Category: Paper

31 Days of Scribbles Part 2

The photo below was taken on Friday and shows all of the scribbles piled together that were created to date by that afternoon. It’s the most satisfying part of working on a daily project – seeing the accumulation of finished pieces in a short amount of time.

I managed to use up one of the handmade pieces of paper I bought last month in Seattle, which was my favourite screen printed with multicoloured polka dots. I must track down more of this paper at some point!

31 days of Scribbles

31 days of Scribbles

31 days of Scribbles

31 days of Scribbles

I’ve been trying to explore different line shapes and forms as I go. I want the pieces to seem similar but not the same. Sometimes I sketch out an idea first and other times I start directly on the paper I intend to cut. Swirly looping lines seem to be easier to make work as a paper cut than jagged lines.

31 days of Scribbles

31 days of Scribbles

31 days of Scribbles

31 days of Scribbles

31 days of Scribbles

This week I want to lay out what I’ve created so far for this series, and think more seriously about their potential as an installation. I’m just over the halfway point now so I feel there is enough work to get a sense of the larger series.

31 Days of Scribbles

I decided to continue working on a daily project after the conclusion of 28 Days of Hearts in February. This time the theme is scribbles, and it’s called 31 Days of Scribbles. I was intending to also explore squiggles and knots for variety but I am sticking with scribbles because they are fascinating and work well as paper cut pieces.

These are the first eight of the series. I’m using the project as an opportunity to try different papers than I normally use in my work. The white pieces are Strathmore parchment paper, and the polka dot ones are cut from a screen printed handmade Himalayan paper. The grey paper with red and blue is one of the pieces of Canson Mi-teints I used for a layering of block printed patterns earlier this year.

31 Days of Scribbles

31 Days of Scribbles

31 Days of Scribbles

31 Days of Scribbles

My process for these has been to quickly sketch out a scribble making sure to overlap the lines so it holds together as a cut piece. I try to keep them spontaneous with an eye to structure. They’re steadily becoming more complex and intricate as the days go by. My intention is to eventually turn a grouping of these into an installation.

31 Days of Scribbles

31 Days of Scribbles

31 Days of Scribbles

31 Days of Scribbles

31 Days of Scribbles

I would really like to create large pieces exploring this idea, but it will have to wait until I return to a proper studio space.

The Conclusion of 28 Days of Hearts

Along with the arrival of the end of February came the conclusion to my daily project of 28 Days of Hearts. It was the best thing I could have done for myself after the unexpected stress and displacement I experienced in January. I loved having this small creative touchstone to look forward to and work on each day. I am pleased with all of the work I made for this, and will definitely explore some of the designs I came up with in larger finished work.

Here are all 28 Hearts together in a slide show I shared yesterday on Instagram.

A post shared by Rachael Ashe (@rachael_ashe) on

I immediately decided to begin a new daily project to carry me through the month of March. Check out the first piece in the series on Instagram.

Experiments with Scribbles

I’ve wanted to explore looser, less defined shapes with my work after a recent conversation with an art consultant. It got me thinking about making cut paper designs based on scribbles. I started with a few scribbled drawings in a sketchbook to get the idea down on paper. I wanted to see if I could consciously doodle lines in a random way that could be interpreted in cut paper.

Scribble

Scribble

I quickly moved on to making a prototype by drawing looping lines and figuring out the best way to approach cutting it out. It felt like I needed to rethink how I did things because it’s a series of intersecting lines, and I have to plan ahead carefully on how and where to place cuts in relation to others.

Scribble

Scribble

I made this test piece from Japanese Gampi paper I bought in Toronto last year. I want to incorporate more diverse types of paper into my work than I’ve used in the past. This material cuts beautifully and is much sturdier than I’d realized.

Scribbles

The finished piece is different from my usual hand cut designs, at least at this first pass. I am excited by this idea and can’t wait to explore things further.

28 Days of Hearts in February

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To get myself back on track after the displacement from my studio last month, I decided to work on a daily project in February. I was feeling both drained and depressed, and decided what I needed was a little more love. So I went wth the plan to create one heart a day for the month of February.

