Silhouette cutter

23 May 2017

Reworking old designs and new materials

A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.
Gertrude Jekyll

Apologies for my lack of posts, but I haven’t really had much to say.  My work recently hasn’t really been that post-worthy and I’ve not had time or opportunity to take many photos.

But today was the first that felt like proper summer (we always have a nice spell in May, followed by a sudden drop in temperature in June and you wonder where it went) and I was able to work outside for some of the time and with the door open when inside.  I always enjoy those work days the most – the open door adds more light and it’s always going to be a good thing to hear birds singing whilst you work.  If you don’t mind passing traffic in between and the loudest birds being a very noisy brood of jackdaws nesting nearby, who are clearly perpetually hungry and don’t mind who knows it.

Whilst pottering outside I checked on some of my summer panting from last weekend and it always amazes me just how quickly new plants grow at this time of year, some are already visibly bigger within a week and it’s nice to see some colour.

A double flowered Marguerite daisy with florets in a range of pinks and whites. Aren't they gorgeous.
A double flowered Marguerite daisy with florets in a range of pinks and whites. Aren’t they gorgeous.

A new flowering plant to me this summer is a double flowering Marguerite daisy – I got two, a bright pink one and a white one.  Daisies do already have tiny florets at their centre, but these are significantly larger than I’ve seen before and are more than one colour too.

I’m delighted with them and hope that the slugs and snails will decide that they don’t taste very nice.  I’m always a tad reluctant to introduce anything new, as sometimes they don’t last more than a day or two, if they find them especially yummy.  I do always have a range of daisy-like flowers as they are very much a favourite and good at attracting hover flies, which I also love to see in the garden.

Recent work:

My work recently has been more about re-working designs and making things to order.  I’ve not had as much time to work on brand new ideas as I’d like ideally.  I do however have a pile of half finished pieces and new ones awaiting the attention of my camera, so I hope more new things will appear shortly.

I’ve enjoyed working in polymer clay recently – it has felt like an age since I gave it some time.  Two new pieces are shown in the gallery below.  The copper raindrops necklace was one of my earliest designs and I recently updated the design a little, in that I went larger and heavier with it, so make it a bit more substantial.  I do find it disproportionately time-consuming to make for some reason (and this leads to the dilemma of pricing that’s both fair to the customer and myself), so I’m also looking at a more simplified version too.

The one brand new material and technique that I have tried is a faux laser cut wood for earrings and pendants.  I used the Silhouette cutter to cut several layers of each design in a faux wood paper that I already had and I laminated them together carefully, by which time they become quite robust and rigid and I’ve then waxed the surface to improve their wearability.  They do come out very light indeed, allowing the wearer the comfort to wear larger earrings than they might usually dare.

Gallery:

 

26 Oct 2015

A slight diversion for me

[…] getting rid of clutter gives a disproportionate boost to happiness. 

Gretchen Rubin

One of the most visited pages throughout my blogging history has been the template for a cardboard necklace display stand and the smaller version for earrings added later.  I was asked to make some earring stands recently and wondered how easy it would be to adapt the design template I already had, in order to cut them on the Silhouette.

Earring display stands cut from my original design, now available in the shop.
Earring display stands cut from my original design, now available in the shop.

I found that I was easily able to make the basic cutting shape from what I already had and thought it was an ideal opportunity to make some design adjustments I’d had in mind.

Having done that exercise and made a batch for a friend, in a quest to reduce the amount of materials I have accumulated, I have made available some pre-cut stands in the shop.

As I have plenty of ivory coloured card of a nice quality, I am offering a dozen in a pack of that one colour or a mixed dozen in random colours, depending on what card I find of the right weight etc.

My earring display stands are an inexpensive alternative for craft fairs. Supplied flat to assemble.
My earring display stands are an inexpensive alternative for craft fairs. Supplied flat to assemble.

I am charging £6 for the 12 stands, which come cut out, pre-scored and flat ready to crease and glue yourself – this saves a big chunk in the postage, to keep the price down.  I supply assembly instructions, but I doubt that’s necessary, they’re very simple to do.  The price includes second class postage.

