Paper Cutting 101--Practice: Straight Lines

Today's lesson is about cutting straight lines and not overshooting your starting and ending destination. This is trickier than it seems and for most projects you simply resign yourself to having a few extra "crosses," x's" and "t's". Most people don't care, some people won't even notice but I feel that if I am going to sell a piece of artwork, I should try and minimize them.

The above pattern is what I call--Diamonds. I know--it's obvious but sometimes I am simple minded like that. Here are your goals:

Goal #1: most importantly, have straight lines. When I design something like this, I try and design the line strength equal to the width of my cutting blade. In some pieces, you have to try and decide to cut in the middle of the line, the exterior of the line, or the interior of the line. So above, you should cut the blue lines as they are.

Goal #2: Don't overshoot your starting and ending points. As mentioned in a previous post, you can use pin holes for starting and ending points. When you first try this exercise, you might want to do that. At this point, I don't but for more complicated designs, I still do use pin points. The orange lines above should be cut on both sides of the orange line (in other words, the orange lines are the connectors of the odd number diamonds). There are seven diamonds (counted from the inside--out, they are 1 through 7. The connectors join all of the odd numbered diamonds together. If you overshoot cutting on the connectors you will separate them from each other.

Suggestions:

(1) Make several copies of the pattern (trust me on this one, you will over shoot and separate your diamonds).

(2) Start with plain copier paper and practice on that. Print the pattern directly on the paper.

(3) Once you have completed one set, practice on a different piece of paper. Any other paper--preferably colored paper. Print the pattern directly on the colored paper and work on the colored side of the paper.

(4) Work next of light weight card stock. Print directly on the card stock.

(5) If you want, practice transferring the pattern onto a piece of paper or card stock.

(6) Finally, start shrinking the size of the diamonds by reducing on a copier. Obviously, the smaller the diamonds, the more difficult the process.

Please contact me directly if you want a PDF of the diamond pattern.

Paper Cutting 101--Practice

This week will feature some practice exercises that I do in order to sharpen some of my paper cutting skills. These are simple exercises but I try and do them with precision which is the name of the game. I try and do at least an hour of paper cutting per day. Some of that might be actual projects but many times it will simple be exercises or "doodling" with a scalpel. This week's lessons will deal with cutting straight lines.

Paper Cutting--Owl Project

After about six more hours over two days, I finally finished the owl project. Hopefully, now you can see the use of the connectors to ensure that the piece stays in one piece. I am thinking of simplifying the image so that I can turn them into greeting cards. The recipient really loved the final outcome.

Iron Craft 2012--Project 2

For this challenge, we were instructed to make something with hearts. Every Valentine's Day, I have a patron that commissions me to make a valentine heart using animals in some way. The challenge was a catalyst to get started on making this project. Last year, I used penguins. After a friend of mine told me seeing the play and the movie called "War Horse" I decided to try and do something with horses. This is the final result of that project. The actual size of the finished project is 9" by 7".

Paper Cutting--Owl Project

After another two hours of cutting, here is the owl project with all of the feathers cut out. I will soon be working on the larger areas and the frame and then I will be complete.

Paper Cutting 101--Cutting Tips

For me, the most difficult aspect of cutting paper is cutting a straight line. Depending on the thickness of the paper, the paper can buckle under your knife. Or, the paper buckles as you cut towards you. So I have developed some tricks that I use when cutting paper.

Rule #1: When cutting straight lines, use a piercing tool for the starting and ending points of your cuts. The problem with cutting a line is that you many times you end up cutting past the point of stopping. When doing this, you end up with hash marks at the end of each cut. By using pin holes, you know exactly when and where to start and top.

Rule #2: When you can, cut one line in one direction and then cut the connecting line in the opposite direction. In the illustration above, for line one, I would cut north to south and then I would cut line six, east to west. Most people would cut line one--north to south--and then cut line six--west to east. The problem is that the paper is weakened and cutting line six this way could tear the paper when exerting pressure.

