Windsor Contemporary Art Fair

Now that I'm back online I can also tell you all about the WCAF which was held a couple of weeks ago on the 12th-14th November.

This was my first ever art fair and I have to admit that I was really nervous about it. 

Although my work had been selling well on Etsy, I'd never put myself out there in the public before with all my artwork in one place.  

When you exhibit at an art fair, in a way you are setting yourself up to be compared with 100 other artists.  And by "compared" I don't mean in style, because everyone is so different, but rather a comparison of standard - well that's what I was doing anyway! 

But thankfully I needn't have worried so much - I did pretty well for a first fair - I sold a few originals and lots of prints and cards.  

Another big upside to doing fairs is the contacts you make and the lovely people you meet.  All the other exhibitors are really supportive of each other and are very willing to give invaluable advice to newcomers.  Please take a look at the images below and check out the other artists.

So all in all it was a really enjoyable weekend and I'll definitely be applying again to exhibit next year.

My stand at the WCAF

Please check out my favourite artist at the fair - the lovely, sweet Helen Rhodes

Her work is just stunning - I would've bought her whole display if I could!

http://www.helenrhodes.com/

Another favourite artist at the fair - the amazing Darren Dearden

His work is huge and completely brilliant.

http://www.darrendearden.co.uk/

And yet another family favourite at the fair - artist Jo Bunce

She also paints amazing flowers - just gorgeous!

http://www.jobunce.co.uk/

Computer Hell !!!

Oh my gosh - I've been in computer purgatory for the last 3 weeks - what a nightmare!  Yes my pc finally fried itself and it has taken 3 weeks to get a new one and be properly back online.  As much as I love my Blackberry, there are certain things that just can't be done. Like updating my shops - and PRINTING!!!  Of course this all happened just a week before I was due to exhibit at the Windsor Contemporary Art Fair.  Luckily my fab friend, Tania, came to my rescue and printed out all my giclee prints for me on her computer.  

The downside of course is that I've lost a whole load of images which are gone forever in the internet ether because my hard drive wasn't salvageable.  Yes, I know I should've backed everything up ... but I didn't.  

Lesson learned - enough said.

Papercut Birds in Oak and Ivy Heart

I finally finished this piece today.  I'd put it away a few months ago while I was working on a few other things.  I'm struggling to get a really decent photo of it, but in the meantime here are a few nice shots.  

Morris Dancing Papercut

I finally finished this piece this morning - what a great feeling! Now I just have to decide how much I want to price it at for the Windsor Art Fair in November. I always find this such an impossible task and my family are always telling me that I undervalue all my work - so maybe I'll just get hubby to price it for me!

Christmas Tree papercut

I decided that it was about time I designed something for a Christmas card.

This is what I came up with. Hope you like it.

I just wanted to show you the work in progress so far. I reckon there's an average of about 60 flowers in each corner - and with 5 petals each, that's about 900 petals I've cut out. So you can imagine my hand really really aches right now! Anyway, I still haven't made a decision about what's going in the middle - it certainly won't be staying like this. Maybe a little folksy scene with a tree? We'll see. Watch this space ...

English Folk Art (for a change!)

I've decided to take a little break from my usual traditional American folk art style and do something a bit more English for a change. I'm not entirely sure what an English folk art style is exactly (maybe there isn't such a thing - but I'm sure there is!), so I guess this is just my own style on the very English tradition of Morris Dancing.

When I did an internet search for English folk art, such a mishmash of things came up - half of which weren't even English - that it's difficult to see a generic style. American folk art is very distinctive, as is Scandinavian, German, Dutch etc - but seemingly not English. If anyone can enlighten/educate me otherwise, I'd be really interested. All I really came up with was barge painting and pub signage.

Anyway, this latest piece of mine is going to be a circular dance of Morris men and village girls, the corners will be blossom trees and the centre - well (as is usual for me) that's still to be decided!

Here's another one to add to the set - and a photo of them in little IKEA frames. Cute.

Folk Art Rural Scene Papercut

I've got to get cracking with producing a substantial amount of work for the Windsor Contemporary Art Fair in November. I've got quite a lot of larger pieces already, so I think I need to concentrate on finishing a few smaller pieces. I cut this one today - it took me about three hours and has left me with a very stiff hand! It's a baby version of the papercut I completed a while back. This one measures 11cm x 16cm.

Collage for a change

I've been loving the work of Linda Solovic recently and I was inspired to create a few collages of my own. Here are the results. Some are better than others, but I really enjoyed making them.

