Cut Paper Art letters - Mud Cloth Patterns

I am thinking of designing a paper cutting art letter series. There are other paper cutting artist that create beautiful paper cut letters like  Suzy Taylor and Rachel Ashe.


My inspiration will come from African mud cloth patterns. I am drawn to the geometric patterns like stripes, dots, triangles and swirls. I am currently working on a pattern that will be different in each letter but have the same feel.

I found this wonderful post at Design Sponge that give the history of mud cloth in case you are interested and they have a link to a site that allows you to create your own virtual mud cloth design.

Enjoy!

Cut Paper Art Silhouettes - Zora Neal Hurston

I am working on a paper cutting silhouette series that will include prominent black artists, writers, poets, speakers, leaders, etc. When I created the poets silhouettes (see here) I wasn't even thinking of doing a series. Over time I realized that people use quotes from famous people to encourage and to uplift them. This is what I want my art to do for people. I got a lot of interest in the first two, so I decided to design a couple more. 

My next two will be Zora Neal Hurston and Ralph Ellison. I am using the bold portion from Zora's essay:

AT CERTAIN TIMES I have no race, I am me. When I set my hat at a certain angle and saunter down Seventh Avenue, Harlem City, feeling as snooty as the lions in front of the Forty?Second Street Library, for instance. So far as my feelings are concerned, Peggy Hopkins Joyce on the Boule Mich with her gorgeous raiment, stately carriage, knees knocking together in a most aristocratic manner, has nothing on me. The cosmic Zora emerges. I belong to no race nor time. I am the eternal feminine with its string of beads.
I have no separate feeling about being an American citizen and colored. I am merely a fragment of the Great Soul that surges within the boundaries. My country, right or wrong.
Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me.

 -Zora Neale Hurston, "How it Feels to Be Colored Me"

This essay speaks to me because I live in a time where black beauty is being shunned even more by the norm but there are movements on the rise that state #blacklivesmatter #blackgirlrock #blackoutday. These movement are necessary like when James Brown declared, "I am black and I am proud." It helped foster the winds of change for African Americans, to be proud of who they are and where they come from. If we as a people aren't proud, no one is going to proud for us. African Americans are still being greatly discriminated against but how Zora beautifully puts it... "It merely astonishes me. How can they deny themselves the pleasure of my company."

How can they?...

( I will update with pictures soon.)

Zora Neal Hurston

Inspiration Tuesday - Creativity and Self Doubt

Lately, I have contemplating about being an artist.What is an artist?  Am I an artist? Do I have a voice? Is is being heard? I have a lot of questions that I am working through.

When I started drawing in high school, I was not the best. I enjoyed the challenge of creating and sketched daily.  I didn't have anyone telling me what I was doing was wrong. That my figures weren't proportional, my lines weren't straight, my shading was on the wrong sides, but I felt like an artist... I loved my work.

Until, I started showing others my artwork. Adults... Grownups... I got responses like, "That's nice but....."  "Have you seen (enter another artist's name here) work? They are so talented. "

All I could do was to mumble, thanks... This is when self doubt crept in.

Self doubt stayed with me through college as I tried to understand my art classes and what my teachers were instructing me to do. I loathed being criticized by my classmates and teachers. I barely got through art school. In my fashion design classes my fashion drawings were never skinny enough, never sexy enough, never bold enough.  I could never get a handle on gouache. I hated figure drawing. I tried to make my teachers happy so I could just pass the class and graduate.

Self doubt hung around until I had a break through as an 30 year adult in graduate school. I got to a point where I learned to take criticism. I had to, I was in a career where criticism happened a lot. I learned to dissect peoples words. I learned to find my own voice through the many other voices. I learned to stand and stop letting others define who I was... as an artist.. as a fashion designer.. as a human.

I did so much better in graduate school. I believed in myself. There was still heavy criticism in my classes but I could take it now. I could also say, I don't agree... or thank you I will take that into consideration. I could go home and breathe better. I still wasn't the best and wasn't highly favored but I didn't care. I came to an understanding that everyone has opinions but that doesn't mean that they are right.  

Right now, I am venturing out as an artist, creating paper cuts and silhouettes. An art form that I didn't learn in school, an art form where I am self taught. Right now, I own my own business. I am self taught in this also. I am coming to grips with the questions in my mind. I am learning to answer them in my own time while remembering not to participate in self doubt.

 Self doubt will destroy all that you work for, it will cripple you and weaken you. I've got to much too do and too much to say for this to happen.

I have to keep on being... being an artist, being me.

How do you get past self doubt as an artist?

Free Cut Paper Art Template / Summer Time

Summer is my favorite season!  I love that there are lots of fun activities, I am on summer break, vacationing, hanging at the beach, relaxing with family, connecting at family reunions, lounging and just being lazy. 

