I’ve been steadily working away on pieces for the pattern design project, and finished these two a few weeks ago. Each design seems to present new learning experiences with interesting surprises along the way.

Before I started, I assumed each of these would be relatively simple to cut, and maybe a little boring. But studying something up close for a few hours through the lens of paper cutting line by line brings with it an intimate knowledge of each new pattern I explore.

Cutting the delicate flowers and leaves in the pattern above proved to be challenging but gratifying. The waves of lines in the pattern below seemed completely uninteresting to me until I started cutting and got cut up in the flow of them. Both have given me so much to think about in terms of new directions in my personal work.

After finishing these two pieces I switched back to working on three more Islamic geometric patterns, and completed the third of three earlier today. That wraps up the cutting work I’d set for myself to reach before the end of November. Now I plan to assess next steps, and decide whether or not to add more to the project.