Was too lazy to think up and make an envelope that will accommodate the bulkiness of the himmeli, so I folded a sleeve instead. (I intended to give this to a friend I'm supposed to meet for coffee this week. I don't think it's safe to mail this—too much room for destruction.)
I'd just spraypainted the other card. Lord, there was a dripping issue with that one so that card is actually ruined. (But I'm still curious as to how it'll turn out once I remove the tape, etc.)
Using a fucking thumbtack (for the lettering) is a real pain. Literally. I'm interested enough in this technique to look for more appropriate piercing/perforation tools—maybe get like a pergamano needle or two.
The perforations on for the snowflake were made by a very fine-nosed screwdriver my dad found me, but I'll definitely want to be able to make perforations of varying diameters. NO MORE THUMBTACKS ugh.
Because I'd printed the stencil inside the card, I'm gonna like spraypaint the inside as soon as I buy a better can of spraypaint. (I bought a can of Chase glitter spray on Friday and it is a fucking POS. I tested it on two of my cocktail straw himmelis and all I ended up with were two fucking glitter bombs. I'mma go get me a can of Krylon Glitter Blast soon. You get what you pay for, I guess.)
Alternatively, I guess I might washi-tape the inside up? I still have two rolls of pretty nice silver-patterned washi tape.
This card's meant to have a star himmeli mounted on the card front, but since Chase's lousy glitter spray is fucking up my star ...
This is, I think, my first attempt at a pop-up card without a template ... so, as expected, my calculations and measurements are a little off. (Not to mention the lack of structural support in the text so that the first are is collapsing backwards.)
The background isn't coming through the way I thought it would (it's the starry night-sky background I created for my VSC 2 assignment, the Cirque des Rêves booklet).
This is one of my favorite quotes (out of context). Something I hope to remind myself when times get shitty.
Completed this one on Friday ... and it doesn't look much like a butterfly because I eyeballed the different lengths required based on the design. Ah well.
Also, I finally finished the first of my Islamic pattern cuttings yesterday:
I don't quite know what to do with this—mount it? Make it into something of a lampshade? What??? I gotta try to give this away to a friend so it's gotta be made into something.
I've also been on a bit of guilty-reading binge. I borrowed a bunch of books last Wednesday and the Wednesday before last after my blood test and a doctor consultation (re: blood test results; I'mma stop my thyroid pills now that my TSH and other crap have leveled out) and have been steadily going through them.
Guilty reads so far:
Gotta say, I absolutely adore the Thursday Next and Johannes Cabal series! It used to be Tom Holt was my favorite (because of books like Who's Afraid of Beowulf and Expecting Someone Taller) but Jasper Fforde is now my new hero. And Jonathan L. Howard—hoo boy, I love me more of the brothers Cabal!
It started with wanting to make a housewarming gift for a friend (whose housewarming I eventually didn't attend): I was wavering (two to three days prior to said housewarming party) between a calendar and a hanging planter but soon decided that a plant seemed like more an appropriate gift. I was really taken by the himmeli planters I saw online and thought they didn't look very difficult to make ... (HA!)
Materials:
I used the design of a star pendant I found. The whole thing measured approximately 30 cm; I cut my straws into 15 cm and 8 cm lengths. The plant I bought was an air plant, Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides), which Emily pointed out resembled an untrimmed (pubic) bush.
So ... yeah. (That wasn't why I didn't attend the housewarming and give this thing I made though.)
These recent days have been weirdly tiring ones for me. Inexplicably so. I couldn't wake up, didn't feel like I slept restfully, and spent most of the day in a fugue of sorts. Making another himmeli was the only productive thing I've done between Monday and today (and the damn thing only took less than a single afternoon—while I was half-watching, half-listening to Drishyam.
Filmi-digression: Drishyam was decent enough but anybody expecting Rahasya-level suspense and thrills will be sorely disappointed. Tabu was fricking amazing and my, my, my does she look so delish. I also liked Shriya Saran enough to want to watch her other Hindi and English works, namely Gali Gali Chor Mein and Cooking with Stella).
This I made with the cocktail straws which had the two constraints of being of very limited length and very thin.Conclusion: himmelis are actually really fun to make. It's just that I've nowhere to dump finish pieces (my mother will flip if I tried to display every single project I've made—from all my modular origami shit to paper-cuttings, and now this himmeli crap). For now, my sketchbooks and other assorted tools are scattered between my sister's vacated room (aka my dump-yard) and the living room coffee table (my preferred spot for working on paper-cuttings).
I wonder if it would be possible to make himmelis in a sorta paper-pleat pattern (which is also geometric). That would be interesting I think. Guess I could continue to scale down my himmelis to make them wearable art (look out WoW LOL!) ...
And speaking of paper-cuttings, I've been working on this for a few evenings now:
The coloring-as-therapy craze that's on right now—I find that super stressful. I can never be a color-er. Cutting is so, so, so much more relaxing and therapeutic. I'm also very much into the geometric Islamic motifs and patterns right now—not only are they pretty, they're really easy to cut!
This was the final product I gave:
The envelope was a simple one—Paul Jackson's angled envelope—made with tracing paper. The card design itself, lord that must've been the third of the three completely different designs I was working on.
I started out with a grid of letters ("congratulations") on a seamless pattern (which I took forever to decide on) but halfway through that, I started thinking of a variation of Cirque des Rêves (yes, based on The Night Circus) which had a circular motif and a typeface with beautiful swashes (Giza Pro).