What fun things do you like to do in the summer?

I took some of my wonderful free time and designed a fun Summer Time paper cut art for your pleasure! Take time to unwind, get out your craft blade, colorful paper and take your time cutting this summer time paper cut template. I made it legal paper size but you can increase or decrease the design size to meet your needs. If you have time add colored paper to the summer icons to make it even more fun!

*Updated*

Please remember:

You can download the template for personal use only... and see how well you do with paper cut art! Free templates will be posted on the last Tuesday of each month. 


It is a jpg but you should be able to download by right clicking on the art and copying it to your desktop.

Please comment below on how you liked the template or use hashtag #WCTemplate and @WashingtonCuts on Instagram to show off  your skills!

DIY Foldable Photo Light Box with Wooden Planks for Art/Prints

When I opened my shop on Etsy, I had no clue on how to take proper pictures. Like most small business owners it takes a while to learn the best way to take photos for your products.

In the beginning I read a lot of articles, tried different techniques but the best thing I could have done was to make a light box. Most online instructions I found showed me how to make a light box for jewelry or craft items. Since I design and cut paper art I had to tweak my light box to fit my style and my art. 

Step One: Gather your items

Items you will need:

• 2 – 20″ x 30″ Foam Boards
• 2 sheets of Tracing Paper
• Box Cutter
• Metal Ruler
• Packing Tape
• Roll of White Craft Paper
• 2-4 Lamps (clamp style or a bare bulb lamp)
• 1 CFL light bulb
• 1 Incandescent light bulb
• Extension Cord
• Double Side tape
• (optional) 3-4 Wooden Planks

Set Two: Create your Box

Use your box cutter to cut the foam boards in half - 20" x 15". You will end up with four boards total.

Then create 2 10" x 13" windows, which will be 3 1/2" on the short side and 2 1/2" on the long side.

*(Optional) Create a 2" notch on the short sides to hold your lamps to allow the light to go deeper into the light box.

Step Three: Tape it up

Use the double sided tape to affix the tracing paper to the 2 windows. Next use the packing tape to connect the three boards together. Leave a slight gap when taping so you can fold the foam boards over for storage.

Step Four: Set up

Place your light box if possible close to natural light, like a window and stand your light box on the wood planks. You can clip the lamps on the edges shining in or to the top of the box shining down. This also works outside in natural light, I use my balcony.

You can use the third white foam piece for the top and the fourth for the bottom if you choose. You can then drape the white kraft paper over the back to hide the seam.

Since my art is usually white or is placed on white paper this doesn't work for me. So I use the wood planks to add a natural feel to my paper cut art.

With foam board on bottom

With Wooden Planks

Step Five: Have fun!

This is where you get to play with your lighting and placement. I like to look straight down into the light box to take my pictures. 

Before

After

You can take a look at my Etsy store to see how I used my light box and wooden planks to enhance my art. 

Paper Cut Art- Yoga Poses

My latest paper cut art is inspired from the beautiful poses of yoga. I don't participate in yoga but as an artist the poses are so perfect. Straight lines, feet pointed, arms steady.... Beautiful.

I had to do research on poses, names, and meanings since I don't take yoga classes. On Instagram I follow a group that creates hashtags for people to use to show off their yoga skills. The pictures are wonderful to view. The pictures give the viewer a intimate look into their homes, studios, relationship and lives.

For this paper cut art I sketched a couple of poses I liked. Then I scanned my sketches into Illustrator to clean them up and give them life. I knew I wanted to do a mirror image of the pose displaying the energy and power that the poses create by using shapes are connected to yoga.

I love how these turned out and I am working on prints, with watercolor added to the art.

Inspiration Tuesday- Do it now

I am currently preparing for a craft fair in Philadelphia in two weeks. Participating in art/craft fairs make me nervous. There are too many uncertainties and to sell you have to spend money. Right now my money is "short". 

Since I have a vivid imagination, in my mind I play out that I will sell well and have fun. I have learned over the past, what I see in my mind doesn't always come true.

The first fair I participated in I sold three items... and I felt they were pity sales... My art was well received but the people weren't convinced that they needed my art in their homes. 

I know I need to do these fairs. They will strengthen me as a sales person and as an artist. I will work on my "elevator art" pitch and smile more to strangers.

I also, know selling online (Etsy) in the summer sucks... Sales dry up like a California desert. I have put off doing outdoor fairs for two years saying that I didn't have enough inventory. Well, here I am with inventory and I need to do this now! I going to be brave and try to do at least three fairs this year. Tweaking my finances as I go.

I am brave. You can be too. Go and Do (whatever IT is for you) Now. We are not promised tomorrow and tomorrow may be one day to late.