The Big Easy

My latest project was a series of New Orleans inspired papercuts...

Papercut #1:

The first piece I cut was intended to look like an intricate back tattoo.

I pulled the circular text from the drum kit at Preservation Hall, a music venue in the heart of the French Quarter "established in 1961 to honor one of America’s truest art forms – Traditional New Orleans Jazz."*

Although Preservation Hall is located on St. Peters Street, 'Rue Bourbon' (also in the French Quarter) seemed more fitting for this papercut, especially in a tattoo-style font.

Papercut #2:

New Orleans infamous ghost stories and witchcraft legends inspired the bridal skulls of my second papercut.

'Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo' on Bourbon Street is named for New Orlean's notorious Voodoo Queen. Here you can stock up on talismans, candles, tarot cards, incense...

The word 'Lafayette' on the top hat was borrowed from the ironwork gates of Lafayette Cemetery. A pair of ironwork gates were also included on papercut #1.
 

Papercut #3:

The final papercut in the series is presented as a beautiful poster. The Big Easy is one of the city's many nicknames...

Inspiration for this piece was taken from the cemeteries of New Orleans, often referred to as 'cities of the dead'. Due to the high water table "departed loved ones are interred above ground"** (Caskets would literally float if buried in a traditional grave.)

The name 'Toussaint' on the central tomb is for Allen Toussaint; the musician, songwriter and influential figure in New Orleans R&B who sadly passed away last year.

Overall, I'm really pleased with this series of papercuts. The New Orleans influence is clear in each piece, and the repetitive floral pattern and tattoo-style font tie the three pieces together.

 

Which papercut is your favourite?

Until next week...

-Karen

* http://preservationhall.com/hall/history/
**http://www.experienceneworleans.com/deadcity.html

Summer Market

On Sunday the Summer Market took place at the historic Roundhouse in Derby. Featuring over 100 stalls, outdoor plaza filled with food and drink, and prosecco bar, it was a very busy market!

My pick of the stalls and how you can shop them:

Busy Little Things
Busy Little Things is a clothing range of 'high quality gorgeous children's clothes'. I was drawn to the fun, colourful patterns which included flamingos, beach huts, and summer flowers! Available in sizes newborn up to 9 years old.

Website: busylittlethings.co.uk

Cocoa Tabby
Two words: gourmet chocolate. Handmade in Derbyshire, Cocoa Tabby's emphasis is on 'exceptional flavour and texture'. Flavours include strawberry and cinnamon, chilli and lime, and salted caramel. Yum!

Website: cocoatabby.co.uk. 
Concession: Concession in Design @ 44 on Derby's Sadler Gate.

Carly Dodsley

Fired in Stoke-on-Trent, Carly Dodsley's ceramics include fish and birds designs. I particularly like her coasters featuring popular cocktail recipes! Dodsley is committed to producing 'tableware that is decorative, functional, desirable and durable'.

Website: www.carlydodsley.com
Concession: Concession in Handmade Nottingham.

Sticky Mix Ltd
Sticky Mix offer a range of cake and cookie mixes, each handily packaged in a single brown paper bag! Mixes are priced at £6 and include white chocolate and cranberry flavour. For those with allergies, there are mixes which are gluten free, dairy and soya free, and dairy, soya and egg free.

Website: www.sticky-mix.co.uk

Letterbox Lane

Leanne of Letterbox Lane wants to 'keep the tradition of letter writing and correspondence alive'. Her hand illustrated vintage plates, printed artwork and handmade cards proved popular at the market!

Website: letterboxlane.bigcartel.com 
Concession: Concession in Design @ 44 on Derby's Sadler Gate, and in Handmade Nottingham.
 

Sunshine Van!

The Christmas Market will be on 7th/8th November. 

See you there!

Did you visit the Summer Market? What did you buy?

Image credits:

All images are my own except...
Busy Little Things: Both photos from the Busy Little things facebook page
Carly Dodsley: L) Carly Dodsley Ceramics facebook page
Letterbox Lane: R) letterboxlane.bigcartel.com/products

Until next week...

