Papercuts By Joe Blog

ArtPrize 2011 recap

2011-10-11T15:24:00.006-04:00

ArtPrize 2011, the world's largest art competition, just wrapped up and it was quite the experience!

This year, over 1500 artists were included in various locations across the city of Grand Rapids, MI, with the promise of almost $450,000 in prizes.

Earlier in the year, I submitted a design I created for the competition and was lucky enough to be included in the group of pieces on display at the Public Museum. The piece would become my largest and most detailed design yet.

Branches measures 30x20 inches and took about three months to complete. In total, I cut over 25,000 holes in the sheet of paper used to create the piece. It was a truly challenging piece, not just for the fragile nature of the design, but also the somewhat grueling nature of cutting so many tiny holes in order to finish a small area. I carted the piece around New England this summer during my archaeology fieldwork, often cutting it in hotel rooms in the evening. Progress was definitely slow, but I knew the results would be one of the most detailed papercuts ever created by any papercutter. Below are some shots I took throughout the cutting progress:

Though I didn't place in the top 10, I did place top 25 in my neighborhood, and I'm very happy with the results. The organization does not release the overall ranks, but given there were five neighborhoods, I know I was in the top 125 overall. Hands down, one of the best outcomes of ArtPrize was my very first art review:

Close inspection is also required for the most quietly fantastical work on display, “Branches.” This black cut-paper work is by Joseph Bagley of Dorchester, Mass. As if looking out a large second story window on a stark winter day, Bagley presents an extraordinary webbing of branches, large and small, in a dazzling silhouette. The technical virtuosity of a dazzling object this complex cut from a single sheet of paper is spellbinding, but ultimately the power of the work is visual. The economy of form, composition and monochrome splendor stays with you for a long, long time. - Joseph Becherer, The Grand Rapids Press

I'm getting that tattooed on my back!

The piece is now on its way back to Boston, so I went ahead and listed it on etsy.

Okay, back to cutting. As always, please check out my facebook page. I'm posting regular progress photos of my new large piece. Currently working on a detailed "Tree Portrait" of a pine tree. It's coming out great!

~Joe

Making my own road map

2011-05-19T10:24:00.009-04:00

A very interesting and somewhat surprising thing has occurred since Craft Boston: I seem to be becoming a successful artist...who knew?

(warning, long post, but I hope an interesting one)

I'm at a crazy point in my life full of Big Decisions. To set the scene, I need to give you a bit of the backup story. Bear with me if you've followed this blog for long enough to know everything here, but I've gotten a TON of new viewers lately.

I started papercutting when I was 10. I did a summer program that had an art class that for some reason had a papercutting component. Basically we traced designs from DK stencil books and cut them with razor blades and hoped we didn't loose a finger. No real instruction, we just figured it out on our own.

When the program was over, I showed my mom the designs I made and she pulled out this book:

Amazon Link

She owned a daycare that she ran out of our home and had tons of art and craft books for ideas to do with the kids. I basically copied every design from the book over the next 10 years, and essentially taught myself papercutting by just doing it for hours and hours.

Fast forward to college, I attended Boston University where I majored in Archaeology. During my Senior year, I started to papercut again based on some of the designs I saw on pottery and old art from my text books. I later got into photography and started making designs using my photos as references and developed my own style: highly detailed and "crinkly" for lack of a better term. Basically, I don't use very clean lines, deliberately, to better reference textures.

I have had several jobs in Archaeology since graduating in 2006, and have been papercutting the entire time. In 2007, I started selling on Etsy, just for fun, and the recession led to me and my wife (also an archaeologist) loosing our archaeology jobs. Since we both had the same qualifications and would be competing with each other, we decided that she should look for employment, and I would give the papercutting thing a go full-time.

At this time, I had started to challenge myself with very difficult designs and they started to gain some appreciation online and many sold. I was already making about as much as I was working, so making the transition to full-time art seemed to make sense giving our employment opportunities (or lack thereof)

Since 2007, I've been papercutting full time, and for a period I have also had a second full-time job as an archaeologist (May- Dec of 2010). I would create my designs from the hotel room I stayed in during away projects all around New England and would ship pieces during the weekend. I was honestly working about 80 hours a week and very much had two full time jobs.

