Double helix and flower arranging.

This is the thing that's got me hooked on paper cutting.


About 6 years ago I started photographing and drawing trees and leaves. I had loads of ideas about where it was going, mostly around making jewellery. I did what I often do, took the idea, ran with it until it was too horribly huge and daunting to even start, with massive set up costs and no time - I'd just had baby no.2 in 3 years. Another folder in the "projects" folder.


Then it turned into an idea for a cot mobile. Something based on a spiral that would be interesting, viewed from underneath. Once again I did nothing with it. But then, I did have 2 babies to look after at the time!


So........

Another couple of years on I got around to cutting it out. Hugely satisfying, but it took ages and a few scalpel blades. I am hooked on paper cutting and there will be more of this to come. I'm hopefully going to get an electronic dye cutting machine in the new year - its like a plotter but with a blade. 

I still want to do some hand cut pieces of framed artwork. Hand cut stuff has a life to it that you don't get with a machine and you never follow the file exactly and you can make it up as you go along, but a machine would be great for testing stuff and I also want to do some stuff that I can make and sell aside from that. 


Below is the illustrator file. It was printed it out with a stroked outline on one sheet and cut from 2 sheets of paper at once (red and yellow). Before I started cutting I stuck the 2 sheets together along the spiral spine. It's been hung up for a while now so it's sagged a bit. I'm going to try cutting it out of some stiffer nicer card, with a digital dye cutter.

I still have those jewellery plans and tons of others but baby no. 3 is 15 months so it may all take a bit more time...