Category: Paper

A Beautiful Prototype

This year I’ve returned to an important part of my process that I hadn’t been utilizing as much over the past year or two. I’ve been starting a new piece by first making a prototype of the idea. My approach with this one was to scale way down from the size I wanted to do as a finished piece, in this case 5″ x 7″ rather than the eventual 25″ x 38″.

This is Yupo Translucent, a synthetic tree-free paper I’ve been wanting to explore in my work. I decided to use it to make a layered installation piece, that I’m hoping will also incorporate backlighting. (Fingers-crossed!)

The tiny prototype allowed me to get the idea out of my head and into reality so I could confirm it would work the way I imagined.

I created this towards the end of January and have been steadily working away on the larger nine layered piece since then. I finished it over the weekend and can’t wait to share it in an upcoming group show featuring paper artists later this year. Stay tuned!

Pattern Remix with Printing & Cutting

I’ve had the finished paper cut print hanging on my studio wall since I finished it a few weeks ago. I go back and forth as to whether or not I like the end results. I did the piece as a quick experiment (as quick as one can be when printing and cutting a large sheet of paper) to get an idea out of my head and into reality.

(Excuse the quick iPhone photo quality…)

I used a variety of simple repeating shapes mixed together amongst complex designed patterns, and I definitely feel the more formal patterns work better and come across in a stronger way.

I haven’t done more work in the studio along these lines since I finished this, but I’m hoping to get back to printmaking in March when I’ll be taking a class. I’m looking forward to a little formal learning to inform the work.

Pattern Mixing with Printmaking and Paper-Cutting

In some ways I feel like 2019 is a bit of a do-over for all the things I’d planned to do in 2018 that got washed away by the flood. Printmaking was high on the list of goals last year that was no longer possible without a studio to experiment in.

I kicked off my studio time in the first week of January with lino printing a pattern using very colourful inks on Canson paper. This was in preparation for a paper cutting and pattern mixing experiment on a large scale, and I wanted custom paper to do it with.

I printed each circle by hand, working quickly and carefully to line things up. I created it as a one-off print because I wanted something colourful and patterned to work with to see how well it would interact with the negative/positive of cut paper.

I drew a whole bunch of patterns on the back of the paper, choosing to use repetitions of geometric shapes, and a few of my favourite Japanese textile patterns. I was trying to keep them as simple as possible for the sake of the experiment because I knew cutting would take the longest.

I filmed a hyperlapse video of me working on one of the final sections the other day. My cutting process is different with these because I can make a cut to multiple pieces before shifting the paper into a different angle. With my unique patterns created through spontaneous process, I complete each shape before moving onto the next one.

I’ll share the finished pattern mixing piece in another blog post.

Work In Progress: Pattern Mixing 2.0

For the past few weeks I’ve been slowly working on the first in a series of new paper cut pieces. The work has been slow because for the first time ever I am drawing the design first before cutting. I usually generate the designs by cutting directly, with minimal pre-planning. It feels like a big shift in the work, and it definitely makes it way more time consuming to produce.

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The bits and pieces pictured here are details of this new work exploring pattern mixing, using the Japanese designs I learned to draw over the summer. The full size of the work is 25.5″ x 19.5″, cut from Canson Mi-Teintes paper. It’s been an awkward project to work on a I try to maneuver it around the easel while drawing or cutting, and not wreck the parts I’ve already completed. (It happens sometimes).

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It started out as an experiment to explore an idea I’ve had for ages, and I’m hoping it will end up as a successful piece of work.

Paper Ornaments and Circle Punches

I recently made new decorations for the Steamclock Software office Christmas tree. I felt we needed some in a more seasonal appropriate colour, and I was interested in trying to make a few things with a new smaller circle punch.

Paper decorations

I started with a huge pile of circles from red and white paper to make a garland, and then brought these home to sew together with thread on my sewing machine. I shared a video of the sewing process on my IG stories and people seemed to love the meditative quality of putting one piece of paper after another and the sound of the needle punch through paper.

Paper decorations

I also made a new batch of ornaments, also using the same 2.5″ circle punch. The instructions I found recommended making these from sixteen pieces of paper, but I made a second batch from eight pieces and these seem to work fine as well. Find the instructions on how to make these over here.

