Here are two more from the series of designs I’ve been creating over the past few weeks using circles and triangles. These ones are smaller than the piece I shared previously. They are hand cut from 8.5″ x 11′ card stock, and made to fit into 12″ x 12″ square frames.

I’m discovering the best angle and flow of the piece only after the cutting is complete and the excess paper is removed. It seems to change it dramatically, and the way I was seeing it as a work-in-progress is not the same when it’s finished. It’s such a refreshing surprise.

Now that there are five of these, I’m going to stop and reflect upon their meaning and symbolism. It’s something I don’t do often enough and I feel it would strengthen my work.

I haven’t been sharing much paper work on the blog in the past couple of weeks but I have been producing quite a bit of new pieces behind the scenes. I started a new series of designs inspired by the first drawing I did in my 30 Days of Drawing Project Sketchbook. I’ve been creating compositions made up of circles divided into triangles radiating from a central point. They resemble things like bicycle wheels, umbrellas, pinwheels, seed pods, etc.

The one I am sharing here is the third in the series, and it’s also the largest to fit into an 18″ x 24″ frame. The photo above was taken as I lay the work in progress over top a finished piece to check the frame size, and I love how the two different patterns interact and flow.

I’ve been drawing and planning these compositions beforehand, which is not how I usually work, but I think it’s an improvement to my process. I’m also cutting away the excess paper around the finished composition to emphasize the intricacy and delicacy of the cut paper work.

The finished piece is pictured in the photo above. I have three other smaller pieces completed for this series, and fourth getting started today. I’ll share more soon.

Whirls, is a recently completed piece composed of spirals hand cut from 98lb Canson Mi-Teintes paper. I was inspired by the work I did with the previously shared Cumulus, and wanted to work larger. The long curved shapes that make up each spiral feel like paper carving as I work. It’s an interesting shift in the process.

These are photos I took during the work in progress. It was a challenging process to compose spirals while cutting at the same time. I need to improve my drawing skills so that I can sketch out a design in advance to guide me, beyond a general outline of what I am hoping to achieve.

Photo by Byron Dauncy

The final photo is of the completed piece of work in all of its whirling spiral glory before figuring out how it should be framed.

This piece is somewhat of a reproduction of a paper cut design I made all the way back in August 2012. I think I did it as a practice piece at the time and then it went into a drawer because I wasn’t happy with it for some reason. I’ve been using it as a sample in my workshops, and recently took a good look at it for the first time in awhile and felt inspired by the design.

This version is about three times the size of the original, which I’d cut from a piece of 8.5″ x 11″ black card stock. I wanted it to be larger, and this ended up at approximately 11″ in diameter. The process of making it felt slower than normal, and think that is the nature of piecing together and creating a flowing design with multiple shapes.

I cut away the excess paper and left the work with a border that closely outlines the piece. I think doing this gives a better sense of the design and delicacy of the work.

I’ve titled this paper-cut piece, Wild Growth, because it brings to mind the wild tangle of grasses and plants one can find when a human isn’t trying to keep things orderly.

It’s been a really long while since I last shared some of my paper cut work on the blog. There’s been lots in production and completion over the past few months as I’ve been working away on a bunch of new pieces for an artist call. It was a relief to finally send the application off earlier today, and get it all in before the deadline. Hooray!

This is the first of the recent work that I completed in January. It came out of the sketchbook work I was doing at the time, and a desire to explore compositions made from longer flowing cuts. I found this design an interesting challenge to do because it forced me to work at a slower and more thoughtful pace than when cutting shapes of a similar size. The cutting also feels more like carving.

Photo by Byron Dauncy

The piece is also an experiment in finishing the work in a new way. I’ve cut off the excess paper leaving behind a thick border, and then using pins to mount it suspended an inch or so away from a piece of foam core with a shadowbox frame. I think this method allows the piece to cast better shadows (which I love) and emphasizes the delicacy and intricacy of the design.

My sketchbook explorations in January have led to the beginnings of a few new pieces of work. I want to find new shapes and patterns to cut that are variations on what I’ve been doing for years. The piece pictured here is the first of those. It’s still a work in progress because I’m sitting with it for awhile to give me time to work out how it should be finished and displayed.

I want these new pieces to have space to cast shadows and fill three dimensional space rather than flat under a mat. I did an experiment with another finished piece using pins to mount the work within a frame. I also want to break the work out of the remains of the border of uncut paper to further showcase the delicacy of the work, which is what I did with the aforementioned piece.

The actual size of the piece is 11″ x 11″, cut from a piece of 98lb Canson mi-tientes paper. It looks good in person, and will be even better once I figure out the finishing.