Cut Paper: The Ripple Effect

October 18, 2012

A last minute call for artists came my way at the end of last week, requesting work on a theme of The Circle for an upcoming show. I didn’t have any existing work available that would be a good fit, but I started having all sorts of ideas about creating circular paper cut work. I’m always looking for opportunities to continue building on existing work, and what I came up with fits nicely into the paper cut designs of late, but with a different presentation.

I began by cutting a piece of white paper into a circle, using a mixing bowl as my guide. My choice of bowl size was based upon how well its circumference would fit into the cradle panel I would be using to mount the finished piece. I marked a quarter inch border on the backside of the paper to remind myself not to cut too close to the edges of the circle, and then freehand cut a repeating simple crescent shape.

The experimental part of this piece was to turn the flat paper cut design into a three-dimensional shape. I added strips of paper to the back that follow the curve of the circle and it give it the appearance of a drum. The whole thing hovers inside the square and is attached to the back of the cradle frame by two smaller pieces of paper glued to the sides of the circle.

The frame is painted a blue-grey and the background is the same white paper as the artwork rather than paint because I wanted the whites to match. I love how the circle floats within the square of the frame.

I’ve chosen “Ripple Effect” as the title of the piece. It’s available for sale and will be on display during the Eastside Culture Crawl in November.

Commissioned Work: Paper Anniversary

October 16, 20127 Comments

I’ve been holding back recently on sharing a few commissioned projects, because I’ve had to wait on clients making them public first. This particular paper cut piece was commissioned by a dear friend as a secret anniversary gift to his wife. Since the gift is now in her hands, I can share it with you.

Paper being the traditional theme for gifts given in celebration of a first wedding anniversary, I was the perfect person to come up with a unique token of affection. My starting point was to create something from paper and take inspiration from the family Coat of Arms the couple had created for their wedding last year.

I chose to create an abstract composition with layers and textures of paper, and minimal colour. The shield with intertwined letters (representing both their last names) was taken directly from the Coat of Arms. I used a print out of this as the template to cut out the letters, which I then backed with black card stock to help the S and T stand out boldly against the white.

The background is a three-dimensional design freehand cut from a single sheet of card stock and backed with black paper. The crest is attached to float on top. The foreground part of the work is also one sheet of white card stock, but for this one I drew out the leaves before cutting. I almost never pre-draw a paper cut design but in this instance I needed to plan it out first and then cut.

Once each piece of the composition was completed I mounted them into a wood cradle panel painted with a light wash of white acrylic paint, and it was ready to hang in its new home.

Happy Anniversary to my dear friends James and Monique. May there be many happy years to come…

Taking Form in Paper

October 11, 2012

I am very pleased with how well my show at Port Moody Arts Centre came together within the Cabinet of Curiosity when I installed it last week. I’d been struggling a bit with envisioning how my selection of folded altered books, paper cut work, three dimensional paper constructs, and more, were going to hang together. But it works rather well. Unfortunately I have yet to take proper photos of the whole installation to share with you.

What I do have to share are the two snap shots I took during the opening. This loopy paper form is constructed from strips of topographic maps rolled, folded, and taped together into one long strip. I decided to make it the day before we installed the show because I wanted to include one more three dimensional piece.

I was inspired by a tutorial I found on a craft blog because I am always looking for fresh ideas of working with paper. I feel like I still have a staggering amount to learn.

Paper Cut Work: The Universe is Intricate

September 25, 2012

One of the presents I received for my birthday earlier this year was a lovely white tea cup given to me by Anne. It came in a small wooden box with a hinged lid, and I was attracted to this as much as to the gift it held inside. I knew right away I wanted to use it somehow in my art.

My initial idea was to create a small abstract universe from cut paper inside this box, but as I began working it out I couldn’t manage to achieve what I’d been envisioning in my head. And so it evolved into what you see pictured here.

Front and top view.

Interior view.

Back and side view.

The box is decorated with some of the cut paper pieces I’d originally created to intertwine inside the box but instead became striking details for the outside. There are two 4.25″ square paper cuts layered a few inches apart in the interior, with the sides painted white to help them stand out. I gave the exterior of the box a light wood stain because I felt the whole thing should have minimal colour.

I shared a work-in-progress photo of this on my Facebook page last week and was intrigued by the various ways people chose to interpret it. Rather than explain my ideas behind this (because it’s intended to fit a certain theme), I’d love to hear your thoughts about the work. I find it fascinating to learn what other people see.

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.

New Work At Bird On A Wire Creations

September 12, 2012

If you love the paper cut collages I’ve been making recently, you can now find four of them at Bird on a Wire Creations on Main Street.

Paper Cut Designs | 8″x 8″ on wood panel

Paper Cut Designs | 6″x 6″ on wood panel

Go check them out. The work is even more dazzling in person.

Bird on a Wire Creations
2535 Main Street @ East Broadway

Work-In-Progress: Working in White

September 11, 20121 Comment

At this time of year I typically start planning for the Eastside Culture Crawl because I like giving visitors to my studio something new to look at. For the previous two years I chose to create a series of altered books to present at the Crawl, but this year it’s going to be paper cut work.

I decided to work with white paper for this series because I wanted minimal colour for what’s turning out to be very intricate designs. I’m building on the way I was working when I created this paper cut piece earlier this year but cutting closer together. It’s amazing what can happen with the repetition of a single simple shape.

Pictured here are work in progress photos of two of the five pieces I’ve created so far for this series. Each is based upon using the same crescent shape but the overall form and movement within evolves slightly differently.

I haven’t yet decided whether these will be backed with white or black paper once they’re framed, but I think they’ll be striking either way.

On Display as an Artist in the Window

September 5, 2012

This Saturday I’ll be working away at a new series of paper cut designs as the featured artist-in-the-window at Bird on a Wire Creations on Main Street. You can find me in the front window of the store from 11am to 4pm. If you haven’t yet had the opportunity to visit this lovely little shop, now’s your chance.

Artist in the Window – Bird on a Wire Creations
Date:Saturday, September 8th, 2012
Time: 11am to 4pm
Location: 2535 Main Street, between Broadway & 10th
Vancouver BC

Work-in-Progress Paper Cut Collage

August 23, 2012

I haven’t yet finished working on the latest paper cut collage design but I thought I’d share a few work-in-progress photos. I’ve been continuing with the intertwining shapes inspired by a recent commission, but this time I created a more flowing overall form.

I collaged this with a combination of origami paper and security envelope paper and then glued a second piece of card stock on the back before cutting away all but an outline of black paper.

The final step will be to paint the cradle panel black and then mount the paper cut to the surface of the frame.

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.

Canvas to the Imagination

Rachael Ashe – Art | Craft | Life

Category: Paper