-Karen

Pennine Sinfonia Spring Concert

Pennine Sinfonia is a 'scratch' orchestra of professionals, students, graduates and teachers. Biannual concerts are held in aid of Jessie's Fund, a charity that helps children with complex needs through music.

"Music is a powerful way to interact, particularly for kids with communication difficulties."

Saturday's spring concert was held in St Paul's Hall in Huddersfield. As with the previous concerts, I designed and made the tickets, along with a few other decorative pieces...

For this concert I hand cut a sea of silent silhouette trumpeters. I also made a number of custom tickets, cut from purple card and embellished with gold glitter initials, for audience members who RSVP'd.

"I've never seen more attractive tickets for a concert!"

For front-of-house table decorations I hand cut purple flags in a similar design to the poster above, and stood them in glass jars beside handmade paper flowers. I finished the jars with mini tassel bunting. The colour palette throughout was black, purple and gold.

The front of the table was decorated with a handmade tassel banner. These banners are really easy to make, Pinterest has lots of tutorials! (Tip: cut the strips nice and thin.)

I was really happy with how my pieces looked (I received some lovely feedback!) but as always there are a few things I would do differently next time...

Below you can see the fully decorated table. That's my friend Fliss being all smiley and front-of-house!

The concert was a success, raising lots of money for Jessie's Fund!

Do you like my designs and colour palette? What would you have done differently?

Until next week...

Karen

Inspiration

Below are 5 of my favourite paper cut artists who inspired me to pick up a scalpel:

Rob Ryan

The original paper cutter, Oh Cut It Out wouldn't exist without Rob Ryan and the uni tutor who introduced me to his work. I often look to lyrics/quotes as a starting point for art, and so was drawn to the use of text in Ryan's paper cuts. He creates sentimental, honest stories within a single image, much like a song.

Beatrice Coron

I discovered Coron's work at Manchester Art Gallery's 'The First Cut' exhibition in 2013. From a single piece of paper Coron creates multiple stories/worlds, and so every time I return to her work I see something new that I missed before. In her TED talk she says: "as my image is already inside the paper, I just have to remove what's not from that story."


Emily Hogarth

Emily Hogarth is a designer and illustrator capturing the Scottish landscape and wildlife. Hogarth has a distinctive style with recognisable flora and fauna. I find Hogarth particularly inspiring as she isn't much older than myself and is already a very successful artist, having  worked with companies including: Nivea, Cadbury's, and Jasper Conran. The motto she lives by is "making the everyday magical".

Su Blackwell

Su Blackwell is known for bringing fairy tales to life, including Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland', by constructing three-dimensional characters on the pages of the book. As a big reader I love how Blackwell's scalpel effortlessly brings the stories from our imaginations to life.


Elsa Mora

Elsa Mora is fascinated by the endless possibilities of paper, and how a simple piece of paper can become something meaningful. I particularly like Mora's papercuts featuring flora and fauna inside of people, almost as though you are looking at the very roots of the people.





Who are the artists who inspire you?

Until next week...

Karen
 
Image credits:
Rob Ryan & Beatrice Coron - personal photos
Emily Hogarth - emilyhogarth.com
Su Blackwell - sublackwell.co.uk
Elsa Mora - elsita.typepad.com

Work In Progress

All of my designs, both artwork and greetings cards, are cut from 210gsm card. Through experimentation I found 160gsm not substantial enough, and 240gsm too thick for adding detail. Cutting 50 concert tickets from 240gsm black card almost gave me RSI... Never again!

Before I start drawing I always consider the size of the frame the design is to be mounted in. No use having a beautiful paper cut that refuses to fit into any of the typical frame sizes.

I sketch out the entire design before picking up my scalpel. Quite often I get impatient and want to start cutting, especially if I'm having trouble mapping out the design, but it's obviously easier to erase a pencil line than to erase an unwanted cut!

Deciding where to start cutting depends on the design... For example, when cutting bunting I cut out the letters first, before cutting round the flags. This reduces the risk of the card ripping.

It's my preference to leave small details until last. In the above design the insides of the flowers were the last to go. When cutting out text I leave the inside of the letters until last (if I cut them out at all).