Paper decorations

Paper decorations

Paper decorations

I like the blue, red, and white ones the best. All the paper decorations are now hanging on the Steamclock Christmas tree in the front office, and looking good.

Mystery Mugs Fundraiser, Craft Council of BC

I created this cut paper piece as a donation for the Craft Council of BC’s Mystery Mugs fundraiser happening tomorrow evening. The event is to help raise money to replace the broken furnace at their Granville Island shop. I briefly considered creating a paper sculpture mug, but then I came up with this idea. The piece is 9″ x 9″ framed.

What do a furnace and a mug have in common you say? They keep us cozy! Many of our mug-nificent artists have practical, sculptural, fanciful and downright crazy mugs to be sold at the event. The catch? All the mugs will be wrapped up in mystery boxes (valued at $50 and $100) so you get to guess which one might be inside from their mugshots hung on the walls! Best part, after all the boxes have been sold we’ll open them up together and trade around to get your favourite!

Get your tickets here if you are interested in attending, or you can place a bid on pieces (like mine) that are featured in the online auction.

CCBC Mystery Mugs Fundraiser
Date: Thursday December 6th, 2019
Time: 7pm tp 10pm
Location: 1386 Cartwright Street on Granville Island

Progress On The Pattern Project – Part 2

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.

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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.

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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.

Progress on the Pattern Project

It’s a good thing I keep an on-going record of what I am working on with Instagram and my blog because it helps me realize how productive I have been lately. I’d been feeling unproductive, but looking back at my previous entry earlier in October about the pattern project I’d revived, I realized I’d done lots of work on it since then. I’m currently in the process of working on the sixth new one.

I switched things up last week and started cutting Islamic patterns. The two pictured here are the ones I have completed. These designs are even more time consuming and elaborate to cut than the series of Japanese textile patterns. So many lines!

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I enjoy working on these because the process of cutting is like examining the structure of the pattern under a microscope. My eye is a close as it can possibly get and I literally view the structure line by line.

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I finished the third new Islamic pattern paper cut earlier today, so now it’s time to assess what the next steps will be for the project. Cut more pieces?! Select a third series of patterns to add? Making decisions is part of the fun.

Restarting An Old Project Exploring Patterns

I recently decided to restart an old project I’d left unfinished from an artist residency at The Leeway Studio a few years back. I created a series of paper cut pieces exploring pattern design which focused on Japanese textiles and Islamic geometric designs. I’ve been thinking about this project for ages and wanted to do more work on it. I sometimes use the pieces as samples in my paper cutting classes, but they were always intended to become an installation.

Last week I cut the piece above to add to the Japanese collection of patterns, and today I cut one more. Below is an image of most of the completed ones from years ago. Each one has a cut area of 7.5″ x 5″ within a 8.5″ x 11″ piece of cardstock.

The final image below is the mock-up of three patterns with their borders folded into a box to make them three dimensional. This is how the overall installation will be and make the mixed patterns into a sort of 3D quilt.

I think part of the reason I am working on this old project again is because it’s always bothered me that I never saw it through to the end. I really want to show these, and the only way to make sure that happens, is to finally finish it.

Mobile Studio: Daily Drawings in Four, Part 3

My series of daily drawings on 3.5 inch paper circles wrapped up as of yesterday when I finished the sixtieth one. The stack of them measures about 3/4 of an inch high, which is not a lot, but equals two months of sketchbook work capturing ideas.

See the previous sets here and here.

Set 9 – exploring variations of looping lines

Set 10 – exploring tessellated patterns inspired by my visit with Nadine Werner

Set 11 – revisiting an older idea of spirals with new variations

Set 12 – exploring an idea based on a textile pattern I came across here.

Set 13 – exploring line work inspired by tape art murals

Set 14 – exploring intense and intricate line work

Set 15 – exploring some of my favourite Japanese textile patterns

I’m a little bit sad to have run out of circles before the end of the trip but I knew that was going to happen. I punched an even number of circles to cover sixty days. I’m pretty tired of working so small and badly need to go home to the studio and make some larger work. Soooooon…..