Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Cutting in action

I was about to cut a kissing couple on a bike piece when I realized I should give something a try. have been wanting to do a timelapse video of myself cutting, so I setup my camera and took a long video.

Fortunately, my PC has some built-in video editing software so I was able to fast-forward through much of it to show the entire process in just under two minutes. SO, without further ado, here's the video. I hope you enjoy:

Craftboston



I was recently accepted into the 2011 Craftboston, the premiere exhibition and sale of contemporary craft in New England!
I've been busily preparing for the show designing and creating a brand new set of designs that will be revealed at the show. These pieces are hands-down my most challenging pieces and I'm really excited with the designs. Currently, there are 9 completed designs and three have been cut. I'm working on the fourth. There are three branch designs, three architecture designs, and three Maine-inspired designs.


I wanted to share some in-progress shots with you all as a thank you for following my journey. I'm keeping the full images of the designs as a facebook exclusive, so to see the entire finished piece, head over to my facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/papercutsbyjoe

I'm really proud of these pieces, and my goal is to completely blow the minds of the visitors to my booth. This is my first time at this show, and I'll be surrounded by some of the greatest craftsmen in the country, so I'm bringing my "A" game.

Other Branch designs currently available in my Etsy shop

If you are interested in coming to the show, please do! Below is the information for the show:

CRAFTBOSTON • Spring
Featuring 200 Contemporary Craft Artists
World Trade Center, Boston
March 25-27, 2011

Monday, January 17, 2011

Critters!



Nothing like a trip to the museum to get inspired. I'm always worried that I'll never have another good idea. I think we all fear that sometimes. Jen and I recently took the trek across Boston by train to the quaint college town of Cambridge, home of a little university called Harvard. Heard of it?

My beetle design, which is based on a photo I took of a massive beetle we found in a park in Iowa, was quite successful, so I thought it would be fun to do some more bug and critter-based designs. I wanted to have a bit more masculine touch to my newer designs to balance all the cute stuff. That and I really wanted to hang some bugs on my wall until they sold.

Well, next time you visit, skip the Yah'd, and head straight to the Harvard Peabody Museum. Okay, fine, you need to walk across the Yard to get there, but don't pay attention to it, it gets enough press.
Since 1866 this museum has been one of the greatest institution for natural history and archaeology in the WORLD. The archaeological collections are close to my heart, and Jen and I got to take an incredible behind-the-scene tour of their storage facility when we took an archaeological collections course at Boston University; however, this trip was for the bugs. And bird, and snakes, and fish, and beasts.



We left full of ideas for new designs, and I quickly got to work creating some Natural History inspired pieces. I still have about 12 more that are designed and need to be cut, but things are getting busy so they may be a while before they are released. In the mean time, enjoy the first batch!

Here's the rest of them: http://www.etsy.com/shop/papercutsbyjoe?section_id=7401476