Rule #3: Cut parallel lines before cutting perpendicular lines. I have numbered the lines above as I would cut them. I would make all north to south cuts first before making east to west cuts.

Rule #4: Use your ruler to apply pressure on the paper. In the illustration above, most people would start with line # 5 (because they are right handed) and then continue to cut line #4, #3, etc. The problem with this is that the paper is weakened because you have cut it. When you go to cut line #4, the paper has pressure applied to it and will likely curl or buckle and eventually tear. To alleviate this problem, cut line #1 above first. Then place your rule on line #1 to cut line #2. The pressure of the ruler should prevent any buckling or curling of the paper as you cut line #2. Move your ruler to line #2 to cut line #3, etc. When you are cutting lines 6 - 10, I rotate the paper 90 degrees so that I could be cutting the lines from north to south (rather than east to west). I find it easier to cut in the north-south plane but some people prefer to cut west-east plane.

Rule #5: The pressure applied should be on the ruler and not on your cutting tool. When cutting with a ruler, keep the hand pressure on the ruler so that it doesn't move. Putting the pressure on the cutting tool will tire your hand but also allows for the ruler to slip and ruin your cutting. Please keep in mind, it is much better to make several passes with your cutting tool (which is easier to do when you are using a ruler) than to make a single deep cut.

Rule #6: Find out what ruler works best for you. I have a variety of rulers that I use and will have a separate post on that topic. Usually, I use a cork backed 12" ruler for most of my work.

Paper Cutting 101--Transfer and Cutting

There are a number of ways to transfer your pattern for cutting. One common way of doing a cut out is to print your image on a piece of paper and tape/staple it to the piece of paper that you want to cut. You then cut out your image until you are finished. The problem with this is that you are cutting two layers of product (the top layer with the image and the second layer of paper/card stock. This can become quite tedious and the finger strength that you need to cut is pretty severe. Also, it is difficult to retrace a cut line on the second layer when it has already been cut on the first layer.

A second way, and the one that I prefer, is to print your image on the piece of paper that you want to cut. I usually use black/white silhouette paper for my smaller paper cuts and this is a perfect medium for doing this type of transfer. Simply print the image on the back of the paper (the white side) and start cutting from the back. The only problem with this is you must reverse your image--especially if you are cutting out text.

A third way to transfer your image is to use carbon paper, pattern tracing paper, etc to transfer your image onto the paper that you want to cut. Print out the image on a plain piece of paper. Staple/tape this sheet onto carbon paper and then place these pieces on the paper that you want to cut. With a stylus or ball point pen, trace around the image that you want to cut. Once completed, you simply cut the image on the front side of the paper. Depending on how intricate your pattern is, this could be a long and laborious process.

For the owl project, I used silhouette paper and printed the image on the white side of the paper. When you start cutting, you should cut in an orderly fashion--either left to right, top to bottom, etc. I will provide you with some exceptions to this rule later which will refer to weak points when cutting that you have to consider.

For this cutting, I started inside--out and smallest to largest. I started in the middle of the figure and started cutting out the feathers. I figured that this would be the most time consuming aspect of the process. Considering that I am in a time crunch, I am having to cut this image after I get home from work at the theater. Keeping in mind that I am tired, I need to concentrate on those aspects of the cutting that I can do while tired. Long and complicated cuts should only really be done when fresh and awake. Normally, I would work for a longer period of time on each step of the project but I don't have that luxury at the moment.

So here is stopping point #1, belly feathers done. Time: 1 hour 45 minutes.



Disclaimer: Please don't use my timings as a gauge on your own work. Because I have been doing this for a little while--I am probably a faster cutter than many of my readers.

Paper Cutting--Owl Project

My friend loves owls so I decided to use her project as the basis of my explanation of paper cutting. I found the above image on the internet and I will use it as the basis of this project. Unfortunately, there are some problems with the image.

If I were to use this image as is, I would be working with the positive space. In other words, I would be cutting out all of the white spaces and would be left with the black image as shown above. While most of this would be OK, there are some trouble areas that I would have to address.

