papercutting: Round 3

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I made a few different new year's cards...including these precious 10 pieces below. I wish I had the time and patience to make more of them, but alas, life gets in the way. I could however, share pictures with you! I do believe these cards came out rather nice this year...a good start to 2010.

I rearranged the background paper slightly on each card, and I gotta say, I had much fun making these :D

a small, amazing video

NZ Book Council presents "Going West." How so totally awesome! Happy friday~

A belated happy new year! papercutting: Round 2

I am still in shock that it's 2010. Where does the time go? I finally uploaded some of my photos from last year (sorry for the laziness).  It's been a small tradition of mine to make 'new year's cards' (kinda like Christmas cards, but for the new year), and  I decided to make a few different cards to give myself variety and to try out my new gocco machine.  A little handcutting and some beautiful washi paper, and voila! Happy Year of the Tiger!

My favorite are the white ones on the red back.  The metallic silver paint came out sharp on the white background,

and I found some nice paper to go with it.  :D Which one's your favorite?

papercutting: Round 1

We had a secret santa at the office, and they had specified that it be a "handmade" gift. I had done this illustration of one of the girl's in the office (i manipulated a photo of her and made her look like a jazz singer), and since I coincidentally got her as my secret santa, I turned that illustration into a papercut piece. It turned out pretty good, considering I barely had any time to work on it.  And of course, I conveniently had the perfect frame with mount too.  Ah~ it's so good to have supplies on hand.

On another note, I recently purchased a gocco machine (print gocco, as it's called in Japan).  OH WHAT fun I am going to have this weekend when my inks and screens arrive!

papercutting: Famille Summberbelle

They have done it again. And this time New York! These things are huge! Oh to be able to get my hands on one of these...
'tis a rainy friday, but at least it's the weekend! Have a good one!

New York Papercut from Famille Summberbelle

Here's Paris & London

papercutting: Kuro and Shiro

Taking the earlier quick sketch that I made of Kuro, I thought it'd be cute to make paper cutout portraits of each of the cats. These were really simple and fun. But they turned out cute! I wasn't sure if I should change Shiro's pupil to black or not...i wanted the consistency between the two portraits...but the more i look at it, the more it's kinda creeping me out that her pupils are white...oh i dunno...

Used some leftover simple patterned origami for their collars. It's all matchy-matchy, which was a nice coincidence. On another note, I found some nice origami at a local asian market, and am excited to get my hands on it this weekend! Have a good one!

papercutting kind of Friday

It seems like self-promotion is the thing right now, so I thought I'd upload a piece I worked on a while ago. I've been meaning to make it a series...but you know..the lack of discipline (and my mind wondering elsewhere)... It was cut from thin art board, and I used origami paper I had lying around. (I was later surprised to find out that origami is in fact quite expensive when purchased). If you can't tell what that is, it's a butterfly dangling upside down. The smaller circular cuts on the butterfly wings actually have shiny gold paper behind it, so it's rather pretty in light. The web is definitely not doing it justice in terms of color... Any piece name suggestions?

© Ayako Kochi

paper castle

How could I have missed this?! Incredible! Installation piece named "Umi no Ue no Oshiro" - Castle on the Ocean. I love how there are moving train parts and lights... Can you believe everything is made out of paper?! No wonder it took 4 long years to complete!

more here.

papercutting: Famille Summberbelle

This new design just popped up everywhere on the web, and since I am in the 'papercutting artist' mode, I thought I would blog about it. This is just pure excellence. I LOVE IT! It's so fun and poppy. It would make my day if I could wake up to this piece every morning.

Paris & London Paper Cut Map by Famille Summerbelle

papercutting artist: Virginia Rose Kane

I found this artist the other day, and she does amazing work with botanical papercutting. I'm liking the collage-look of the paper she cuts out of. I need to start uploading my own artwork soon!

part of the Orchid series by Virginia Rose Kane