I alternate each day between drawing with gel pens, and cutting the designs by hand while coming up with something new to do within the same heart shape every day. I have been enjoying the heck out of this project. It has lifted my spirits and fuelled my creativity in a HUGE way. I reached the half-way point of the project on Valentine’s Day this week, and so here are the first fourteen hearts I’ve made so far.

28 days of hearts
Day 1

28 days of hearts
Day 2

28 days of hearts
Day 3

28 days of hearts
Day 4

28 days of hearts
Day 5

28 days of hearts
Day 6

28 days of hearts
Day 7

28 days of hearts
Day 8

28 days of hearts
Day 9

28 days of hearts
Day 10

28 days of hearts
Day 11

28 days of hearts
Day 12

28 days of hearts
Day 13

28 days of hearts
Day 14

I hope you had a happy love day!

Lucky Red Envelopes

I am excited to be part of the Get Lucky group show, organized by District Local, and happening for one day only on February 18th. The participating artists were each given a bunch of red envelopes to create work for the show, and how they were used was left up to us. The envelopes are traditionally given out at special events such as Chinese New Year to symbolise luck.

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I decided to make two paper cut pieces from the material, with my usual intricate designs. I carefully opened up the sealed sides and bottom of the envelope before doing the cutting, and then reassembled it with re-enforcing card stock while leaving a quarter inch of space between the cut surface and the inside. I wanted them to be tiny shadowboxes with shadows cast on the inside. Each one is 3.5″ x 6.5″ and very delicate.

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Come see these in person, along with the work of an impressive list of artists. Read more about Get Lucky on the District Local website.

Date: Sunday, February 18, 2018
Time: 11am – 4pm
Location: Fortune Sound, 147 E Pender Street
(On the Chinese New Year parade route!)

The Cut Paper Screen Print Series Gets a Name

I am terrible at coming up with titles for my paper cutting pieces, and it usually doesn’t seem to happen until right before a show. But I’ve been trying to re-organize my image files, and it’s triggered the need to come up with descriptive words to name the files to make it easier to find things. It was helpful in this case because I can’t keep calling these the “cut paper screen print series” or whatever.

The series is inspired by a favourite Japanese textile pattern of mine called Seigaiha, which means blue sea and waves. The designs don’t look anything like a regularly repeating wave pattern but it was a jumping off point for me, so for now it will be the working title.

Seigaiha

Seigaiha-2

This design was the fourth created for the series, and it is the one with the most irregular shape. I was trying to play around with a different overall form and flow for each one, and this one turned out the weirdest.

The Satisfaction of Finishing a Series of Work

I cut the sixth and final design from screen printed paper last week, and am pretty pleased to see the group of them together. I had them temporarily piled this way as I prepared to put them into storage as I sort out framing. It looked too good not to take a few photos. They are interesting with all of the lines layered together, but I have no desire to make six separate pieces into one work of art.

Layered finished paper cut work

The plain white backside shows off the line work even more strongly than the colourful front.

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A long held goal has been to reproduce more work as laser cut pieces in wood or some other materials more study than paper. I will definitely draw on these recent designs as source material. They could look amazing!

Screen Printing and Paper Cutting Part 3

I completed cutting the sixth and final piece in this series earlier this morning, and here I am sharing number three of the six.

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I realized recently this is the first time in awhile I have explored an idea as thoroughly as this and made a coherent series. I too often jump around from idea to idea. I need to keep this in mind going forward.

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My work needed this infusion of colour provided by the screen printed paper, and I want more of it to use in future work. I’m just starting to explore different methods of producing small batches of custom printed paper which was inspired by this series.

Screen Printing and Paper Cutting Part 2

The series of designs cut from screen printed paper has continued with further iterations of the intertwining curved lines. This is the second in what will be a series of six, and then I run out of this paper. I’m already thinking about how to have more colourful screen printed paper made for me.

image

image

I’ve been starting each design with a swirl of lines that is unintentionally an infinity symbol. I really love the one I created in piece number two, pictured above in detail. All of the other lines organically flow from this point. I’ve tried to ensure that I include as much of this colourful paper as I can in the finished piece because it is a limited resource, so each new design is larger than the previous one.

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I’ve been playing around with black or white backgrounds for these. I like the high contrast of the pieces against a black background, but also the subtlety of the pieces against white. I’ll decide once I get to the stage of framing the series.