I have never wanted to give up archaeology for art, but I never want to stop papercutting. After five years of trying and almost giving up hope, a few months ago I found out that I was accepted into a Masters Program at UMass Boston for archaeology.

About a week later, I showed my work at Craft Boston. That's where this story gets really complicated.

Craftboston was so beyond my wildest hopes for a successful show, and the sales that have occured directly resulting from the show have been almost as great. This "Art Thing" is doing really well. Really really really well. In my opinion, I'm a bonified successful artist right now. Not Warhol-successful, but for someone who cuts holes in paper and has no formal art background...

AND, I'm about to start a new chapter in the world of archaeology, with a couple potential jobs already on my radar. What to do?

Answer: Make hard choices. Apparently.

I've made the decision that I will be a professional archaeologist, a damn good one too, and also be a professional papercutting artist, one of the best ones in the world. Totally possible.

I never took a single art class after 8th grade so I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. Fortunately I'm ambitious, have an amazingly smart and encouraging wife, and the internet and books exist, so I've been able to make it so far.

I have a few major archaeology projects this summer, but regarding the art I'm making the following choices:

1. Reduce the smaller 8x10 non-one of a kind pieces on etsy. Love designing them, love their price point and the income they generate, and I love having them as an option for my customers but they keep me very very busy and sometimes I don't have time to create larger more significant pieces. So, you may notice that my designs have decreased in number from about 120 to about 85. That number may go down again soon.

2. Raise the bar. For myself and all other papercutters out there. Bring it! I've recently completed two personal challenges. How small can I make a complicated design, and how detailed can I possibly make my designs.

Here's the small pieces:

^ Skyline of NYC

Micro Kissing on a bike, about the size of a nickle

Both were cut using a jewelers loop

And here's a branch piece I'm almost done with. It uses a complete sheet of my black paper (30x20 inches) and is the largest size they manufacture this paper. It has about 20,000 holes in it. It will be at the Public Museum during the Grand Rapids ArtPrize competition. Not sure if I will pre-sell it since I have agreed to have it in the show. The price is $7,800. If someone is interested in purchasing it, please email me (Papercutsbyjoe@gmail.com) to discuss the sale. I am willing to split any potential prize money (up to $250,000) if it is purchased prior to the show.

Having finished both, however, I now know that I can't really do things smaller or more complicated. So, what to do now?

Make them BETTER and more interesting.

So, with that said, I'm setting out on a new path with my papercutting. My goal is to combine my detailed crazy-complicated designs, but with a bit less literal use of them. For example, instead of a bunch of branches, I've designed a large skull piece that is made exclusively of branches. The denser the branches, the more shading in the skull. Up close, it's a tangle of branches. From across the room it's a skull. I think you guys will really like it. I'm also working on two other versions of the same skull using Wycinanki style polish papercutting techniques and some other ideas. More of that to come as I finish them.

My new goal for my papercuts is to make a body of 10-15 large pieces, and find a gallery to show them. I really feel like this is the right direction for me. The larger more expensive pieces allow me to concentrate on design and execution of pieces.

I'm still trying to figure out how exactly to go about finding a gallery here in Boston. I may start in Portland, ME where I grew up. Great art scene, and possibly a bit easier to find a gallery. I've sold a ton of pieces now for between $1,000 and $5,000 so I know there's a proven market. Just need to raise the bar a bit more in this next batch. Reading a ton of books on art careers. Wish I had made those important connections you get in art school, but there's plenty of ways to skin a cat, and perhaps not having a clue what I'm doing is charming, right? We'll see.

Here's my reading material:
and

This can't hurt, so here goes: If you're a gallery and like my work, contact me (papercutsbyjoe@gmail.com). I have design proofs of some of the pieces I'll be making for the body of work.

