Lincoln Cathedral

This is a close-up of a papercut commissioned by one of my Lincoln-based friends as a Christmas gift to his parents. Without a doubt, this is the most intricate bit of cutting I've ever done, but very pleased with the outcome! Thank god I didn't slip..!

Love is love, regardless of gender

It's been quite a while since my last post so there's lots to catch up on! I got another part-time job mid-November working as a barmaid at my local pub, so it has been a bit of a juggling act but I'm slowly getting used to splitting up my time between my jobs and my artwork! On top of that, with the build up to Christmas, December was one of my busiest months to date regarding commissions, so expect an influx of blog updates over the next week or so!

Starting from where I left off, this papercut was completed back in November as a wedding gift. As someone who believes strongly in the equality of same sex marriage I was so proud to have the opportunity to help celebrate the occasion and couldn't wait to get cracking on the design! The client requested that I included two, interlocking, male gender signs and also spoke about the couple's passion for music. The design process of this papercut was enjoyable not only because of the freedom of the brief, but because of the flexibility the musical theme gave me when sketching out the papercut's composition - it was really fun to put together!

Love in NYC

I've been a busy bee over the past month - I've had a few more papercuts to complete, I've got a new job, and managed to get away to Zante for a week too! So it's been all go! But I wanted to share a papercut I'm particularly proud of which I finished shortly before my holiday a fortnight ago.

This is, without a doubt, the most challenging papercut I've done! So far all my designs have been nature-orientated. Using organic shapes means I can be more flexible with my designs as the natural shapes can be easily manipulated to piece together a good composition. The brief for this cut, however, was that the artwork had to be New-York-themed as it was a gift to celebrate the engagement of the client's daughter (an old school friend of mine) which took place in Central Park. To create a successful paper cut design using manmade, rigid structures was admittedly a challenge, but one I'm pleased to have undertaken. It's helped me break out of my comfort zone and expand my portfolio, and the client was extremely pleased - as were her daughter and fiancé!

Secret Santa papercut

Every Christmas all of the staff who work alongside me on the delicatessen counter take part in 'Secret Santa', and this year I decided to make my gift instead of buying something. Papercutting is a technique I very much admire and this was my first 'proper' attempt at a fairly detailed cut, which was inspired by my visit to Rob Ryan's London-based exhibition last month.

I incorporated my colleague's and her family's initials in to the surrounding design and used their surname 'Guest' as the focal point. I'm chuffed to bits with the outcome and my friend was thrilled with her gift! I'm looking to seriously branch-out in to papercutting and intend for it to play a large part in my portfolio come the new year!