Commissioned Work: Creating a Blog Header for KimWerker.com

September 17, 20121 Comment

I am very happy to finally get the chance to reveal this beautiful paper cut design I was commissioned to create at the end of the summer.

As you can clearly read in the hand cut letters within the composition, this was a custom piece created for Kim Werker. She was in the process of redesigning her website and wanted something unique and handmade to use as the new header. I also helped her with a few other visual parts of her re-design, and moved her over to InMotion Hosting to speed up her website overall. Kim is a writer, editor, creative thinker, and crafter and felt a paper cut piece would be the perfect thing to incorporate into the new site design.

We discussed a few ideas but Kim’s only requirements were for something with minimal colour, and for book pages to somehow be the background of the piece.

My first step was to choose a font to work with, one that wasn’t too intricate or delicate to cut out by hand, and would read well within the busy design. We both agreed on Hoefler, so I created the text in photoshop and printed it out to use as a template to guide my cutting. I do this by placing the printed text on top of the black card stock and carefully cutting through both.

With the text completed I moved onto the rest of the design, all of which I created through freehand cutting. I did a bit of practice work both in my sketchbook and on a separate piece of black card stock before I worked on the final piece. I wanted to work with different shapes rather than a single repeating shape as usual, and needed to get a feel for it first. I cut for hours and came away with a very delicate intricate finished design.

For the background paper I cut down scraps of book pages left over from an altered book project and collaged these together. I wanted the text to flow in all directions and become a detail rather than a feature. The final step was to bring the paper cut and the collage together, and remove the extra card stock.

I am very pleased with how beautifully this paper cut design came together, and it looks absolutely stunning as the header on Kim’s new website.

Cut Paper Evolution

August 16, 2012

One of the recent commissions I’ve been working on turned out to be a great opportunity to try something new in cutting paper. I was asked to create a paper cut header for a client’s web site, and decided to switch things up from my usual way of working with a single repeating shape.

I worked through the idea in my sketchbook first, in order to get a feel for combining these varied shapes. I then moved onto a piece of black card stock to warm myself up for creating the final design as I was feeling a bit rusty. I chose three basic shapes, a crescent, a leaf, and something that could be a leaf or flower, and cut the whole thing free-hand while moving organically across the paper.

The final design for the client, which you can see a tiny portion of here, is an intricately cut piece of paper combined with a collage of book pages. The letter e is part of the text that is at the centre of all those shapes, and reveals my client’s name.

I’ll share more about the finished work once it goes live on her website.

Flight of the Albino Crows at Illuminares

July 23, 20124 Comments

It was a beautiful thing to finally see the installation I’ve been working on for the past few months come together at Illuminares on Saturday evening.

It took Boris and I two hours to set it up in the afternoon. I was a little worried at the time because it was so windy during installation I thought the crows might blow away. Thank goodness I went with wire to suspend the crows because it kept them from tangling together.

Just as I’d hoped, the location was a perfect spot for the crows. These photos don’t quite do it justice but there was a magical atmosphere surrounding the installation, and people gazed at the work with a sense of wonder. I really enjoyed observing people’s reactions to it.

Many friends stopped by to hang out at our blanket under the tree, which made for a very fun evening.

A BIG thank you to Boris for his tremendous help throughout the whole process, and to Scott and Sam for helping de-install at the end of the evening. I could not do half the things I do as an artist without the continued support of friends.

Growing A Yarn Tree

July 10, 2012

Over the weekend I completed my fourth yarn tree mural, this time on a wall in the home of friends Lee and Sachi. It’s a beautiful location (as you’ll see in the photos at the end of this post) right by a large window. The addition of the tree really feels as if nature has been fully incorporated into the room.

As with the previous yarn trees, this one is made from clear push pins and sock yarn. I shot a few photos as I made progress with the mural, so you can get the sense of how it came together.

None of this was pre-planned or drawn out, but I did use a few tree illustrations as reference to guide me as I worked. I think of this as freehand drawing with thread.

The finished yarn tree (as pictured below) has two long branches and one shorter branch. I added this smaller branch a few hours after I finished the initial work because I felt it was needed to fill out the space, and make the composition less symmetrical.

As you can see, the yarn tree fits perfectly into the setting of the room. At the moment the branches have been left bare while Lee and Sachi decide whether or not they want to add leaves, and what type. We were all leaning towards Japanese Maple leaves, but I’m unsure where to source artificial ones.

I really enjoy the process of making these yarn trees, though walls don’t present themselves very often to host a mural made of yarn. I would love the opportunity to make more of these and I am open to creating commissioned pieces if you have a wall available.

Altered Books: Thread of Transformation

May 28, 20122 Comments

This finished work took an uncomfortably long time to complete, because it was a commissioned piece with loose parameters and no deadline. I think part of me was scared of messing it up because I had a very special book provided by the client.

The book in question was an old chemistry textbook from her university days that had sentimental value. When she approached me to create an altered book she had no particular requirements other than a horizontal composition, the rest was up to me. So of course I was overwhelmed with possibilities and completely blocked on what to do, up until two weeks ago that is.

My concept for this book was to create a sculptural piece with a more abstract composition than my previous altered book work. I began with a flurry of paper folding in a five page pattern with a slightly different variation on the right and left sides. The video above was taken using the iTimelapse app on my iPhone during about an hour or so of work at the beginning stages of page folding.