I have no idea how far I can take this. My work really doesn't have a "message", it isn't political, and I never want it to be. I'm hoping people and Art People can recognize it for what it hopefully is: Something beautiful, visually interesting, and mind-blowingly cut from paper.

If you aren't a gallery, keep coming back, follow my facebook page (updated often) and hang on for the ride! I have no idea where it is going but I'm working my ass off to make it as successful as possible!

Thanks for making it to the end of this really long post, I appreciate it.

Craftboston: A review

2011-04-07T14:47:00.011-04:00

Summary of Craftboston: Wow.

It's been almost two weeks since Craftboston, and I'm just getting back to the blog to talk about this. I'm finally recovered from the rush, and I'm ready for my next huge event, which will happen on Friday, April 8th. And no, I'm not telling you what is happening, but you'll definitely know when it happens. It's that big.

Anyway, back to Craftboston.

The show was HUGE, an entire convention center full of awesome. Seriously, I was in awe of my fellow vendors and so happy and surprised I was invited to join them.

Setup went very smoothly, however time absolutely flew by, and before we knew it we were only 2/3 done and had been there for a full seven hours! The trees looked great, and were easier to install than I had planned, though very time consuming. The drapes looked great and the lighting was well worth the investment!
I was very fortunate to have one piece sell the week before the show (Water). This worked out well in two regards: The first, it took away most of the pressure to sell like crazy at the actual show. The second was that I had digitally planned for (and created) 9 pieces, but the column in our booth took up the space of one of my pieces, so I only had 8 slots. Worked out perfectly.

VIP night came on Thursday and the very first person in my booth fell in love with my most complicated piece and purchased it. In the first 10 minutes of the show. Before it opened to the public. Yeah. It set a new artist record for my work as well.

Needless to say, it was amazing from that point on. I couldn't keep any small pieces in the booth and completely voided my studio/apartment of pieces to restock each day. In the end dozens of small pieces found new homes, and one of the show pieces was purchased (the one that sold at the beginning). Two if you count the sale the week before the show.

The thing that made me most happy, though, was how many people immediately "got" what I do and truly appreciated the work that goes into these pieces. I think being in a craft show, and being one of the few wall art booths immediately made people look at my work (which usually looks like prints or silkscreens) and think..."there must be something more going on here". I also put up a sign that simply read "Hand-Cut Paper Art" and that definitely got peoples interest.

The crowds were great. A few times I had to leave the booth and stand in the aisle due to the number of people in my booth. I had a blast! The show organizers were incredibly kind, my lecture went great, and moveout went smoothly. I really look forward to applying for next year!

All the pieces are now available on Etsy, so if you've been dying to have one of my best pieces, here you go:

Craftboston Preview

2011-02-24T12:28:00.007-05:00

Hi everyone,

I just finished the last of the nine piece I have created specifically for Craftboston, March 25-27

I thought I would show you all some photos of the unmounted pieces just before I mounted and framed them. I will be showing these and many more photos as a slide show running on my laptop during the show.

If you would like to see the pieces in-full, join my facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/papercutsbyjoe I've posted photos of all nine pieces in their entirety.

Blade tips: How to cut thin lines

2011-02-08T08:02:00.011-05:00

This is one of the most challenging aspects of papercutting, and I have spent many years trying to get this right. Unfortunately, I've had to ruin several pieces to figure out how NOT to cut thin lines, so hopefully I can save you some of the heart break I've experienced.

Before we start, however, I need to break it to you that this is not something I can guarantee you will be able to do right away having read this. You need to know your paper, it's physical limits, how it feels when you cut, how it stretches and bends when it's weak, etc. This is not a beginner's technique. I recommend experimenting with all of these techniques and using them in various combination to find which one works in a given situation. Use the following patterns to cut along with the tips (click on image, then print):

Tip #1: Use thick paper (for beginners)

If you are just starting out with papercutting and you want to try a piece with thin lines, use thicker paper. It will better withstand the stress you will put on it. Ignore this tip if you already have a favorite paper, or have enough experience to be working with thinner papers. I use exclusively Hygloss silhouette paper. I have a special post all about the paper I use here: http://papercutsbyjoe.blogspot.com/2010/02/papercutting-tips-guide-to-paper.html

For illustration purposes, I'm showing this technique on normal printer paper with the patterns above printed directly on the white paper.

