Pomegranate papercut

I love pomegranates. We had a little ornamental pommie tree in the front garden of my house growing up. The fruits weren't edible but it didn't stop me from trying (more than once).

I'm really enjoying the new direction of my papercuts so I decided an ode to my favourite fruit was in order.

Those pips! Gah. But it was worth it. Here's a closer look at some of the detail:

And here is an interim point in the cutting that shows the outline. I overlay it on each new colour to see how it will look...and I'm always tempted to stop at this point. 

In this case I'm glad I carried on but maybe with a future piece I'll stop, we'll see. 

This piece is now available in my shop. 

Pot plant papercut

I did another papercutting this weekend and although halfway through I felt like I was going insane I am so so pleased with how this turned out! 

This piece reminds me a lot of Jean Jacques Rousseau, He was one of my favourite artists growing up. I love all the stylised foliage in his jungle pictures. Apparently he spent a long time in botanical gardens painting different exotic plants which he later used in his paintings (that from a essay I wrote for my IB art class..). 


I especially like that this piece depicts our actual plants on our actual window sill. Most of my papercuts are pulled from my imagination so it was nice to do something different. 

But man, I could really tell that this was a new direction...I must have gone through 10 blades cutting this piece. That window pane was a killer. I'm glad I stuck at it as the lines of the panes work really well with the organic shapes of the plants. 

I'm excited to do more of these but for now this one is now available in my shop. 

Deer papercut - now in shop

So I finally did a new papercut! It's been ages as I have been busy with my quilt. I have had some plans rattling around in my head for a while and haven't really been able to get them out...

This isn't the actual project I had in mind but as it is a departure from my usual style and process for papercutting I just wanted to do a quick project to test the water. 

I actually did most of this piece one Sunday evening so it was fast which was really satisfying. 

The black outline approach is new for me...it does add a layer (haha) of complexity but I do like the way it looks like stained glass. 








Here's how it came together:

1. I used a white pen to sketch the
outline of the image and then cut out
the lines..

2. The finished outline - this is all cut
from a single piece of black craft
paper.

3. I started building up the colours inside
the outlines. I started with the foreground
- flowers, deer and worked backwards. 

4. Building up the various layers to
create the background and sense of
depth.

And...done! I like how it turned out and it was fun to try a new style. I also feel like I have a better idea of how to take forward a bigger project that I am trying work out. Although probably more smaller projects like this are in order before I dive into that so keep posted... 

This piece is now available for sale in my Etsy shop. 

Some good stuff I saw recently..

I've noticed some good stuff about at the moment and thought I'd share...

- A papercutting competition! If like me you’ve fallen off the wagon and need to dust off your scalpel and get back on.. check it out here.

- Last episode of Fresh Meat (Channel 4 here in the UK). This show was so great and the last episode was brilliant... I'm literally going to start re-watching the whole thing immediately. If you haven't seen it, do.

- This amazing work from Conrad Jon Godly. How stunning? Credit to Danielle Krysa @ The Jealous Curator for bringing to my attention. Reminds me of my love of Kyfin Williams and my own forays into oil painting.

- I just discovered Marimekko design. I am going to have to use some restraint in not buying all the plates, they are great. 

Enjoy!

The owls are not what they seem - Twin Peaks papercut

I think owls were one of the very first papercuts I did way back in 2007 (?) - and I seem to come back to them every couple of years. 

This latest one I started months ago...and sort of lost the thread and put it aside for a bit, which then turned into a bit more than a bit. While I was doing a big paper tidy up and inventory today it turned up in a pad of paper and I was finally inspired to finish it up (also, it was super rainy so the garden was in no way tempting..).

So I had started the pair of owls, a big and little, framed with a circular branch in turquoise but I wasn't really sure what to do next...although I liked the dark blue background as it was a nice contrast to the owls and looked night-time-ish.

Technical side note for anyone who cares: Gluing down all this sort of piece, especially when it's origami paper rather than artist paper (which is thicker) is always the most tricky bit of the process. I have tried a bunch of different approaches - glue sticks, glue pens, and starch paste...I use all of these at some point but my preferred method is good old pva glue, a toothpick and a load of patience...

Anyway, back to the owls...the night-timishness of the dark blue (and my recent sorting and discovery of lots of grey paper) made me consider the addition of the moon which sort of left a gap in composition. I have been meaning, and avoiding, attempting lettering in papercut but this seemed like a good opportunity to try. 

Twin Peaks has been a long standing fixture in my life since uni...I've lost count of how many times I've watched it and quoted it and it was a definite plus (on both sides) when James and I were in the early stages of dating and realised the other was a fan.

So going down the 'owls are not what they seem' route was a bit of a no brainer. 

