Here we go again! Extension of my papercutting adventure, trying to cut all designs from one book. Papercut 101…
Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 101
Well, I’m not currently cutting one design per day, but I’ve decided to carry on with my papercutting project. This is papercut 101 of the (now-extended) papercutting project.
(Using the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book for inspiration, I was adapting the images for papercutting, then practising by cutting out 100 designs in 100 days.)
This one is a bit of a mix between Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles. It’s got swirly plant-based design elements in it, but it’s also got straight geometric designs as well:
Closer up:
I cut this one while listening to Mark Dawson’s “Self Publishing Formula” podcast. (Very informative and inspiring, as always.)
(Using the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book for inspiration, I was adapting the images for papercutting, then practising by cutting out 100 designs in 100 days.)
I saved a great big complicated design for the 100th papercut.
And I think this might also be my favourite so far. The design needed quite a few tweaks to make sure that all of the black pieces were linked and didn’t just fall out when I’d just them. And of course, it’s an Art Nouveau-type design, which I particularly like:
Closer up:
When I compare the roses at the top to some of the designs I cut earlier in the project, I can tell that my cutting skills have really improved. All those teeny tiny lines, and none of them got accidentally snipped off:
Maybe I did lose a little bit of concentration and patience when I got to the bottom. There are a few straggly fibres of paper sticking out here and there that I should have tidied up. It’s still nice though:
I was watching “Couples’ Retreat” and then “The Boat That Rocked” on Amazon Prime while I did the cutting, so I guess it took about four hours to finish (although obviously I was watching films at the same time, so it would have taken less time if I hadn’t been watching them).
So…now the project is finished! What shall I do now??? I’ve kind of got used to spending an hour or so each evening working on an art/craft project. Plus the book didn’t just have 100 designs in it – it had 922…
Er, no. I don’t think I’ll carry on cutting one per day. That will take me over TWO YEARS. I’ll have to come up with another project instead. And this time it should actually involve the laser cutter, and not just designs suitable for lasercutting.
Penultimate piece from the 100-day papercutting adventure!
This one does something really strange to my eyes/brain. When I first look at it, all I can see is a three-headed white heron (or seagull or something) hiding its beaks behind its necks. Or just some blobby three-armed white shape in the middle of a background of triangular-ish dots.
Closer up:
…but then a bit later I suddenly realise (especially when the design is this way up instead of the way it was oriented in the above photo) that it’s a design of three birds (?cranes?) with black bodies on a white background:
It makes me really want to try to play with the design, so that I can try to make the white bird’s beak look more beak-y. Then it really will turn into one of those mess-with-your-head optical illusions.
This one seemed to take a very long time. It was a mixture of straight and curved lines, and that always seems to take me longer to cut accurately, for some reason. I listened to about 2.5 episodes of The Bestseller Experiment while I was doing the cutting, so it probably took me a couple of hours.
Oh! I’ve just realised that I still need to cut out some of the feathers in the left wing of one of the birds! How did I miss that?? I will go back and finish it once I’ve finished the final papercutting. Apart from that I was pretty pleased with this one. I tidied up the cuts so that they were cleaner and more crisp-looking, so even close-up I really like this one.
Two days left of the 100-day challenge, and I’m still not bored of cutting designs into pieces of paper! I don’t think I’ll carry on with another 100 days (because I’ve got looooooads of other things that I’d like to get on with in the near future), but I think I’ll still carry on with the overall project. Maybe I’ll do a papercutting per week, instead? I must admit that I’d like to adapt and cut all 922 designs from the book, but even if I cut one a day that would still take me years to finish. Still, seeing as I’ve already started…!
In the meantime, I like the individual elements of today’s design, but I can’t tell which way up it is supposed to go. Whichever way you turn it, at least one of the flowers seems to be at a strange angle.
Closer up:
As far as the actual papercutting skills go, though, I think I’ve done OK on this one. There aren’t many bits that really leap out at me and upset me.
Have you done any paper cutting recently? Let us know! What kind of paper do you use, and which tools do you use to do the cutting?
Er, I don’t actually know what this is. It looks like a cross between a lion and a plant. With a ruff around its neck. (Does that make it a dandelion?)
Closer up:
…and is it doing a little poo, as well? If I’d noticed that part of the design while I was cutting it, I would have tried to incorporate it into the leg, I think, so it looked less like something coming out of the lion/plant’s bottom.
And then to add insult to injury (or the other way round, perhaps) my cat dribbled on the paper and got it wet.
Wow, really close-up it looks really raggy. But as I’m getting to the end of my 100-day project, I really am thinking that I’m not that bothered. It looks nice at with normal vision, so I really shouldn’t worry about the flaws that become more obvious when it has been magnified.
And even with the magnification, there are still some parts that I think are really nice and can’t be improved.
So the 100 days of this project have hopefully started to teach me something after all!
This one didn’t take long to cut. Not even half an episode of “The Bestseller Experiment” podcast, so maybe less than 20 minutes?
Closer up:
This one is a bit more Art Deco than Art Nouveau, so I’m not as big a fan of it as some of the other designs in the book, but I still like it.
The tiny holes may look a bit scrappy, but considering they’re smaller than the hole in the side of my pen (see photo above), I’m still quite pleased with them. And the two big leaves on the bottom are cut quite smoothly. (Especially the one on the left.)
—
Oh! I’ve just found another blog where someone has made 100 papercuts in 100 days!
Melissa McFeeters’ blog is here, and she created some brilliant artworks made from paper. They are lovely!
Day 94 of my epic papercutting adventure, doing 100 papercuts in 100 days. Papercut 094…
Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 094
This is papercut 094, so I’m on the final week of my epic papercutting project! (I’m using the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book for inspiration, and adapting the images for papercutting, and then practising by cutting out 100 designs in 100 days. The idea is that I may incorporate them in future papercuts that are made by laser as well as by hand.)
Today’s cut is one of my all-time favourites from that book and CD, actually. It didn’t take much effort to adapt the design for papercutting, for a start. I think I just needed to simplify some of the tiny fiddly squares and rectangles that were cut from the bottom plantpot thing, and that was about it:
As always, I’m drawn towards the designs that have got plants in them and remind me of Art Nouveau-type designs, and so I found this one quite pleasing to look at.
It felt like it took a loooong time time to cut (I played about three recorded episodes of “Extreme Cake Makers” in the background while I was cutting, so it must have taken nearly two hours). As always though, the process itself felt very therapeutic and relaxing.
And yes, it might seem like a waste of time spending two hours cutting out a design from a piece of paper…
…but on the other hand at least I’ve got something at the end of it that I can keep, whereas if I’d been just watching TV or playing a computer game (or even reading a book) then I wouldn’t actually have produced anything at the end of those activities.
Closer-up image:
The design’s actual number in the book/CD is “810”.
Not sure I’ll ever need to incorporate a potted bay tree in any of my future designs, but at least I’ve done it now, and there are only six more designs to go until I’ve cut 100 in 100 days!
Day 93 of my papercutting adventure, doing 100 papercuts in 100 days….
Decorative Vector Ornaments: Papercut 093
This is papercut 093 of my epic papercutting project (using the “922 Decorative Vector Ornaments” book), where I’m adapting the designs for papercutting, and then practising by cutting out 100 designs in 100 days. Eventually I may may incorporate them in future papercuts that are made by laser and also by hand.