If you want to see more of Linda Solovic, check her out here:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/lindasolovic

Folk Art Schoolhouse Papercut

This is a smaller piece that took me about 4 hours to cut. It measures 17.5cm x 17.5cm.

I want to cut a series of vignettes all this size - all showing different traditional scenes. If you've got any suggestions I'd be very happy to hear them!

Papercut House

Here's the finished piece. The finished size is A3.

I think my favourite bit is the back yard with the girl on the swing. And my favourite room is the bedroom with the dressing table and wash-stand.

House Papercut

Here you can see that I've added the music room and the nursery upstairs. My client's request was that the papercut shows the dad's love of his old vinyl music collection and also that the house is full of flowers and plants. The family have 3 girls - one is still a little baby. I like to try and keep it oldy worldy, even though it's for a modern family. Just seems more appropriate for this project.

Kitchen Papercut

Here's the kitchen bit of the papercut all finished. Now I'll get started on the next room! Quite pleased with my work-rate though.

Commissioned House Papercut

This is a rough sketch for a house papercut that I've been commissioned to make as a house-moving gift. The finished piece will be A3 and the reverse of the picture you see here. I'm starting it today while my kids are out! Hopefully I'll get a good headstart on it as there's quite a tight deadline for this one.

New Folk Art Designs

Hi and I'm back from my way too short holiday up in Northumberland. It's so gorgeous up there! It wasn't practical to take my papercutting stuff up there, so I just took my sketch pad and pen and did a few different sorts of designs for a change. They're all hand-drawn in pen (so please excuse any mistakes!) and then I've coloured a couple of them up in photoshop. I'm thinking of making them into greetings cards. Hope you like them. It's nice to be back. x

Repeat Pattern

Ok - so this isn't a papercut, but this IS my first ever attempt at creating a repeat pattern. My aim is to recreate something similar with a papercut pattern. I used the technique that's described on a tutorial on Design Sponge (thank you Moonflygirl for the tip!) and here's the result. Please bear in mind that my sketch is literally just that - a sharpie sketch! I scanned it and then coloured it in photoshop. Please click on the images for larger views.

Here's the link to the tutorial: http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/05/welcome-julia-and-how-to-make-a-repeat-pattern.html

Playing with Zazzle - Notelets

Sorry about the small image size.

I've been playing around on Zazzle.

Letter "A" Papercut

Here's the finished letter.

Etsy sale

So thrilled to have sold this papercut this week. Winging its way to Brooklyn NYC! Somehow that seems like the perfect home for it.

Papercut Initials

I thought I'd try cutting some flowery initials and this is my first attempt (in progress). The idea is that they could be made into notelets or just put in a simple frame.

Peacock Papercut

I had a sudden urge to cut a folk art peacock today! This is the result. It's ridiculously delicate, but will be listed in my Etsy shop as soon as I can figure out how to mount it!

Folk Art Peacock

Silhouette Paper 19.5cm x 20cm

Peacock papercut (in progress)

I had to hold it upside down to stop the tail feathers getting tangled.

Website Relaunch

Please take a minute to visit my newly overhauled website. It's still under construction but should be relatively up-to-date in a day or so.

Please follow this link: http://folkartpapercuts.blogspot.com/

Another new button

And this is a new blog button for my newly overhauled website.

New button

I'm doing a little bit of branding for my blog and website. I designed my new logo yesterday and today I've designed and cut a new button to link to my Etsy shop.

New papercut logo

It's been long overdue, but I've finally got round to designing myself a logo. Hope you like it.

Update

So I finally have my house back. My son's Bar Mitzvah is over and my house guests have gone home to California. The past few weeks have been exhausting, but really fantastic - despite my daughter's chickenpox and my bad back! Anyway, now that everything is back to normal and all my stuff is out of my neighbour's garage, I'll be able to get down to some proper papercutting again.

For the next few months I'll be concentrating on building up a good body of work to take to the Windsor Contemporary Art Fair in November (http://www.windsorcontemporaryartfair.co.uk/.) I think I've probably got enough large pieces to display, but I want to have a good stock of smaller pieces as well.

My Etsy and Folksy shops are also due for a major overhaul, so I'll be doing that too. Stay tuned!

Etsy Shop

Just letting you all know that I've re-opened my Etsy shop as of today. I'll be working on getting my Folksy shop up and running soon too.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Vegaslammy

Summer Reading

Look what just arrived on my doormat this morning. Will settle down to these later!

Strawberry Papercut (work in progress)

About half done now. As you can see, I'm leaving the centre open so that I can overlay some type in there. Maybe "Thank you" or someone's name etc.