Paper Cut Typography iPhone Cases on Society6

April 4, 2013

I’ve begun setting up a little shop on Society6 to sell prints and other products of some of my work. At the moment there are only six items available and all are cut paper designs.

If you love the cut paper typography series I now have three words available on Society6 as prints, and iPhone cases. I really love the cases and may have to get one myself. I’m hoping to make these available in a few other colours, so let me know if there is something you’d like.

Keep an eye on Society6 as I add more work to my shop.

Make: Cut Paper Typography

April 3, 2013

After my initial explorations into cut paper typography with the word Art a few weeks ago I decided to choose a few more words to work with. Make goes very well with Art, and after today Create will be added to the series.

To give you a sense of scale this is an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of red card stock, and the letters are between 2.25″ to 3″ high. I create the word in photoshop first, print it out and use this as a template to draw an outline of the letters. All the cutting of shapes is done freehand.

I enjoy trying to form the letters from smaller shapes. It’s actually pretty challenging because I am working so small. I think it’s an excellent exercise to refine my paper cutting technique even further.

Other than the word “Create” can you suggest other short words that would make a good addition to this series? I’m open to requests.

Celebrating Springtime

April 1, 2013

In Vancouver we are incredibly lucky to have a spring season that not only shows up as early as March (or even February) but also lasts for an extended period of time. Add in the bounty of flowering trees blanketing the city with pink and white blossoms, and you have the most wonderful time of the year to be in Vancouver (sorry Christmas).

I go a little bonkers taking endless photos of every type of flower I can find. My favorite combination are the pink cherry blossoms against an intense blue sky.

Oh spring, how I love thee!

The Kokeshi Project

March 26, 20133 Comments

This lovely little kokeshi doll is my contribution to an upcoming fundraising event at the Nikkei Museum. This is my first time contributing work to their annual BLOOM art auction, an event that supports the exhibitions, educational and cultural programs at the museum.

There are about 100 artists contributing work, and each was provided with a basic wooden kokeshi doll they could customize however they liked. I am very curious to see all of these dolls together on the night of the event.

My doll is eight inches high (we had a few sizes to choose from) and I have decorated her head to toe in cut paper. Her face is cut from white paper, and her clothing and head dress are cut from red paper.

The dress is one piece of paper, while her head is decorated with multiple pieces of cut paper. This was actually her first outfit which I cut to pieces and used a different way because I wasn’t happy with how it turned out (because I’m picky).

If you’re interested in purchasing one of the dolls the silent auction is happening on Thursday, April 25th, from 7pm to 9:30pm. Tickets are $25 to attend and can be purchased in advance online using paypal.

Paper Instruments: I Want A Bird by Current Swell

March 20, 2013

Do you remember those paper instruments I was commissioned to make a few months ago? The music video they appear in has recently surfaced and I can finally share it with you.

This is Current Swell’s latest release, “I Want A Bird”.

The video was created by the wonderful team at Giant Ant.

Butterfly Project, An Installation by Rosemary Burden

March 18, 2013

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the opening reception for Ruminations of Order at Cityscape Gallery in North Vancouver. This is a group show featuring the work of four artists exploring pattern and repetition, among other things. It’s a really fantastic show, but the work that stood out most strongly for me were two installations made from paper by Rosemary Burden.

Working with volumes of antique books she has meticulously created a staggering amount of paper butterflies using a paper punch. The overall impact of this mass of paper gives the viewer a sense of wonder. It’s really something to see.

Both installations include the original book cover, which is a really nice touch. I would love to create a paper installation on a similar scale someday.

There is an artist talk happening this Saturday March 23rd, and the show continues on until April 13th. Read more about Ruminations of Order on the gallery website.

Cut Paper Typography

March 14, 2013

I’ve long admired the work of Elsa Mora, a Cuban artist living in LA who works in various mediums including paper cutting. I was looking at her website earlier this week as a way to jog my thinking on how to write about my own paper cut work, and came across her new site, Art Is A Way.

It’s a lovely little side project of creating artwork using the word Art, and she’s invited people to join her. I don’t normally have much interest in exploring typography in my own work, but the project inspired me to experiment with typography created in my style of cut paper.

I chose a font in photoshop, Tamil NM in bold, made it large enough to nicely fill an 8.5″ x 11″ page and printed it out. I used this as a template to trace the outline of the letters first and then freehand cut all shapes. It was really fun to do, and has me pondering more potential work using type.

If you’re interested in creating your own work of the word Art, check out the about page of Art Is A Way for details.

Early Signs of Spring

March 13, 2013

A few photos taken last week when it was sunny, warm, and felt like spring was about to begin.

Cut Paper and Structural Explorations Continue

March 11, 20132 Comments

I realize as I work on these structural paper cut pieces that I am exploring two very different things and trying to make them work together. It’s one thing to make a paper cut design that will be displayed as flat and in a frame, and quite another to translate it into a free-standing sculpture. I’m also trying to work out how to make interesting structures from paper that can support themselves when most of the material has been removed.

With this latest piece I was trying to take a slightly different approach than the previous work I finished last week, but I ended up creating the same structure, just with a different paper cut design.

The variation I attempted with this was to score the bottom and sides to create folds in the paper. I don’t quite have enough understanding about how to do this, so my folds didn’t work the way I thought they should. I was also going to taper the structure at the top and attach it together but threw that idea out the window as well.

I want to play around with structural explorations on their own without doing all the work of cutting paper, just to properly educate myself. But the paper cutting makes a big difference to the integrity of the piece, how it holds together, and its ability to stand.

Just in case you’re wondering, the finished size for this one is 8″ high, 6″ wide, and 3″ long. I hope I can eventually make something even larger.

Seek Out Inspiration

March 8, 2013

Be Your Own Beloved wrapped up last week, and by the end I managed to shoot twenty out of the twenty-eight self portrait assignments. It’s challenging to show up for something like this every day because I’m not often in the mood to take a photo of me.

Taking Up Space

Part of a Bigger Story

I am very happy with the ideas I came up with for each theme. I managed to keep things interesting and creative despite the limited time I had to work on these each day.

This puppy wanted to be in the picture too

Out of Focus

I wasn’t feeling very motivated or inspired before the course began but it was just the thing to get me energized and creating new work. It really pays to shake things up sometimes and take workshops with other creative people in order to seek out a new source of inspiration.

Canvas to the Imagination

Rachael Ashe – Art | Craft | Life