Tutorial treat

Today's post was meant to feature a video of me cutting this lovely knight. Unfortunately the video is quite dark and all programs on my computer are refusing to edit it! So here is my promise - I WILL upload a video of  me cutting this knight that isn't so dark you can't see it and I WILL be posting a fabulous knights and dragon's party post next week with lots of how to's.

I do hope you like this little chap - he will be appearing in my Etsy and Folksy shops soon!

Creative and commerical!

You may remember that recently in the Thursday Thoughts feature I talked about how various paper cut artists used frames in their work. One artist whom I featured was Julene Harrison. I admire and adore her work and am thrilled that she has very kindly provided me with some beautiful images of her work to share with you.

Julene is truly skilled at creating designs that meet a very specific brief - whether that is a personalised cut to welcome a new baby or a family tree. Julene also uses these skills to create stunning paper cut designs for commercial clients.

Take a look at these four designs. Each is shown as the original papercut design and the final design as edited by the client.

The original paper cut:

Image - Julene Harrison

The final image:

Image - Julene Harrison

 The original papercut:



Image - Julene Harrison


The final image:

Image - Julene Harrison

The original papercut:

Image - Julene Harrison

The final image:

Iamge - Julene Harrison

The original papercut:

Image - Julene Harrison

The final image:

Image - Julene Harrison

A massive thank you to Julene for providing such a fascinating insight into her commercial work. If you'd like your very own piece of art by Julene then check out her website and Etsy shop.

Website:
http://madebyjulene.com/

Etsy:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/julene

A week of animal adventures

It has been a week packed full of animal adventure. In between working on some exciting papercut commissions I have had to rise to the challenge of various animal rescues and treating ailments.

Terry is in the middle of lambing (last count 40 sheep lambed, 100 and something to go!) These lambs are some of the first born who are now gambolling out and about in the fields. Lambing is an exciting and nerve wracking time in the village. Everyone is hopeful that Terry's flock will remain unaffected by the dreadful Schmallenberger virus that has been affecting lambs this year. (So far so good).

Whilst there isn't much we can do to help Terry and Paul whilst they lamb, as dog owners we are acutely aware of keeping our dogs on a very tight leash. Imagine our horror when we were up at the allotment this week (right next to these lambs) and met a young husky. No owner, no collar, no control. After about an hour and with the help of five other families we managed to catch her. A beautiful and very friendly dog but completely unknown to any of us. Several hours later our neighbours had managed to track down her owners. Thankfully Terry's sheep seem ok even though the dog must have come through their field.

Another rescue was of a beautiful male greenfinch trapped in one of the fruit cages at the allotment.

And the ailment? Well our poor girls seem to have got all sorts of bugs and parasites troubling them at the minute. Terry has very kindly provided some medicine for them and we've been to buy some treatment for their legs. So spare a thought for me this weekend as I throroughly disinfect two chicken coops, feed and drink containers and catch and spray 15 chickens!

Have a great weekend (and if you do have a dog - keep it away from the sheep!)

Design Classic

Thanks to my wonderful parents I am the proud owner of a very beautiful and very useful design classic. An Anglepoise 1227. I suspect this lamp originally belonged to my dad and was his desk lamp as a student. It then obviously made the move with him when he married mum and until a couple of years ago had been residing in my parents spare room!

I borrowed the lamp a couple of years ago and sort of hung on to it. Eventually I felt I should probably ask if my parents wanted it back. To my delight they said no! So the beautiful lamp now resides on my desk and is immensely useful. I like to think of it as the gymnast of the lighting world - able to bend, swivel and contort into an amazing number of positions which is great when I am papercutting and need to focus light on a specific area without casting shadows.

So today in honour of my beautiful lamp I compiled these images to highlight how beautiful and timeless a design the Anglepoise 1227 is:

Inspiration for New Baby Gifts

On Saturday my very dear friend gave birth to another beautiful baby boy.  I have been collecting together gifts for the family over the last couple of months but was rather stumped as to a card design. Whilst working on a completely different project on Monday and still very stuck for ideas I came across this clock face I had cut out from a magazine (when I was about 18!)...and my brain kicked into gear!

09.39am and 10.13pm. Two times which I will never forget - the time my boys arrived in the world and our world changed for ever. I thought it might be nice to create something for my friend which commemorated that special moment in time when her little boy arrived. Thanks to the detailed text message I received letting me know he'd arrived I had all the information I needed to record the time, date and birth weight.

So I got to thinking about clocks. I am going to cut three designs so my friend can choose which one she likes best. I wanted to give the option of different styles so have chosen a cuckoo clock, a mantle piece clock and a fancy wall clock.