Finally, because it was all getting overwhelming and (needlessly) complicated, I settled on this much simpler design which also meant an easier cutting time.
What I used:
Making this card (as well as having 10 more sheets of watercolor paper left in my block) makes me want to do more cutting! So far, I've decided to do another card—this time, one with a quote in a simple pop-up—and two seamless geometric patterns. Will get those printed out at the only print shop I'd go to since I have the time to travel there—he works with a lot of students (from the nearby art school) so he's really patient and comes at really low rates and great advice (plus free throw-ins like cutting and scoring haha)!
Of course I did what I always do — shut down, went offline, and did a bit of therapeutic cutting.
It's the simple roll box which I got from Paul Jackson's Folding Techniques for Designers: From Sheet to Form to which I added random patterns I cut into the long-side panels. It looks okay, but I think the patterns should be planned next time so the two sides that each has two layers would look nicer.
I think for Hazel's gift I might do a shadow box/frame with different folds on which patterns are cut. White on white on white maybe.
As I was folding and unfolding, cutting, and refolding, I watched (casually, meaning with an ear open but without really watching the screen) Bobby Jasoos. I do like this movie but it's mainly because of Vidya; Ali Faizal did fuck-all and didn't look very compatible to Vidya. The story was interesting enough but the denouement was a bit of a letdown.
I also finished Bol Bachchan — oh lord why had I even started on this in the first place?! It's Rohit Shetty, ffs. Argh, why don't I ever learn???
It's ridiculous to feel so bloody fragile and sensitive that every little thing seems to matter and bruise the soul so much.
So tired, so tired, so tired, so tired ...
So, with today off, I pretended I made things for a living ... and realized I couldn't do it — I took too long to make something that looks too terrible.
First draft on graph paper in pencil then traced over with a pen.
Thought process: "Why not make a cutting?" So pencil on A4 drawing block, then traced over with a marker. Brain asked, "Why not add flourishes to surround the word?"
"YIKES. Word drowned in flourishes ..." =(
Do over in pencil:
Changed my mind about a small flourish ...
Traced with pen then marker. (Why? Heaven only knows ...) Commence cutting:
Done:
Conclusion: looks wonky and therefore ugly. (Plus spacing between letters is CRAP!!) But what's done is done. Dare I mount this as a gift for Hazel on Friday?
Should I embark on this — 30 Papercuts?
Today's lunch topic was travel. Everywhere my parents, my aunt and her husband, and my cousin and her husband, has gone. Everybody's traveling but me. Then again, it's my fault. I'm too scared to travel alone.
The feature article in the lifestyle papers today was on local crafts-people. There was a young girl who fucking owns her own letterpress! How fucking awesomely cool is that?! I wish so hard I could be one of them — making beautiful things for a living.
Anyway. As I was cutting this pattern this morning, I suddenly thought to hand-write something for Hazel (the first stanza from 'The Clod and the Pebble'), something script-y with ball terminals (like the pattern I was cutting), A4-sized. (Not by this Friday, of course.) Hm. We'll see how that goes ...
I have, like, half a dozen of these mini cuttings now. What on earth am I supposed to do with them? Layering them is actually quite nice, but no more than two layers otherwise it'll be just a mess. Still, layering then what? I suppose they could be made into cards but that's sooooo booooring.
I like the idea of shadow boxes but oh god, such a schlep to IKEA just to buy RIBBA frames ... Or maybe I should visit Daiso for glass frames?
I still haven't picked a read for May! Argh!
Finished Sharp Objects today. It made me think of cutting and cutters. I was never one and, until quite recently, never personally knew any. The closest I got was that period in '08 when I got a body part pierced every three months or so as a way to deal with everything I was feeling. The piercings are all gone (all rejected by my body) but the keloids never will.
Today, full day at work. FUUUUUCK. So I did a few mini cuttings. I rather like the one on the right which is actually just four four-sided shapes. Not exactly a mirror, but still somewhat symmetrical which looks pretty damn awesome! Gonna have to do another similar one! The other two are triangles. I'm thinking of layering with different colors ... might be a nice dizzying effect?
Giving Sharp Objects a second go after finishing Daytripper — which was great but won't count towards that read of the month for May.
Then I gotta figure out how to present it cuz there's no way I'm going to do one of those temporary frames with the patterned tape.
I'm kinda proud of this cutting, really (despite the shitty-looking handwriting)! I think it turned out pretty decent.
Got an idea for a cutting for Hazel's nuptials in June: silhouette of a kissing couple (preferably dancers with beautiful lines) on a calligram of a three-tiered cake, under a canopy of stringed beads or stars. Quote-wise (for the calligram), I'm leaning towards something from Night Circus (again) or maybe Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 (yeah, I know, boooooring). Unfortunately, dreaming up the idea is one thing; execution is whole 'nother ballgame ...
I had such high hopes for this one, but the execution (including the sorta floating mount) didn't turn out as I expected. For one thing, I went with the best possible choice of background paper from what I currently have on hand — which isn't a lot; for another, because I'd chosen my usual textured black, the shadows I'd hoped for can't really be seen. =( Ah well. It was supposed to be a gift for Emily, but I guess it's up to her whether or not she'll want it ...
Now, this — this is fucking gorgeous.
