Tag: rose

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 68: Rose Border

Rose Border #679

“Rose Border” is from 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 679 in the book. And it was easy to come up with a title.

rose border papercut with scalpel- Kay Vincent - Lasersister

Closer up:

rose border papercut - square - Kay Vincent - Lasersister

Wow – I really like this one! I love the design, and I’m also pleased with the way the actual papercutting turned out, as well.

Despite that though, I’m not sure I would use this design again in a real project. I prefer to cut ‘positive’ objects from black paper, rather than cutting ‘negative’ shapes out of the white paper. It’s still a good skill to develop though, cutting negative shapes. I might come up with some stencils – e.g. for creating designs for cake icing.

This one took a couple of hours to cut. I used a fresh blade, and it made a lot of difference. The cutting was a lot easier and I made hardly any mistakes.

In the background I’ve been continuing to listen to the audiobook of Duskfall by Christopher Husberg. The story’s OK, but I find that the narration is really grating on my ears, because of the accent that the narrator uses for some of the characters. It’s like a fake-sounding “Oirish” accent.

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

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 50: Flower Hair Woman

papercut 654 flower hair woman - horizontal - LaserSister - KayVincent

Flower Hair Woman #654

This “Flower Hair Woman” design is from my ongoing papercutting challenge. (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 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!

papercut 654 flower hair woman - vertical pinterest - LaserSister - KayVincent

Closer up:

papercut 654 flower hair woman - horizontal - LaserSister - KayVincent

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.

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

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 49: Deco Rose Woman

papercut 659 deco rose woman - horizontal - LaserSister - KayVincent

Deco Rose Woman #659

“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:

papercut 659 deco rose woman - vertical pinterest - LaserSister - KayVincent

Closer up:

papercut 659 deco rose woman - square - LaserSister - KayVincent

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.

Any comments on today’s post or design? You can chip in via the comments page, or Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 48: Roses and Ribbons

papercut-689-roses-and-ribbons-horizontal-LaserSister-KayVincent

Roses and Ribbons #689

“Roses and Ribbons” design is part of my ongoing papercutting challenge. (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 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.

papercut 689 roses and ribbons - vertical pinterest - LaserSister - KayVincent

Closer up:

papercut 689 roses and ribbons - square - LaserSister - KayVincent

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:

close-up of part of the image that looks like two Greek tragedy masks kissing

…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.

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Lockdown Papercutting Project Day 7: Roses

papercut 509 roses - watermarked - LaserSister - KayVincent

“Roses” papercut: #509

This “Roses” design is from the continuing papercutting project, where 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 #509 in the book.

papercut 509 roses - pinterest vertical - LaserSister - KayVincent

Closer up:

papercut 509 roses close up- square watermarked - LaserSister - KayVincent

I really enjoyed adapting and cutting this design. Because I used a new scalpel blade and was paying attention, I think it turned out quite well. I especially liked cutting the little veins in the leaves. I’m not quite as keen on the design of the actual flowers themselves, but I still liked adapting and cutting them.

I’m definitely planning on using this design motif in a future project. I can see them as the border for a bigger design, maybe. Ooh, or it could be part of a “Beauty and the Beast” design that I’ve been thinking about creating. (One of these days I’d like to create a series of papercutting designs based on fairytales.)

I can’t even remember what I was watching or listening to while I cut this one, I was so engrossed in it. I was probably listening to a writing-related podcast.

Any comments on the design, or have you tried to cut any of the decorative ornaments from the same book? 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

papercut 534 horizontal with scalpel - watermarked - LaserSister - KayVincent

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”.

Papercut 534 with scalpel square watermarked - LaserSister - KayVincent

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…

Papercut 534 close up square watermarked - LaserSister - KayVincent

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): Standard Rosebush Papercut K122

papercut k122 standard rosebush with pen for scale - LaserSister - KayVincent wm

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:

papercut k122 standard rosebush with pen for scale - LaserSister - KayVincent wm

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:

papercut k122 standard rosebush - LaserSister - KayVincent wm

Closest up:

papercut k122 standard rosebush closeup - LaserSister - KayVincent

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…

papercut k122 standard rosebush with pen for scale - LaserSister - KayVincent wm

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

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Papercutting Project (Continued) Flower and Fleur de Lys Papercut K703

papercut k703 - flower and fleur de lys with pen for scale - LaserSister - Kay Vincent

Flower and Fleur de Lys Papercut Design

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.

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

I still need to cut the square edges more so it’s symmetrical, but on the whole I think I did an OK job:

papercut k703 - flower and fleur de lys with pen for scale - LaserSister - Kay Vincent

Closer up:

papercut k703 - flower and fleur de lys - LaserSister - Kay Vincent

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.

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Art Nouveau Rose Papercut

papercut k113 with pen for scale - Kay Vincent - LaserSister

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:

papercut k113 with pen for scale - Kay Vincent - LaserSister

Closer up:

papercut k113 closeup - Kay Vincent - LaserSister

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.

I cut this one while listening to the Bestseller Experiment Podcast (episode #163). I’m enjoying this podcast so much and getting so much out of it that last week I actually signed up as a patron on their Patreon page.

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.

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