I used this picture as inspiration but wanted to create something more organic. So I framed the clock face with branches and used leaves to hold some of the information as well as a banner held up by the two birds at the bottom of the clock.

This is a scanned image of the completed papercut (I will have some photos soon). I think that it will look great framed and because it is cut from black paper, it should tie in with any colour scheme.

All three clock designs will be available in my Etsy and Folksy shops from this weekend. So if you are looking to give a unique gift to celebrate a new birth or special moment in time why not get me to create a custom clock papercut?

Local Loveliness - Interview with Laura Eaglesfield from Ava and Arthur

When I visited the MK Handmade and Vintage Extravaganza at Centre MK in March I purchased this rather lovely phone case from Ava and Arthur. Laura who runs the business very kindly agreed to do an interview and tell us more about her work and passion for fabric....

Tell us a bit more about yourself!

I live in Newport Pagnell with my husband Phil, Ava my daughter and Arthur the cat- hence the name. I am very much a people person and love taking my wares to market and meeting the customers. 

What led you to set up Ava and Arthur?

Ava and Arthur came about when I was on maternity leave and I started to get itchy fingers about doing something creative with my time at home, so I dusted off my sewing machine, bought pattern books to give me some inspiration and met up with a sewing friend to discuss ideas. I started to show my baby buddies what I had made and one of them asked me if I would make a nursery/ toy bag. I found a bag pattern that fitted the criteria and the rest is history as they say..

When I saw your stall at MK Handmade and Vintage I was blown away by the bright colours and sense of fun. Tell us more about your relationship with colour.

As soon as I went to Art College my eyes just opened up to so many creative people and possibilities, it had a huge influence on me.  Not having the corporate constraints anymore of uniform dressing and thinking really has allowed me to free up my passion in life, which is colour and fabrics.

Do you have a favourite product? If so why?

I don’t really have a favourite product as it is down to the fabric at the time of making. I am however very proud of the more complex items I make as I can’t quite believe I have actually made it! Especially if I have had to work it out for myself.

What’s special about fabric?

Fabric, textures, yarns, threads, buttons, beads! All haberdashery excites me.

I actually majored in knitwear design at college but I can’t knit for toffee anymore!

Using fabric is much more gratifying when you only have small bursts of time to achieve anything.

What is your favourite part of the creative process?

BUYING! This has to be the best bit. I love browsing, finding and thinking about where and how I am going to use the fabric. I love unusual colour combinations and I’d say that is my USP.

Can you name three major influences on your products?

Having had Ava I would say she is largely responsible for my children friendly products. Toy bags, mummy pouches, headband’s, lavender bags, wash bags, little children’s book bags, tooth fairy bags!

Friends, family and customers are very influential to the products.

Fashion and home magazines lead my creative thoughts to seasonal fabric buying.

Tell us more about your sewing bee course.

The “Sewing Bee” idea came about from a group of girls I teach at the moment. It’s really fun, sociable and a relaxed way of learning a little to hopefully go a long way.

I teach very basic techniques on the sewing machines and the rest is confidence building so that you can undertake small projects around the home or make gifts for friends and relatives.

It’s time out of a hectic life to catch up with friends whilst learning a new skill.

What can we look forward to from you in 2012?

I hopefully will be attending all the Vintage and Handmade fairs in the city centre this year.

I have already started to collaborate with a few out lets as to stocking my product, one being the Wollaston Garden and Home gift shop. Please find on Facebook , they are fantastic ambassadors of handmade items and deal with over 40 in the shop alone.

The next obvious step is a website or at least setting up a “shop” on Etsy or Folksy. But until I can focus on it 100% I will be doing an injustice to myself and the product by rushing into something I can’t maintain.

I am gaining valuable feedback by doing craft fairs big and small, and I have started a Facebook page that is in development as we speak. I plan to have my products on there for all to see, browse, comment or buy!

Find Ava and Arthur on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/#!/AvaAndArthur

Find out more about MK Handmade and Vintage Extravaganza here:
http://www.mk-handmade-and-vintage.co.uk/

Tuesday Treat Update

You may remember that at the beginning of March I ran a promotion to help choose the colours for a new range of rose cards. Well I promised you pictures of the winning choices and so here they are.

Each design is cut by hand into a square white card:

A coloured paper insert then adds the pop of colour to each card. Pink was definitely the most popular choice including raspberry and cerise shades. 

One giveaway winner was quite partial to a blue rose:

Here is the trio of runner's up colour choices together:

And the gift wrapped set for the winner Amy:

Don't despair if you didn't win this time - these cards will be arriving in my Etsy and Folksy shops by the end of the week.