Bit of a collab I finished last night. Cut by me, artwork by Illustrator Dan Sherratt – check his reworking titles project here.

Following on from the 26 Letters, we were asked to use a book to create a sculpture. Sites we were given as reference* gave us some ideas of what sort of thing we could create, we could do pretty much anything providing we used nothing but a book and cutting materials.

Once I’d bought my books and had a look around at some examples I decided to create an illustration out of the inners of the book. Quick notes then I’ll post the pics!

* The book was “Hornet’s Nest” by Patricia Cornwell. I based my illustration around the title.

* I used a rough illustration and split it into 12 layers

* Each layer was made into a stencil

* Each layer had 16 pages per layer, cutting at 4 pages a time (there were 194 pages in total, the final layer had the “leftover” pages)

* I didn’t cut myself once!

*References

The art of cutting up books
Book Sculptures

I’ve been toying with the idea of cutting some bookmarks (after a suggestion from a friend) and today made a first attempt at some. I quite like the simplicity of these – I might make more of these and sell them as sets.

Each bookmark is 210gsm textured paper. 12.7 x 3.5cm

Here’s my second papercut, I got started on this then I broke my knife handle and couldn’t get the blade back on. Luckily my neighbour came to the rescue with some pliers, so I can temporarily use it again, and managed to finish this! Really pleased with how it’s turned out, this time I’d gone for heavier paper (210gsm, maybe a wee bit too thick, I’ll go down next time!) I think I’m going to list this in my shop soon.*

* Item already sold.

My first paper cut! I’d taken a liking to the work of Rob Ryan and spent some time looking at the works of others before deciding to have a go myself. With my mums birthday tomorrow, I thought it’d be nice to do a little something from my daughter to give her as a gift. This was much harder than I expected – maybe because the paper I bought isn’t as sturdy as I expected it to be (must check in shop next time) but I’m really pleased with the end result.

I’ll definitely be working on more of these – hopefully I can put a few together to sell in the store.