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.

Strawberry Papercut (work in progress)

As my back is pretty bad and my 3 year old has got chicken pox, I'm only getting a little done at a time. Normally I'd hope to finish a small piece like this in a day or so, but not at the moment.

Strawberry Papercut

These are the first few cuts from yesterday's sketch. I thought it would be nice with a coloured background for a change and it suited the strawberry theme too! The cutting is quite hard-going as it's quite heavyweight sketchpad paper, but actually this gives it a crispness that I really like and it sits above the background too, making lots of lovely drop shadows behind.

Sketch for Notelets

Having a bad back might have halted cutting temporarily, but it doesn't have to halt sketching. This preliminary drawing is an idea I've got for some new papercut design notelets. Sorry for the not great photo but the scanned version was almost invisible!

Featured Artist: Katie Daisy

I just wanted to share the work of this fantastic artist with you. I came across her this week and find her work completely enchanting and gorgeous. You can find her here at http://www.katiedaisy.net/

No cutting today

Today is not a good day. I've done my back in - emptying a sandpit (stupid I know). Plus Poppy's got chicken pox. So far only about 16 spots - but only day 1. Still just over a week till the Bar Mitzvah so hopefully she'll be over the worst by then. Terrible timing - so much to do next week!!!

I've made good progress today, but I feel that this piece is going so slowly, especially compared to the round one I did a few weeks ago. Must be something to do with the awkward leaf shapes and twisty tendrils (what WAS I thinking when I incorporated those into the design?!) Anyway, at least I've completed about two thirds now. I need to start thinking about the outer and inner borders too. Hmmmm...

New Moo Cards

I just received my new batch of business cards from Moo. These should keep me going for a while!

A Sale!

Yay! - I finally got a sale from putting up some of my work in a local boutique/tea room in Muswell Hill. I've posted it up before, but here it is again. Such a good feeling!!!

Another mug shot!

Here's another option for a mug. The problem with using companies like Zazzle or Cafe Press is that the shipping is so expensive and realistically no-one's going to want to pay £20 for a mug. What I really need to do is find a ceramics company who's willing to put my designs on their products. Any suggestions very welcome!

Papercuts on Mugs

I'm thinking about trying to get some of my designs printed on some more practical products. I've been playing around with a few things on Zazzle.

Bar Mitzvah Artwork

Jonah's Bar Mitzvah is only 3 weeks away now - yikes - when did I get old enough to have a son that age??? Anyway, this is the papercut that I made for him which I've also used as the artwork for the invitations. I was really interested to discover that papercutting is a traditional Jewish craft, so I've tried to use some of the traditional patterns in this papercut.

Oak and Ivy Heart - new papercut

I've made a start on a new heart-shaped papercut. This time with oak leaves, acorns and ivy, as well as my little flower-gathering birdies of course. I always feel disheartened when I start a new project as I can't quite tell if it's going to be successful or not - so I'm going to try and ignore myself and carry on regardless! The white side is the wrong side. The right side is black.

Birds and Flowers Papercut Completed

I just finished the border and centre. Four blunt blades and one tired hand! Hope you all like it.

Birds and Flowers circular papercut

This is my newest piece and is still a work in progress. As you can see, I'm now working on the border which is in a traditional papercut style. So far I've gone through three blades on this piece! The finished piece (including the border) will measure 39cm in diameter.

Life is Good. Enjoy the Little Things.

So sorry for being a completely useless blogger for a long LONG time. But I'm determined to be more conscientious from now on!

I finished this piece last week. I was surprised at how quickly I managed to do it. It only took me a couple of days to do the whole thing.