Tip #2: Cut lines in order, do not skip!

The first cut is easy, it's like any other cut. It's the second one and all the ones after that gets you. Always cut the next line over, do not skip cuts. It may seem intimidating to cut so closely to your last cut. If you skip a cut, when you return, you will be cutting on a weakened piece of paper and the likelyhood of tearing increases. I know that makes no sense in writing, so here's some photos using the first image.

First Cut removed, lines indicate where next line should be cut

Spreading the paper to show second cut

The rest of the piece is then removed.

Tip #3: Follow with your thumb.

As you cut, you should immediately press your thumb onto the area just cut. This supports the paper preventing tearing, breaking, and stretching. Here's a video:

Tip #4: Leave pieces in for support

Sometimes when cutting a complicated piece like the gate design, you will find that pieces wrap around other pieces and going in sequential order is impossible. In these cases I recommend cutting the piece and either leaving the piece in, or leaving a small portion of the piece uncut so that either way the piece remains in the hole. These left-in pieces help to support the overall structure of your piece while you are cutting nearby delicate areas. The photos below hopefully show what I mean better than I just explained:

Piece cut, but left inside hole

Fragile area cut and removed

First piece removed after fragile area is cut

This tip is great for a long series of parallel cuts. Cut all the vertical cuts in order leaving the horizontal end-cuts intact. Then once all the vertical cuts are finished, go back and cut the ends of the pieces allowing removal.

Tip #5: Built-in Support Structures
Support structures allow for both fragile cuts as well as keeping all your loose parts in place until mounting. I will go through a design and cut in all the support structures BEFORE I begin so I don't forget later.

Piece held to light to show pre-cut supports in designs

Cuts removed around delicate areas with support structures holding everything in place and also providing support to keep branch from breaking off during cutting.

Once your piece is mounted, you can cut away the supports.

All together now!

Back to the first design. As I said earlier, no one tip is used when cutting thin lines; I often use all of these in one small area of a piece. As you get more experienced, you will be able to instinctively know which combination will result in the best results, so practice practice practice! Here are some examples of the combination being used in the designs provided here and some of my other pieces

(Back of paper to show cuts) Support structure and pieces left partially cut to support several parallel cuts

A custom design with text. Hand-drawn supports allow for extremely delicate cuts before mounting.

Support structure keeping everything in place

Lots of thin lines here!

Same principals are used for extremely small cuts as thin lines. Planning and forethought are the most important principals when doing extremely difficult cuts.

I really hope this helps, and I'll be reading the comments to answer any questions that come up!

Cutting in action

2011-01-18T08:55:00.003-05:00

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:

Kissing Couple on a Bike, on Etsy.com $40

Craftboston

2011-01-18T08:41:00.005-05:00

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

Critters!

2011-01-17T09:15:00.004-05:00

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

Gearing up for Art in the Park

2010-08-09T17:45:00.004-04:00

One week away!

Please join me if you can this Saturday, the 14th in South Portland, ME's Mill Creek Park for the 31st annual Art in the Park!

I'll be showing 75 pieces, about 35 of which are framed, the others are unframed, and very inexpensive. Figured I'd bring a bunch of pieces people can easily carry away, and a couple really WOW pieces for those with deeper pockets.

This is one of my most successful shows, and I've got high goals this year (bringing over $6k worth of merchandise).

Here's the tent plan so you know what to look for when you get there. Had a blast making this, and it really helps me relax to know I've essentially got a map once I get there.

Art Show Tips

2010-06-12T17:52:00.004-04:00

I was just accepted into the Boston Arts Festival 2010 for the second year in a row (yay me!) and I really should be working on stuff for the Acquire show, but I remembered I wanted to post something here, and I'm a huge procrastinator. Anyway, here's some tips from a guy who does his fair share of art shows and has come home with his Boston rent several times.

