Laser-cut paper artwork: new try

Last couple of years quite a few people asked and suggested that I should sell my original paper cut artworks.  I have done before, and regretted that I'd sold.  Then, I have looked for a laser-cut service near by my town.  This Autumn, at last, I found one which does for custom made order, especially, for artists as well.

They have done excellent job; the laser-cut paper artworks are incredibly precise, but the difference is the thickness of the paper.  I use rather thin paper to cut the intricate images.  The laser-cut machine can cut the same job with much thicker paper.  I chose 270gsm (90gsm black paper for my original paper cut).  I can't cut such details with thick paper like this.  Besides, the paper, which was used for the laser-cut, is eco-friendly.  Chlorine free pulp is not surprising, but the paper is also made with spent brewer's grain.  The team of the laser-cut studio told me that it smelled nicer when they cut the paper than usual paper.

The photo above is a 10x10cm small artwork, can be used as an Christmas ornament, or can be framed. The frame is double glazed and place a thin washi Japanese paper behind the lase-cut piece.

The one below is the larger one (28x28cm) but still not large.  The original pieces are the same size.  

Sessile Oak and English Oak: British Native Plants

There are so many wild plants around us.  But there are native ones and non-native ones.  Non-native plants are also wonderful; they were brought in the UK some time ago (some species were hundreds years ago!), and simply naturalised in the wildness.

The native plants are thought to have grown naturally in the UK ever since after the ice age.  Britain has a variety of (from Woodland Trust website)

My Etsy Shop is OPEN NOW!

My Etsy shop is open with recent screen prints, including the latest screen print 'Bluebells and Wood Mice' (10x10cm image on 21x21cm paper).

Now there are more seasonal autumnal prints available.  

Please visit my Etsy Shop:

mTreeLeaf

Illustration: Bento

This was the second time to display cabinets in the Cardiff Central Library (See on Facebook, Photos; Cardiff is the capital city of Wales, UK) for the Japan Day to raise awareness of Japanese Culture.  This years Japan Day took place on Saturday 31st May.

I used to display cabinets in department stores and individual shops when I worked for a confectionary and cake company in Japan years ago.  It was a sort of work, but 10 display cabinets at once!  But my friends came to help me to do a lot on the day of display.

Many other friends supported for the display not only on the day of display, by such as creating Japanese calligraphy (amazing!), making origami art (amazing!) and lending invaluable personal belongings.

By the way, this time I drew some illustrations to decorate a couple of empty lunch boxes.

(Please see in Portfolio: Illustration)

Bento, lunch box in Japanese, is a kind of food art, or a treasure box, filled with colourful foods.  I cut the illustrations into the right sizes, fits to each lunch box.

Nowadays in the UK, you can get a lot of Japanese ingredients in supermarkets, but I still miss the traditional lunch box which my mum used to make for her children every morning!

Felt Work: Peas in Pods

Finally 'Pea Project' has been finished during the Christmas break.

I bought a bag of colourful natural dyed felt in a organic shop in Germany many years ago; always wanted felt making but no idea how to do it.  

Some years ago, I picked up the felt.  At first I made little balls with warm coloured felt. It was a great fun of rolling a small piece of felt in palms, and a lot of tiny balls popped out from my hands in a short time. After having had enjoyed ball making, I looked at them for a while.  Do they look like peas?

Inspired from overgrown pods in my tiny vegetable patch at a corner of our back garden, green pods were created for the peas.  Four pods with peas were created soon after, but I abandoned them in a drawer because I had no idea what to do with them.

It's time to finish off to decorate these pods!  It was just before Christmas.  I took out some cross stitch threads from my tiny sewing container, and found old white cloth nappies made of cotton 100% in a bag of old cloths for recycling.

Two piece of pea pods work:

'get on with'

(felt, cross stitch threads, cotton cloth, 23x23cm)

Usually I don't use words in my art work, but it was at the end of the year.  So I felt like having a new years resolution.  'Get on with what?' is up to you.

'just being peas'

(felt, cross stitch threads, cotton cloth, 23x23cm)