the third cut

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”  —Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

I'd like to dedicate this papercut to Megan and Terence.

Since my last iteration, I've been working on making smoother cuts and integrating my illustrations with the quote! Instead of using 8.5x11 paper, I used two differently textured 11x17 papers to experiment cutting on a larger size.

Let's go through my process! 

Since I had cut from the front of my last iteration, I got jagged edges as a result. From this, I learned that I had to cut a mirrored version of my illustrations in order to get smooth lines on the front. So, instead of drawing the exact image of what I imagined, I drew a mirrored illustration. By the way, the reason why there's a crease in centre is because I needed to fold it in order to scan it with my tiny scanner. I will be vectorizing and lasercutting this before the fall so we can see the difference between hand and machine papercuts {super excited}!

That smooth line quality! 

After cutting for two hours! 

The illustrations flow well into the words.

These are the cutouts from the paper! The line quality and width make the design quite elegant. I was really pleased with the result.

 It's all cut out!

Injuries are normal...?

Outer stroke cutting

I wanted to bring my layering of different textured paper into this iteration, so I started cutting out the outer layer! This took about another two hours.

   

After I glued the light grey paper onto the black sheet, I started gluing the cutouts into the empty spaces.

Far and close up shots of final.

Some of the challenges I faced with this project was learning to draw in reverse, cutting smooth lines, and making sure the cutouts fitted nicely into the empty spaces. The process of learning how to draw in reverse and cutting taught me a lot about patience. And...hastily cutting out the outer strokes taught me a lot about the consequences of rushing your work. As a result, I had jagged edges and differences in the width of the spaces where each cut out lay...not happy about that. But, we have to learn and progress!

I found it fascinating and a bit discouraging that I was focused on perfecting the line quality of my cuts. A lot of papercuts today are made with laser cutting machines. I think I became obsessed with perfecting the line quality because I wanted to replicate the precision of these machines. I've also found it interesting how machines were made to create precisely measured replicas of handmade objects while I've been trying to replicate a machine by handcutting my paper as precisely as possible. Some things to think about?

Last thing, I think that while we build our skills to match the precision of machines, we are instilling the value of the creative process. Let me know what you think though.

Thanks for being a part of this process!

Victoria