I had the pleasure of spending five days in Fort Smith NWT and teaching a paper cutting workshop there this past weekend. I was hosted by the Northern Life Museum and Cultural Centre as part of their annual Summer Splash Festival. It was a two day class to introduce students to a few different techniques with the goal of completing a multilayered paper cut design in a self contained shadowbox by the end.

We started with a few small projects such as kirigami from origami paper and then working with pattern templates and card stock to get a little cutting practice in. I think everyone created beautiful pieces, and then they were ready for the big project.

I brought the rabbit prototype I had made earlier in the summer along with an abstract sample (I haven’t shared), and then helped guide people on their own layered project. The photos below are some of the different work in progress by various participants. It was gratifying to see these come together in the end. I didn’t manage to get photos of everyone’s work.

It was a great experience teaching this two day workshop. I hope to organize one somewhere in Vancouver later this fall.

I’ll share more photos from Fort Smith in another blog post.