The lettering was not a walk in the park but I like the way it turned out so I am up for the challenge of having another go. 

In the meantime, this piece is now available for sale in my shop - don't miss a chance to have a bit of original Twin Peaks art! 

Busy, but not blogging

Oops. It's been a few months since my last post. I blame the halfway decent weather we have been having here in London - it's rare enough that staying in with a scalpel (or a computer) seems a massive shame. 

My sunglasses, kindle and garden have been getting good use though!

I haven't been totally idle... I have had a few map commissions which have been really great fun to do.

The first was of an engagement location - at the end of a pier in Singapore (aw). It was great to have the tension between the density of the city and the wide open ocean:

The next (finished today - phew!) was for a friend - a present for her sister, of the location of her up-coming wedding:

It's currently in the very technical 'squashing/flattening' phase. 

So, I've still been dabbling - in fact the piece above dusted off some cobwebs and I finally finished a long overdue work in progress...more on that next!

Peacock papercut - prints and cards now in shop...

This post has been a long time coming... and another thing that was on my fast-depleting list of things to do for the bank holiday...

A while ago I posted here and here about a papercut I was doing featuring a white peacock. 





I loved how this turned out, especially as it's a departure from the traditional black-on-white approach. 

I decided to have the image reproduced on greeting cards and art prints and I think they turned out great!





The cards are A6 and come with a brown craft envelope and cellophane sleeve:

They are blank on the inside and have a nice weight to them and matte finish which works really well with the design. 

I've already sent a few to friends and family and had a great response so I'm really happy with these.



Next up were the art prints. I had these done as giclee prints on hahnemuhle photo rag paper, which I have used for printing my art before. I think the quality of the print and paper are just lovely. 

I had these done in A5 and A4 and although I love both, the A4 is really striking and looks amazing with the fine detail of the image. 

I'm glad to finally get these out and into the shop.  

Link to the cards is here and the prints, A5 is here and A4, here. 

Thanks for looking!

Finished Hamsa papercut

In what will hopefully be my longest ever work in progress (over 2 years!) I am massively relieved to have finally finished my Hamsa papercut. 

I had lots of other projects that I wanted to get on with but I made myself focus and get this done. Part of my hang up with this was that I had left all the fiddly little bits to the end and it just felt fussy and never ending!

I went back and forth over the borders. I finally settled on the tear drop shapes and I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out. 

As I mentioned in my first post about this piece, it's a bit of a departure from the conventional papercut approach where the whole piece is a continuous piece from a single sheet of paper. My Hamsa is made up of lots of smaller pieces, and man, it was hard. I can't count the number of flowers, dots and tears I lost in the process. Says a lot for the traditional method!

On the flip side though, it was fun to try something new. I especially liked building up the layers in in 'eye' and I love the lotus flower... I may need to get that incorporated into more pieces in the future. 

Glad to have this work in progress finally done! It will be in my shop soon...

Roof foxes

A few weeks ago I was looking out the kitchen window and noticed that there was a fox on the roof of the garages behind our flat. It was just curled up in the sun having a nap. Then, a couple of days later there were a few more. I have no idea how they get up and down from there but it's nice to see them hanging out. 

 


















I've done a few fox papercuts in the past and these guys gave me a few ideas for a new piece, or maybe even a whole series...I'm pretty excited about this. 

I like Sunday afternoons that look like this....

























Thanks for the inspiration roof-foxes!

Winter skies

I am not a big fan of winter at all. Back home (Kenya) it was the warmest point of the year so Christmastime involved drinks on the verandah and going to to the horse races with a barbecue. 

Even after 4 years in the USA and 12 in the UK I still hate the cold and I hate the dark. 

Although the other night on the way home there was an awesome winter sunset. I'd love to work this sort of colour palette and cloud pattern into a new papercut. I haven't done any trees in a while so it would be a good challenge to try some new effects with the sky.

So maybe winter isn't all that bad. It does go hand in hand with mulled wine after all. 

Custom papercut map

A relatively new addition to my Etsy shop has been these custom papercut maps...These are great fun. I love the variation in each and getting a small glimpse into places that matter to people...family homes, places where you got married, places where you lived.

One of the things that I have had to wrestle with these is they often look massively hectic and messy halfway through. With most papercuts I think of them like carving a sculpture, chipping away the negative space to reveal the image. These are more like lino cuts, layering up the different colours, figuring out what layer needs to be cut away to expose the one below.




Once these are through the hectic phase it all falls into place. I love how these turn out, looking quite abstract to someone who doesn't know but make perfect sense  to the person that commissioned it. 

I think its such a neat way to commemorate a place that means something to you.

Available in my Etsy shop, or just drop me a message if you want to know more.