The finished product! Now all that remains is to choose the preferred coloured paper to back it, and a suitable frame that will compliment both the design and the room it will be hung in.

Equipment I use:

• HB pencil
• Eraser
• Plastic ruler for drawing the design (personal preference)
• A3 self healing cutting mat
• Scalpel
• Small scissors
• Metal ruler for cutting straight edges

Hopefully this has given you a small insight into how I work!

What other types of blog posts would you like to see?

Until next week...

Karen

Goals

Oh Cut It Out has a lot of growing to do in the coming months, before the training wheels can come off. Below are some of the key goals that have my full attention:
  

• Fully cohesive brand. Oh Cut It Out is in an experimental  phase as I trial various papercut styles and products. I'm confident that in time the Oh Cut It Out products, logo, and brand photos will come together to form a cohesive paper chain.

• Improved photos. I've set myself a challenge to create beautiful, eye catching photos and a cohesive instagram feed. Lots of flowers, donuts, and colour! Take a look and tell me how I'm doing!

• Befriend etsy designer/makers and form a Derby etsy team. Being part of a community is really important, especially when you work from home. I was disheartened when I couldn't find a Derby etsy team to join, until I heard Caitlin Moran's voice in my head telling me to start one myself! Calling all Derby etsy designer/makers, let's build a community and support one another!

  

• Reach 100 'likes' on facebook. I was feeling under pressure to share a finished papercut every day until I realised this is unrealistic, and ultimately lowers the quality of my work. Now my focus is on producing interesting, shareable content, such as works in progress and artists I admire.

• Craft fair(s). I am planning for Oh Cut It Out to have its first table at one of Derby's craft fairs this year. I'm really looking forward to meeting fellow local crafters, and showing off my products!

What are your current work goals?

Until next week...

-Karen

Learning Curve

Oh Cut It Out was a classic case of one woman naively dreaming up a small business in her bedroom and thinking it would be easy...

In the 3 months since Oh Cut It Out went live on etsy I've learnt a lot, including:

• Photo quality is super important. Late night photography sessions are a terrible idea. Embrace daylight!  A month ago I was doing some facebook maintenance and was embarrassed by at least half of the photos I had uploaded... I retook the offending photos in good daylight, not a cutting mat in sight. Improving photo quality and constructing beautiful, shareable images is one of my current goals.

• Considering various product types. Oh Cut It Out launched with a range of Valentine's Day cards, and paper cut art  influenced by lyrics and quotes. It has since expanded to include: birthday cards, couples/baby name paper cuts, and cake toppers (mmm, cake!). Although there are a variety of other product types to consider, my current focus is on making the existing products the best they can be, whilst attracting a bigger audience.

• Finding my voice. The biggest learning curve of starting a small business has been figuring out my brand. What message am I communicating, and who is my target customer?

• Social media. Scheduling posts. Facebook insights. Creating beautiful images. It's not all 'likes' and 'follows', you know.  I highly recommend Mollie Makes 'Social Media' for advice on how to use facebook and instagram to your advantage.

Oh Cut It Out has a long way to go which is both exciting and scary, but let's be honest, if I'd been any less naive at the start of this process I wouldn't have begun this journey... And that would've been a shame!

Are you a designer/maker in your first year of business? What have you learnt in your first 3 months?

Until next week...

-Karen

Meet and Greet

Hello!

As you probably know, Oh Cut It Out is a Midlands based brand specialising in handmade paper cut cards, paper cut cake toppers, and personalised paper cut art!

This blog post coincides with Oh Cut It Out being live on etsy for 3 months! Once a week I will be writing a new post looking at my creative process, what I've learnt (so much already), what I would like to achieve as Oh Cut It Out grows, etc...

Are you a Derby based etsy designer/maker? Would you like to build a local community and start a Derby etsy team? Get in touch!

If you haven't already, don't forget to 'like' Oh Cut It Out on facebook, and follow @OhCutItOut on instagram for regular updates.

For commissions and/or inquiries, you can reach me at: karenlancashiretextiles@gmail.com

Until next week...

-Karen