for this design, but I didn’t know what the flowers were. (Are they forget-me-nots??) So “Art Nouveau Corner Swag” is what I ended up with:
Closer up:
It’s a fairly simple design, but that’s one of the reasons I like it. It also had some very satisfying curves to cut, as well. I can see this design on a birthday card, or as part of a backdrop for another more complex project. This one is obviously for the top right corner of a design, so the image can be flipped to create the corresponding top left corner of the design, and that will nicely frame a message or another motif.
As usual I’m particularly drawn to this one anyway because it’s got the Art Nouveau-type curves and swirls in it.
This design is number 711 in the book. It’s ended up with one of the more unusual names for a design (and blog post title), because I couldn’t think how else to describe it. But as I write this post (as opposed to when I originally cut the piece) it is now November, which in recent years has become “Movember“. (Movember’s aim is to raise awareness about men’s health issues, including mental health issues.)
…and this design just happens to have what looks like a big Victorian-type waxed moustache in the middle of a heart. So why not just “say what I see”, and call the design “Moustache Heart Filigree”? Plus for all I know, those three words have never been put together in that order in the history of the English Language, so I feel like quite the pioneer 🙂
Closer up:
This was a challenging design to cut, and so I really enjoyed it.
I can’t immediately think of an occasion when I might use this particular design in a project. But never mind – it can still go into my sketchbook for me to look at later.
I’m still listening to the Servant of the Crown audiobook that I mentioned yesterday. I’m always on the hunt for great fantasy novels (or even good ones), but so far this one isn’t even a fantasy book. It’s mentioned a mage a couple of times, but that’s as close as it’s got to any magic. Remind me to put some magic in my fantasy book when I eventually get round to writing it…
This was a really delicate design, but was surprisingly quick to cut. I would love to use it in a future project, like a very special birthday card or thank-you card or wedding invitation etc.
While cutting it I was listening to an audiobook from the library, Servant of the Crown by Paul J. Bennett. I’m at Chapter 14 so far, and am hoping for an ‘inciting incident’ to happen soon. It reminds me that I’ve got my own half-finished fantasy novel languishing somewhere. Mind you, I should really use my writing time to do my PhD, rather than writing my fantasy novel.
At least all of the above took my mind off bloody Covid19 bloody lockdown bloody measures for a while. I would never have imagined that I would live in a country where the Government banned going to work, going to school, smiling at people, singing, or people hugging their grandchildren or going to their family’s weddings or funerals. This is like some kind of sick nightmare.