One of the modifications I made was to cut a tab into the bottom corner of the stand to allow easy placement of a price ticket.  In the past, I cut out my own printed prices and used Blutak to place the price on the stand.

Earring display stand - available to buy, supplied flat and in packs of 12.
Earring display stand – available to buy, supplied flat and in packs of 12.

But cutting a little tab allows prices to be added easily and the stands can be re-used for different earrings that bit more easily by just changing the price ticket.  A card with details of the materials or other information could just as easily be placed under the tab.

I also have an alternative version which could be supplied on request with a little circle tab cut around the earring hole to accommodate closed earwires like lever backs.

You are of course still very welcome to download the original template and make your own, it will remain available.

I’m having a clear out, so bag a bargain:

In line with my current thinking to try and make some more storage space, which I’m getting very short of, I decided that as I now do very few fairs in person, that my range of lower priced designs that I kept especially for events could be cleared to make some space.  So I’ve re-packaged a lot of pairs of earrings and am offering 10 pairs in a Lucky Dip pack for £15.  They could be ideal as stocking fillers, Secret Santas, cracker fillers or just as a treat for yourself – and who needs any particular reason to do that.

I do have a quantity of pairs featuring better materials, such as Sterling silver, freshwater pearls and Swarovski Elements, so will ensure that at least 3 pairs in each pack come from this category.  The savings with these Lucky Dip packs, over the original ticket prices, is considerable.  You can’t choose your own designs, they’re selected at random, but I’ll endeavour to choose a good variety of styles and quality.

Use them for fundraising:

Lucky Dip earrings, 10 pairs for £15.
Lucky Dip earrings, 10 pairs for £15.

I’ve re-packaged these earrings on plain cards and in zip-sealed bags with silicone tube backs to keep them in place, so you could use them for your own festive charitable fundraising events.  Granting this permission and removing my own branding does not infer any rights to the designs or to take credit for the work.

 

My work this week:

I don’t have much new to show for my time of late as I’ve been re-working older designs, which often requires them to be re-photographed and the details modifying, working on commissions and re-stocking the shop, along with my aforementioned clear-out, both on the site and in my stock.

I did however get some nice new beads to make bracelets and earrings with.  I have some designs that are perpetual good sellers, all using 10mm diameter beads, so I’ve been working on some new variants, including some gorgeous faux amber beads which as you can see in my header image above, are a glorious colour and have lovely light-catching inclusions.  I suspect that they must be a resin that when cooling has created plaques or fractures.  Whatever, they’re very pretty indeed.

 

25 Mar 2015

Paper becomes metal

A house with daffodils in it is a house lit up, whether or no the sun be shining outside.   A.A. Milne

My husband had a couple of days holiday to use up before the end of the holiday year, so we sneaked a couple of days off and hoped to get some time outside in the spring sunshine.  We did manage that and jolly lovely it was too, but for an assortment of reasons – apathy largely – I didn’t get any worthwhile photos to share with you.  I had it in mind to post some cute little spring lambs, but the areas we visited were only just starting to lamb and the ones I did spot weren’t in a place where we could stop for photos.  So they will have to wait until another day.

Tulip bud, all bulbous and soon to burst into colour.
Tulip bud, all bulbous and soon to burst into colour.

As you can see above, the little Tête-á-tête daffodils in my garden are now in full bloom and are an absolute delight – so cheering to see out of the window.  I love any daffodils, but am especially fond of these compact little ones, perfect little miniature specimens.

I also have tulips starting to emerge too.  Whilst I love the blooms, I also enjoy the buds before they open – they’re often spherical and bulbous and amongst the leaves make lovely abstract shapes, especially if you can catch a few raindrops sitting on the leaves.

Because I have a tiny garden, when my bulbs are done, I pull them up and dry them ready to re-plant in autumn and then put my summer bedding in the same pots.  Consequently, my bulbs end up totally mixed up from one year to the next, so I’m never quite sure what any one individual bloom will be like, or any pot arrangement, adding a tiny frisson of excitement as they open.  Maybe I’m just easily excited.

 My work this week:

I’ve posted previously about the wild roses that I’ve made in paper, designing and cutting the components using the Silhouette Studio software and my Portrait cutter.  Whilst assembling one to stick onto a gift, I wondered if I could use the same basic structure with copper clay to make the same sort of flowers in metal.