The problem with floaters is that they are not connected to any other section of the cutout. Unless you want to paste them down independently then you somehow need to connect them to another piece of the cutout. Also, there are some tiny feathers to cut out which could be difficult. While working on a larger scale, this wouldn't necessarily cause a problem but if I want to reduce the image to work on a greeting card then there could be problems. Also, I don't necessarily like a floating image on a white background. I usually frame the image and then mount it to a solid background.

Here is the final image that I will use for the cutout. Even though the border is very thin, I will cut a 1/2 inch border around the image. You will notice that the image touches the border on all sides--in other words, I did not create any new floaters when placing the border around the image.

Paper Cutting 101--Positive vs Negative Space

One of the most difficult aspects of paper cutting for me is still trying to decide and/or determine what I am going to cut. I still get confused sometimes and it often happens that I end up with the exact opposite of what I wanted. The problem is a visual or spatial one but most artists know it as positive vs negative space. While I have never taken an art class, I will try and explain it as best as I can.

In paper cutting, when you cut away all of the material that you don't need and are left with what you want then you are working with the positive space. In the image above, you are working with positive space. In other words, I would cut out all of the paper around the stool and would be left with a cutout of the stool (the image in black).

When you work with the negative space, you cut out the material that represents the image that you need/want. In other words, you make a stencil. In the image above, the negative space would be the white space.

To complicate the matter, if you spray paint the negative then you end up with the positive.

Paper Cutting 101

Today, I wanted to start a series called Paper Cutting 101. I want to introduce you to some of the tricks of the trade that I have learned along the way. I will introduce you to a project that I am working on and show you step by step how I do a paper cutting.

The impetus of this series was a question that I received regarding loss of feelings in one's fingers after completing a paper cutting project. The biggest problem that people have is that they grip their cutting tool too hard. Rather than letting the cutting tool cut the paper, people apply too much pressure to the cutting tool while thinking that the extra pressure will cut the paper better.

As a first issue, I want to introduce you to a collection of cutting tools that I use. The most common tool used by people is the Exacto knife. The Exacto knife is held in the hand very much like a pencil or pen. While this grip is familiar, it can lead to hand and joint problems because people apply too much finger pressure in order to cut paper.

There are three common types of Exacto knives. In the picture below, the knife in the middle is the most common on the market--in this case, it is covered in rubber for ease of grip. The first version is an ergonomically correct handle that places added weight in the back of the handle to offset the pressure normally used when cutting. The knife on the right is a swivel blade that is best used when cutting curves.

The knife that I use most often in my scalpel which is the same knife that doctors and surgeons use. Like a Exacto knife, the blades are exchangeable. The major differences are the weight and handle design. The profile of the handle is slim and flat (rather than round like the Exacto handle). The benefit of this handle is that it fits the web of the hand between thumb and forefinger. For my work, I use a rounded blade and a straight blade.

Other tools that I use for a variety of purposes are snap blades, punches, and pin tools. Snap blades (like Olfa blades) are useful when cutting thicker materials (like foam core, etc.). Also, I extend the blade when I need to mitre corners when bookbinding. This type of blade allows you to snap off the dull blade that then exposes the new sharper blade. Rather than cutting small circles, I use hole punches for nice clean circles. I will write a separate post about hole punches-especially the Japanese hole punch. I also use a pin tool to punch holes in paper when I need start and stopping points in paper. This will be explained in a separate post as well.

Happy New Year

OK--so I am late with my New Year's wishes but it was a very busy December 2011 and I wasn't nearly ready for the influx of stuff to happen as the year ended. I will definitely catch you up with goings-on but I wanted to share with you my first project for Iron Craft 2012.

First of all, the challenges this year occur every two weeks so the projects are expected to be more detailed or bigger risks. The first challenge this year was paper--dedicated to the first anniversary of Iron Craft. Because paper is my medium (and everyone knew it was it was mentioned in the challenge), I feel a little more pressure to produce something spectacular. I felt like Austin Scarlett in the opera gown challenge during Project Runway All Stars.