1. Don't stand in your tent (with one exception below), sitting is much less intimidating to a buyer who may be timid about entering your tent. I personally get intimidated when feeling like the artist is going to pounce on me when I enter their tent. And don't stand outside your tent in a chair like you're a director or a gate attendant. Seriously, don't.

2. Do your art while you're sitting there. Don't care what it is. I was cutting paper in my notebook just to look busy. Again, it makes you look distracted and people will go into your tent thinking they won't be watched. Plus they always love to watch you do your art and I've looked up once while being a bit too intent on what I was doing and literally had five people watching me just as intently. Actually jumped and everyone thought it was funny. ha ha. ALWAYS look up to say hi with a smile when they come in and immediately look away and let them do their thing. If they stay for more than 10 seconds, then say something like "everything is hand-cut from a single sheet of black paper" (for example). If they don't respond, go back to work, if they do respond, then become mr/mrs personality and have a nice chat, they're now officially a customer.

3. When talking to someone, stay seated, it makes them feel comfortable. Only stand to go to a piece or hand them something. Again, you want your potential customers to not feel intimidated or pressured. Give them the upper hand. When they indicate they are planning to buy, then stand up, it give them the idea that you are now engaged fully, confident, and ready for business.

4. Here's my best tip- If nobody is going into your tent, become a customer. Jen and I are always together at these shows and if nobody is in the tent, we get up and start walking around our tent like customers viewing pieces, talking about which one is our favorite, and deciding if we should arrange pieces in the tent. People will see you and think you're a browser and automatically wonder what you are looking at and go in themselves. It works EVERY time. Ever notice how the more people there are in your tent, the more people want to be in your tent? The biggest turnoff from a browser is an empty tent. Once you get someone in your tent, casually go back to your chair, say hi, and go back to work ignoring them and letting they enjoy the art.

Couple bonus ones that I just remembered- bring flowers and decorate your tent. Makes you look so freaking prepared you actually thought to bring plants. Insta-Pro. I'll add more as we remember them.

Hopefully this is helpful!

ACQUIRE show opening invite

2010-06-07T21:45:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone!

My Acquire show in Boston will be opening next Thursday, the 17th with an opening night party from 6-9. You are ALL invited, and I hope a few of you can make it! If not, the show stays up through August, but I can't guarantee everything won't sell opening night:)

Here's the flier with all the info:

Major Announcement

2010-05-01T18:08:00.004-04:00

Hi everyone,

So the big announcement here is that I will no longer be offering custom silhouettes via my website, etsy, and any other venue. I will be finishing all requests received recently, and will be making arrangements with several clients with whom I have long-term multi-piece orders and projects.

As this business has grown, and grown in ways that has surprised no one more than myself, I have had opportunities to show my non-custom work at galleries and museums across the country. The 2010 list includes Terminal 22, High Wire Arts, and future shows at ACQUIRE Boutique, Westmoreland Museum of American Art, and The Wilson Gallery so far.

The custom silhouettes have become incredibly popular, and the attention given to my work from sites and folk from around the world has been amazing. Unfortunately, the popularity of these has resulted in absolutely no time to create any new non-custom art. I would love to continue to push myself and the envelope further exploring new ideas for this ever more popular medium, and to cut some of the exciting design ideas I’ve had floating around in my head.

I have removed all custom listings from my etsy store, and will create new listings for those current customers who have put in requests for designs.

With this increase in “free time” I will be unveiling a new and exciting body of work, and I expect my etsy shop to grow dramatically in the coming weeks. This is by no means an end, but a beginning. Most importantly, I am excited about my art in a way that I have not felt for months, and I hope this shows in my new work. Some of these new pieces as well as many others already in my shop will be around the price of my custom silhouettes ($55), and I encourage anyone interested in paper anniversary gifts to consider my entire body of work, every single piece of which is made of paper.

Again, I am truly excited to make this announcement. I hope these new pieces will help bring both my artwork and my art career to places I believe I’m ready to go.