I know that a lot of metal clay workers use the Silhouettes to actually cut thinly rolled clay for complex features like bezels and that was certainly one of the reasons I wanted the machine for myself.  But to date, I’m still having fun using the software and machine to make my own textures and design elements and I haven’t even tried cutting clay with it directly yet.

One of the original paper wild roses, alongside its metal counterpart.
One of the original paper wild roses, alongside its metal counterpart.

I wanted the roses to be fairly substantial in size, which would necessitate a decent thickness of sheet clay to work with, almost certainly beyond the cutting capacity of the Silhouette and I also wanted to shape the petals as I worked too – best done with wet clay.

A lot of the charm of actual wild roses is the curl and random shapes of the petals themselves and in this instance, I didn’t feel they should be too uniform in shape.  So instead, I used the cutter to create a template which I could cut around manually, allowing me to form each petal the same basic shape and size, but individually contoured, to give them the same natural variation you’d experience in real flowers.

Wild rose pendant in antiqued copper.
Wild rose pendant in antiqued copper.

The metal clay as a medium also allows a slightly different approach to details too – so the centre of the flower is more anatomically realistic, where the paper version is more of an impression of a real flower.  I did actually make the flower in pretty much the same way as the paper versions, in that I made each petal and allowed them to dry, then refined and assembled them onto a small circular base, adding the centre details last.

The large pendant has a simple loop on the back to hang from the chain, I didn’t want to bail, in this instance, to detract from the details of the flower.

Wild rose pendant made in copper metal clay.
Wild rose pendant made in copper metal clay.

Having made the large pendant, which is around 42mm (1.65″) in diameter, I wondered if I could work a smaller rose, to use on earrings etc.  I approached this slightly differently due to the size, creating my own cutter for the basic shape of the petals.  Other than that and simplifying the centre a little, the process was much the same.

With this pendant, I’ve applied the smaller wild rose to a basic textured circle frame, accompanied by a few rose leaves adjacent.  I have some other variants in progress to make into earrings, but at this point, my kiln was full anyway, so I have a second batch of pieces to fire shortly.

Circle pendant made in copper clay with a wild rose centre piece with accompanying leaves.
Circle pendant made in copper clay with a wild rose centre piece with accompanying leaves.

 

The wild rose circle pendant prior to firing.
The wild rose circle pendant prior to firing.

It is my habit with all metal clay work to keep a very detailed record of all pieces.  I keep a kiln log of the firing itself, with photos and measurements recorded in a separate log.  That way I know what brand of clay was used for a particular piece and when and how it was fired etc.  As I always like to see other artists pieces in progress, I’ll post a couple of pre-firing photos too.

Wild rose pendant in its finished state immediately before firing.
Wild rose pendant in its finished state immediately before firing.
25 Feb 2015

Snowdrops, paper roses and daisies

It is a delight to me at the moment that I have an especially good showing of snowdrops outside the house.  Obviously, being bulbs, they’re natualising and gradually increasing year on year, but this year, the conditions must have been conducive to them thriving and I have quite a decent patch of them in the patch of grass right outside my front door.

I've had a good showing of snowdrops this year and you can see the splash of purple of emerging crocuses.
I’ve had a good showing of snowdrops this year and you can see the splash of purple of emerging crocuses.

They’ve always been a favourite and I feel as though I’ve planted quite a lot of bulbs over the years, so it’s a joy to me that the effort is finally paying dividends.   One patch of a large species was planted as a single bulb some years ago, the only one to come up again from a pot of commercially grown flowering plants I received as a gift.  So it’s fabulous to now see around 25 flowers bobbing their heads in the breeze in that particular spot.

Over the last few days the crocuses have joined them and whilst they’re only just starting, it always feels like spring and summer is on its way once we see the splashes of purple and yellow amongst the grass.  The daffodils are a way off yet, although when visiting our son in Liverpool three weeks ago, the park near him had full patches of daffs already in full flower.

Paper roses (and daisies)

I've designed all of the elements in this decorated gift box; box, flowers and leaves.
I’ve designed all of the elements in this decorated gift box; box, flowers and leaves.