I decided to do another paper quilt. The first quilt that I did was a 9" by 9" quilt made out of a heart pattern. I decided to double the size of the quilt and make an 18" by 18" quilt.

There are three pattern blocks for this quilt. Two of the patterns are shown above. The third pattern is the big diamond pattern that you can see in the overall quilt above.

Here is the most intricate of the patterns above.

Wooden Pen

Here is another item I picked up at the San Diego artist's fair. It is a beautiful hand turned wooden pen in a cherry wood box. I love supporting the local artists.

Buttons

Whenever I travel, I try and locate and support local artists at craft shows and craft fairs. Recently having returned from Los Angeles, I had the opportunity to drive to San Diego to watch some of my friends perform at the Old Globe Theater. On the day that I was there, the local art guilds were hosting an art weekend on the Saturday I attended the show.

While my first choice is to support other paper artists, I couldn't find any paper arts at the festival. I did find this one shop that was a joint effort of a polymer clay artists and glass artists. I don't normally buy buttons but I have been deficient in having a variety of buttons available for my books and boxes.

I purchased this set of matching buttons for my stash.

Iron Craft 44

This week, we were challenged to create something out of or with a pillowcase. This was a hectic week for me because I left for Los Angeles on Wednesday of last week and I did not return to NY until Tuesday--so I had to do a quick project.

I decided to do a monogram stencil and then air brush the stencil onto a pillowcase. The idea was to replicate the fancy embroidered pillowcases that couples get for wedding gifts. I wanted something that was a little bit more masculine plus I don't want to wake up with an indentation of my initials on the side of my face when I wake up every morning.

The most difficult part for me was choosing the font. I probably spent over an hour trying to choose a font that would transfer well into a stencil. Considering all three letters of my monogram have islands (the sections of the letters that are not connected to anything--like the top section of an "R" or the top and bottom section of a "B")--the choice of a font was important.




The font that I chose had a Celtic feel to it. Unfortunately, the J was a little crooked when I ironed it onto the pillowcase and I got a little too close to the surface when I airbrushed and the orange paint leaked under the stencil.

Overall, I am pleased with the way that it turned out and would do this project again when I had more time.

Star Book 3

Here is another star book that I have been working on. This one features a front frame panel. The second layer is a layer that has a heart cutout. The final layer is a background from which a cut out heart is suspended.

Here is the opened book.

Here is the front view.

Star Book2

Here is my next Star Book. The front layer is simply a frame. The second layer is composed of a variety of vellum and thin papers so I could see how transparent the different media were. The back layer is a reverse folded panel with a hand cut heart. The purpose of the reverse folding is so I could put a battery operated tea light in place.

There is the view of the book without the tea light.



Here is the star book with the tea light illuminated and the lights turned out. The light gets projected through the cut out and onto the vellum.

Star Book 1

This is my newest bookbinding obsession--star books. Here is the latest addition to my arsenal. The star book.

The front layer is a peephole that looks onto the middle layer which has a cutout heart. I believe that I have finally found my niche.

Iron Craft 43

This week we were challenged to do a craft that we had never done or were afraid to do. There were so many projects that I could have done. First, I thought about trying knitting again. Nah. Started and stopped too many times. I then thought about doing a candlemaking project but I didn't want to go and buy some supplies. I also thought about doing a project with sculpey or shrinky dinks but I didn't want to go out and buy more materials. After last week's sewing project, I thought about sewing or possibly a block or two for a quilt.

I then thought about doing a paper quilt. I had seen books on the topic and thought that I would try one since it seemed right up my alley. The problem that I had was converting the quilt directions into paper directions. Unfortunately, sewing measurements require you cut larger pieces than needed to allow for seam allowances. With paper, you don't need seam allowances so nothing fit together. After about three hours of cutting, trimming and pasting, I came up with the above piece. While suitable for this week's project, I know that I could do better.

