Thursday 6 February 2014

Paper Cutting - please cut here


The past weeks have been a bit tough on me. Due to commuting I wasn't able to do much crafting. When I finally had the time, crafting felt like working from a to-do list. It actually felt like duty, not a pleasure. How can you share joy in a blog if you don't enjoy yourself?

But Happy Days! I'm now waiting for my new part time job to start, which will be just around the corner. I enjoyed a few days off and I've recharged my batteries. Now I am slowly starting to get creative again and playing around with ideas.

When I can't do crafting, like the past weeks, I tend to buy craft books as a surrogate (although it works only as a 5% replacement and then I get jealous of the cool stuff other people do).
The past few weeks I piled up a nice collection of "Mollie Makes Specials" and Sewing books like "50 Fabric Animals" and "So Pretty! Felt" which I now flick through in enjoyment and am inspired.

What I learned so far of myself is that I like to sew or craft things based on my own designs. It would be easier to learn sewing techniques by following tutorials but I find following a tutorial 1:1 is sometimes a bit boring as there is no place for spontaneity or creativity.

Unfortunately working from my own designs makes the process predestined for mistakes ... And correcting them can be quite time consuming e.g. Yesterday I worked on a table runner with geometric felt shapes but then it reminded me of the scarecrow in "Wizard of Oz" and I had to stop sewing. I blame the square patches for it.


The photos in this blog post show some paper cutting I made in January. Paper Cutting is a fun technique and easy to do if you don't have enough time for more complex projects. As you can probably imagine, it was the perfect occasion to use my old favourite NEON coloured paper again. Below you can see a list of my Paper Cutting Designs, in chronological order:

- The little hut in the woods
- The Palace of the Maharaja
- Family Welcome Sign
- Matryoshka 








Paper cutting has a really interesting history as it was first documented in China in the 6th century. From there it spread out to other cultures and countries which evolved their own technique and style. Paper cutting experienced recently a revival in modern art. Contemporary artists (e.g. Mia Perlman, Rob Ryan, Béatrice Coron) and their works are introduced in the inspiring book "Paper Cutting" by Chronicle Books, which I can't recommend highly enough! It's beautiful! 


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