Flowers have been on my mind quite a bit this week as I’m still having a lot of fun tinkering with my Silhouette cutting machine.  Whilst there are a massive amount of commercially available cutting files to buy – and largely pretty inexpensively – if you want to use them in any way commercially, you’d understandably need to buy the appropriate commercial licence.  But as I’m having so much fun playing with the Studio software that comes with the machine, I’d rather create my own original designs and once you have a decent grasp on the concepts and drawing with vector graphics, it’s pretty easy – and more importantly, great fun – at least it is to me!

A paper wild rose with leaves, used here to decorate a shallow gift box for jewellery presentation.
A paper wild rose with leaves, used here to decorate a shallow gift box for jewellery presentation.

With my interest in nature and also gardening, the construction of flowers and how to re-create them out of paper is my latest obsession.  I love the idea of using a flower and leaf arrangement to decorate a gift instead of a more conventional gift bow, so I’ve been working on a number of flowers that work well when laid flat in this manner and have possibly spent more time than is decent studying stamens and petal construction.

My two favourites so far are the daisy and wild roses shown adjacent.  Their structure makes them easy to mimic in paper and I think the results are fairly realistic.  The rose petals can be made more natural looking, as I’ve done here, with the application of a little additional colour – so having cut out the basic petal shapes out of a pinky cream coloured paper, I made up some dilute water colour and brushed it onto the outer edges of the petals.  They take on even more life once you curl and shape them before assembling the flower.

I've also designed the cut file for these shallow boxes, suitable for jewellery.
I’ve also designed the cut file for these shallow boxes, suitable for jewellery.

I also wanted to consider different box designs too.  I always gift wrap the jewellery I sell and am pretty settled and happy with how I do things already, but there are occasional situations that call for something slightly different.  Sometimes a large beaded pendant for example, might cause a bulge in a flat envelope, so something with some depth or a gusset might suit better.

The same consideration for commercial use applies, so I was keen to design my own, this freed me from licencing restrictions and also ensures that I got boxes and envelopes that were perfect for my own personal needs.  The boxes shown above are my own design – square in shape – these are about 75mm (3″) square and 17mm (0.7″) tall.  They have internal flaps to keep the sides pretty, add strength and prevent the contents from straying out and a little thumb notch to aid opening.

Wild roses come in a wide range of colours, but I think the pale pink with tinted petals are my favourite.
Wild roses come in a wide range of colours, but I think the pale pink with tinted petals are my favourite.

I’m currently toying with the idea of selling some of these items as finished products.  Due to the way postage is currently priced on size as well as weight, selling gift boxes assembled would be cost-prohibitive, but maybe selling them flat might work, they’d only need the application of a little glue to finish them.  But the flowers are perhaps a better prospect – I could sell them made in batches, of 6 or 8, in one of my flat postal boxes and let the buyer use them however they wished; for decorating wedding favours, gift boxes etc.  Once I’ve finalised my designs (my roses have a number of stamen designs as you can see right and I still don’t know which I prefer) I might try this out with the roses and daisies.

Digital paper – who knew?

It was also a revelation to me recently to find that you could buy digital paper – who knew such a beast even existed!?  But once I’d bought a couple to try, I was hooked on those too. I’ve bought fancy papers for making boxes and envelopes before, but in a (usually quite expensive) pack there are inevitably some designs you don’t like so much, so printing your own from a digital collection ensures that you can use the ones you like as much as you want and ignore the rest.

I've designed all of the elements in this gift box; box, digital paper and flower.
I’ve designed all of the elements in this gift box; two part box with lid, digital paper and flower.

There are some truly gorgeous designs available and also, many are very inexpensive.  But these too are understandably only available for personal use, so I’ve also tinkered with my own ‘paper’ designs and printed onto light card for making boxes.  I don’t think I have quite the flair for this that the paper designers clearly have, but I like the idea that absolutely everything in the photos shown are totally original and I’m free to use them however I like.

Now if I could only get the Silhouette Studio software to play nicely and not totally hog all of my computer resources when it’s open, I’d really be having some fun – it does tend to suck the joy out of being creative when you have to keep rebooting the computer!    Grrrr!