When I was working in The Leeway during my open studio on the weekend I completed my ninth paper cut pattern. I am pleased to have reached this point already, though I am trying to finish two to three of them a week these days.

I made the decision to incorporate a wider variety of patterns and distinguish them by category using colour. Going forward all of the Japanese patterns will be cut from black paper and the Islamic ones will remain white. This means I need to redo all of the Japanese designs I’ve already cut, but I’ve moved forward with cutting new ones from black paper, some of which are pictured here.

At the moment I’m still holding off on sorting out the three dimensional aspect of this installation, but I do have some interesting solutions in my head for how to do it.

I’m three weeks into my residency at The Leeway and I feel like I’m making good progress on my project. I’ve decided to explore traditional pattern making as my focus for the next few months, and these are the two pieces I’ve cut so far.

On the left is a Japanese textile pattern, and on the right is Islamic geometric design used in architecture. Each one is cut from a piece of 8.5″ x 11″ white card stock, and the design area is 5″ x 7.5″. The large white border around the cut areas will eventually be folded so they become 3D. I’m still refining the details on that part of things.

I’m using low quality inkjet prints as my cutting templates. The second photo here is of what remains of these prints after I’m finished cutting. They are delicate pieces of paper which I’m also holding onto.

This is one of those ideas I’ve had on my mind for a few years and only now have I found the opportunity to work on. I want to make large paper cut work but I’ve held back because of the logistics of how to do it when the project is larger than both my work surface and my studio. The paper I work on when I cut is in constant motion and rotation, and when the paper is large I’m not sure how to do this without damage.

With this project I decided to use the roll of tyvek left over from an installation I made a few years ago. I’d started cutting a design into the roll early last year and never went back to it because I didn’t have a good plan. But this time I decided to cut the width of the tyvek in half but keep the length, and also roughly plan out the design.

I’ve divided the tyvek into five sections and sketched out rough guidelines on each one. I’m using triangles rather than my favourite crescent shape because it lends itself better to working large. This is the progress I made on the project so far, which is about three of the seven feet.

I had Boris take a photo of me holding up the roll to demonstrate the size of this work. I’m enjoying working on this thing because I like the challenge. Progress is going much faster than I’d thought it would, which is terrific because I have many other things to work on once this is complete.

Part two is for sharing the remaining three TerraSkin paper cuts exploring circles. Part one can be found here.

The series of six explores circles in new ways for me, as well as allowed me to work with TerraSkin paper more extensively. It feels slippery and light but is super easy to cut because there is no resistance to the knife. Each piece is 9″ x 11″, and each circle is about 7.25″ in diameter.

I backed these in black for the purposes of the photos but these will actually be displayed without a backing paper and unframed.

This work will be on display as part of Toronto Design Offsite Festival in January 2015 along with other designers and artists as a window display called, Vancouver Outside The Box. More details available on the website.

I’m going to share this small series of paper cuts in two parts because it feels like too many images for a single blog post. I shared in November about creating a paper cut using TerraSkin paper, which is made from stone rather than plant fibres. Over the last week and a half I created five more to meet a deadline for an upcoming exhibition.

The series of six explores circles in new ways for me, as well as allowed me to work with TerraSkin paper more extensively. It feels slippery and light but is super easy to cut because there is no resistance to the knife. Each piece is 9″ x 11″, and each circle is about 7.25″ in diameter.

I backed these in black for the purposes of the photos but these will actually be displayed without a backing paper and unframed.

This work will be on display as part of Toronto Design Offsite Festival in January 2015 along with other designers and artists as a window display called, Vancouver Outside The Box. More details available on the website.

My friend Jasna of Dear Human has asked me to participate in a small project with a group of Vancouver artists and designers happening in Toronto early next year. The one requirement is for the work to be small and compact, so I’ve decided to use this as an opportunity to experiment with a new paper.

TerraSkin is a fiberless paper made from a combination of mineral powder and a small quantity of non-toxic resin. The paper has a slight gritty feel to one side, but the surface is smooth and easy to work with. It is also said to be water-resistant (not that I’ve tested this out). When cutting the paper there is no resistance to my blade because there aren’t any fibres to catch the edge upon.

The piece pictured here is the first of the small series of work I’m planning to create with this paper. It’s a lovely surface to work with, but I found myself working at a slower pace because it felt too easy for the blade to slip through this smooth paper and make a mistake.

I haven’t tested it out yet, but I’ve read TerraSkin is lovely to work with for printing and paints. I’m curious to test out my acrylic inks on the paper, and I’ll share more once I do so.