I decided to try a different approach. If I thickened the lines on the patterns that I was using, I could then cut out the outlines similar to a stained glass look. I could then piece together the interior pieces which would be guaranteed to fit. Here is the same pattern but with the "grout" lines intact. I went from a paper quilt to a paper mosaic.



Once the pieces are cut, you can then fill in the interior pieces. I chose a three color monochromatic palette. I alternated the pattern between light, medium and dark shades and then alternated the patterns in a 3 x 3 grid. I placed small strips of paper to act as borders.

P10K:Day 59

The last entry for catching up--Week Ending October 23, 2011

Monday
Sewing Project (2 hrs)
Blogging (1 hr)

Tuesday
Sewing Project (3 hrs)
Photography (1 hr)
Blogging (1 hr)

Wednesday
Star Book (1 hr)

Thursday
Butterfly Book (2 hr)

Friday
Blogging (1 hr)

Saturday
Inventory (4 hrs)

Sunday
Inventory (4 hrs)

Week total: 20 hrs
Cumulative total: 206 hrs

P10K:Day 52

Week Ending October 16, 2011

Monday
Blogging (2 hrs)
Paper Cuts (2 hrs)

Tuesday
Blogging (1 hr)
Paper Cuts (2 hrs)
Photography (1 hr)

Wednesday
Photography (1 hr)
Blogging (1 hr)

Thursday
Blogging (1 hr)

Friday
Star Book (1 hr)

Saturday
Class (6 hrs)

Sunday (6 hrs)

Week Total: 24 hours
Cumulative Total: 186 hrs

P10K:Day 45

OK, so I know that I am behind in my Project 10K posting but I will rectify that now.

Week ending October 9, 2011

Monday
Clear Day Poster (2 hrs)
Star Book (3 hrs)
Blogging (2 hrs)
Photography (1hr)

Tuesday
Star book (1 hr)
Angelo Book (2 hrs)
Blogging (1 hr)

Wednesday
Butterfly book (3 hrs)

Thursday
Blogging (1 hr)

Friday
Photography (2 hrs)

Saturday
Class (6 hrs)

Sunday
Class (6 hrs)

Week Total: 30 hrs
Cumulative Total: 162 hrs

Iron Craft 42

This week's challenge was to create a plushie based on an imaginery friend. I never really had an imaginery friend when I was growing up but one of the first TV shows that I remember growing up was the New Zoo Review. I was enamored with Henrietta the Hippo. I always loved owls so Charlie the Owl was also a favorite.

This week, I decided to make an homage to Charlie the Owl. I wanted to use to types of material and in support of my pledge not to buy any new material for these challenges, I donated two of my shirts to the cause.


I was going to use both fabrics but I just couldn't get them to work together so I decided to use the brown material. I also had to get my sewing machine and recover it from the cobwebs that had settled on it.

I didn't realize how rusty I had gotten with my sewing skills. It took me 30 minutes to remember how to thread the machine, another 40 minutes trying to wind bobbins and several failed attempts to get the tension and stitch length correct.



Here is the final result. While I completed the project in time, I will probably do this project over and ask for a mulligan. The project is simple and turned out OK but I know I can do better. Next time I won't wait until the last minute to do a sewing project.

Iron Craft 41

OK--I know, I know. I'm behind in my posts this week and it's all because of that stupid holiday. No, the holiday isn't stupid; it's simply the extra day off gives me more time to do stuff that I don't usually have time to do. So rather than rest and enjoy the extra day off--I fill the time up until the break of exhaustion overtakes me and then I need a day off from my extra day off. People who tell me they wish the day had extra hours in a day are simply crazy. I would cram more stuff in the extra hours and make myself even more tired than I already am.

This week's challenge for Iron Craft was Halloween. I knew it was coming and yet I was still unprepared. I hemmed and hawed over what to do. I was going to do a papier mache monster--didn't happen. I was going to do a big wall hanging--didn't happen. I was even going to paint a clear shower curtain with blood stains--but I couldn't find a cheap shower curtain, so--it didn't happen.