I added a decorative red paper with a gold design as the end pages once the page folding was complete, and then tried to figure out my idea of sewing thread throughout the book.

This part was tricky because paper is not at forgiving about sewing mistakes the way fabric can be, so I experimented a bit with a secondary book before fully diving in. I stitched the thread back and forth across the book in an irregular pattern because I felt it worked better and looked more interesting than carrying the same stitch across the entire piece.

Once the completed altered book was framed I needed to go back and increase the tension in most of the threads. I’d been working with the book flat or on a slight angle and discovered everything shifted once the book was in a horizontal position. Imagine me pulling the threads tighter as it hung on the wall, and you get an idea of this part.

In choosing the title for this I wanted it to relate to chemistry in a subtle way. I did my usual playing around with different terms in google search to inspire ideas and came up with, “Thread of Transformation”. It relates quite literally to the metamorphosis of the book itself, but is also a play on chemical reaction as a form of changing one thing into another.

I was very pleased with the finished altered book, but was nervous about sharing it with my client friend. I needn’t have worried because when I presented it to her over the weekend, she absolutely loved it. Hooray!

Yarn Tree Commission: KidSafe Writers’ Room

November 8, 2011

Another yarn tree has taken shape in the city of Vancouver, this time on the walls of the KidSafe Writers’ Room located in Queen Alexandra Elementary School.

I was contacted a few weeks ago by the program co-ordinator, Sarah Maitland, and asked if she could commission me to create a yarn tree for the room. After visiting the location in person I decided it would work better to create groupings of branches around the room rather than a full tree. It would be far too tempting and easy for the kids to take apart the pushpins and yarn so I placed them all out of reach. There are three groups of branches in the room, and each has a mix of red and green leaves.

I worked on the project while perched atop a ladder as well as the cabinets the branches are placed above. Adding the leaves to the ones located above the sink (pictured above) was the trickiest part. I had one foot on the ladder and one foot on the cabinet in a very unsafe position, but it was the only way I could reach high enough to tuck the leaves into the yarn. (Don’t try this at home kids….)

I’m really glad at how this project turned out, and it was fun to work on another yarn tree. Thank you to Nadia Baker for sharing my work and sending the commission my way.

Please read more about the KidSafe Writers’ Room. It’s a project that offers tutoring help and literacy programming to at-risk students in Vancouver, and they’re always looking for volunteers and donations to support the program.

Altered Book Commission: Time is More Infinite Than We

January 13, 20117 Comments

Late last year I was thrilled to get my first request to create a commissioned altered book for a client. The couple had recently found a deer skull on their Gulf Island property and felt it was the perfect thing for me to work with in making them a custom piece of art. It’s not the first time I’ve used bones in an altered book, but it definitely was the largest.

Altered Book - Time is More Infinite Than We

The skull was quite fragile and missing a large part of the nose, so my first step was to assess every break through the skull. I had to determine where to glue without causing further damage and then reinforce certain parts so the whole thing wouldn’t fall apart. In the photo below you can see the paper “bandages” I created inside the eye sockets. I felt without these the glue wouldn’t hold and the bottom part of the skull would come right off. (It almost did while I was feeling about).

The book I chose to use is an encyclopedia volume with a lovely red cover with a raised border embossed on the front and gold letters and designs on the side. I carved through the cover and cut a niche three quarters of the way into the pages, making it large enough to accommodate the skull.

I took a short timelapse video with my iPhone 4 as I did this, which makes it look like a faster process than it actually was.

Once the book was ready I began pulling out materials to create the rest of the composition. I took inspiration from the background notes given to me by the client and used these to guide in the selection of objects. I won’t go into detail here but I was looking for things with symbolic significance specific to them.

The photo below was taken when I was satisfied with the placement of things and is a “sketchbook” version of the final composition. It helped me remember what should eventually go where after I dismantled and put everything out of the way. I still had much work to do in preparing the book and mounting the skull.

Altered Book - Time is More Infinite Than We-2

Altered Book - Time is More Infinite Than We-3

Above are some process shots I took while I worked on different things. I used a thick heavy thread at the base of the skull as this was the only point from which I could attach it to the book. These loops of thread were sewn into a heavy paper that was glued into the book and then covered over with the sewing pattern paper. The image above with the clamps was taken after the skull was mounted in the book and some of the pages still needed gluing together.

This is the finished altered book, many steps away from the previous photo. I used eight watch parts in the composition and it gives it an unintentional steam punk look. The fancy embossed border on the cover works nicely (as I’d hoped) with the rest of the composition. I love all the details in this altered book, from the shiny metal parts to the zig zagging fissures through the top of the skull.

This was an interesting project to work on because there were many problem solving challenges along the way. But that’s what I love most about making altered books. It always gets me thinking in new ways.

The outcome of this project is a positive one, with the client happy with the work I’ve produced and the first successful commissioned altered book under my belt. Here’s hoping many more will come my way.

Materials used: book, sewing pattern paper, tree bark, wasp nest, red thread, small glass bottle, seeds, watch parts, moss, and deer skull.

Canvas to the Imagination

Rachael Ashe – Art | Craft | Life

Category: Commissioned Work