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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.