So, I fell back on an old mainstay--paper cuts. I did two paper cuts this week hoping that I would like at least one of them. I want to do an airbrush t-shirt for a Halloween party that I have coming up. These are the two designs that I finished for this week. I do like the mummy skull on the right. Both of these paper cuts are mounted on a hand dyed paper which gives it that withered look and I will then mount them on white paper and frame them for Halloween decorations in the future.

Iron Craft 40

This week we were challenged to make something out of a glass or container. I cheated a little bit and make something with glass rather than out of glass. Some might call it cheating--I call it using artistic license.

The title of this piece is "Pickled Garden." I cut a flower garland out of card stock and then wrapped it around some PVC pipe and glued it to the lid of a mason jar. There are three layers of garland and two different PVC pipes.

The first layer is wrapped on the inside circumference of the smaller pipe. The second layer is wrapped around the outside of the smaller pipe. The smaller pipe is then placed inside the larger PVC pipe. The last layer is wrapped on the outside of the larger PVC pipe.

(l) Pickled Garden

(r) detail of the lid

Blue Book

A friend of mine had a birthday recently. He was hosting a birthday party at his party where we had a grand old time. Thinking that I was doing something good, I brought him a couple of bottles of alcohol. Having done so, I thought that I was a good friend by bringing a bottle of liquor for the party and one for my friend as a gift.

Two weeks pass and I meet with my friends for Sunday dinner and I asked the birthday boy if he had a nice birthday and if he got everything he wanted. I was surprised when he said he didn't get the one gift that he really wanted. When I asked him what it was, he replied "I really wanted one of your journals." Well, color me surprised. Secondly, how in the hell was I supposed to know.

I put this book together to give to him as a belated birthday present. I hope that he likes it.

Star Book

This is another example of how instructions in a book are not specific enough to accurately complete the project. I have been doing some research on Star Books. The instructions in one book clearly stated that the difference in page size between layer one and layer two has to be one half of the difference in page size between the second and third layers. In other words, if the first layer has pages that are 1.5 inches and the second layer has pages that are 2 inches then the third layer has to have pages that are 3 inches in width. Theoretically, this is correct but unfortunately, what they don't tell you is that a 1.5 inch pages does not adequately allow for the book to open into a star. After a lot of trial and error, I realized that the second layer should be .75 inches wider than layer one. Also, the double rule of the second and third layer is then still applicable. In other words, if your first layer is 2.5 inches wide, the second layer should be 3.25 inches wide and then your third layer should be 4 inches wide.


(l)Lots of trial and error
(r) Even more trial and error

One important aspect of this project is the need to use lots of scrap (i.e., inexpensive paper). Because of the need to build several prototypes, it would be unfeasible to use your expensive paper on making models. I always make prototypes beging committing to a project.


Here is my paper pile for the protoypes. The orange and yellow paper was on sale for ten cents a sheet--perfect for prototypes.


(l) Here is the completed prototype.
(r) An aerial view of the prototype

Once the prototype is completed, you are free to experiment with other media. The above were make with cover weight paper. The prototype below was made with Duplex 110lb cardstock.


(l) Here is the detailed view of the duplex cardstock star book.
(r) An aerial view of the duplex cardstock star book.

P10K:Day 38

OK--I have to admit. I was a slug this week but it wasn't all my fault. I got a new phone on Monday and any extra time was spent learning about my new touch screen phone, programming, searching for new apps, buying said apps and being all together too cool to know what do about myself. And no--it isn't an I-phone.

Monday
0 hours

Tuesday
Blogging (1 hr)
Photography (2 hrs)

Wednesday
0 hours

Thursday
0 hours

Friday
Blogging (1 hr)

Saturday
Inventory (2 hrs)
Shopping (2 hrs)
Clear Day Poster (1 hr)
Star Book Research (1 hr)

Sunday
Blogging (1 hr)
Clear Day Poster (2 hrs)
Cleaning/Organizing ( 2 hrs)
Paper Box (2 hrs)
Star Book (2 hrs)

Week total - 18 hrs
Cumulative total - 132 hrs