Thank you all for your understanding and support, and for everyone who has purchased a custom silhouette from me, I cannot express the gratitude I have for your interest and support, and I hope you continue to follow my journey, experiments, adventure-- whatever you want to call it. Regardless it will be awesome!

~Joe Bagley (Joe)

Hanging with the cool kids

2010-03-24T08:31:00.006-04:00

Working from home can get lonely, so against all odds I've become a frequent user of Twitter, facebook, and online forums.

(By the way, you can be come a "fan" of my art on Facebook here, or follow me on Twitter here)

I've meet some truly incredible people along the way and it seems like in the past week they have accomplished some amazing things, so I thought I'd share with you all some of my friend's do wellings:

Liz over at Madeinlowell, creator of awesomeness, will be on the Martha Stewart show TODAY showing us all how to create her awesome eggs, which I am proud to say I have one hanging in my living room right now:)

Friend and fellow papercutter in the UK, mrYen, was commissioned to create some original paper art for a short stop-motion film by the same folk who created the awesome Amazon Kindle Commercials:

You can purchase the whales he created for the movie on his etsy site here:

And finally UK Illustrator Extraordinaire Natasha Newton was asked to have her original paintings adorn the covers of the latest edition of Jorge Bucay's books. You can purchase prints of the piece in her awesome etsy shop here:

On top of all that two of my teammates on the Full Time Etsy Crafters were approached by Real Simple Magazine and Oprah Magazine, but since that isn't a done deal yet, I don't want to spoil it for them, but still awesome!

I'm so happy for all of them!

Guild of American Papercutters

2010-03-22T08:48:00.003-04:00

You are now reading the blog of the newest member of the Guild of American Papercutters Board of Directors, the largest organization of papercutters in the western hemisphere.

I received word of my nomiation from Marie-Helene Grabmanm, the president of the Guild, about a week ago and just heard last night of my unanimous acceptance onto the board.

I very much look forward to being an active participant in the Guild's growth and I am truly honored and flabbergasted that I was even considered!

To find out more about the GAP, to become a member (we publish a quarterly magazine with new art, history, and news from around the world), and to see the work of local and international papercutters, visit their site at www.papercutters.org

Microcuts

2010-03-20T09:12:00.002-04:00

I get up at 6:45 every morning and start work some time around 8. Typically I spend part of the morning catching up on emails and The Internet, then I cut or design for people, break for lunch, then finish cutting, package new pieces, trip to the Post Office, return, email people who emailed me while I was at the Post Office. THEN sometime around 3:30, with 30 mins before my wife gets off work, I have this creative time that is MINE ALL MINE!!!

Well, lately that time hasn't been exactly enough time to work on a large 18x24 of a famous Boston landmark I started weeks ago and have gotten almost none of it finished, so instead, I've been focusing on smaller projects I stand a chance of finishing the same day I start.

Inspired by the creative geniuses over at etsy, including kfarrell, creater of tinysaurs, which I have miniature collection of, I decided to go small.

The wonders of the computer combined with the printing ability of laser printers, I realized I had everything I needed to shrink down an original design to mind-numbing porportions. SO, with a Sunday evening filled with Jen madly trying to finish a monstrous reading assignment (studying for her MA in Historical Archaeology- aren't we so interesting?) I dug through a bunch of photos looking for an appropriate idea.

I settled on a photo I took of the Chicago Library domed Tiffany glass celing during our trip to that amazing city last August.

I figured I should probably start with a size that made some logical sense, so I chose one square inch, popped the new design into photoshop, and Ta-Da!

I started cutting, and quickly realized I couldn't use my usual swivel knife as it wanted to move a bit too much for the delicateness of the design (wanted to twist and turn when I was cutting a 1mm thick straight line), so I switched to my usualy #11 blade/knife. Here's a progress shot:

Once finished, I mounted it to a 12x12 inch background to give it some presence on the wall and framed it up but good. Here it is unmounted and finally framed:

AND, if you are so impressed, you can even purchase the $65 framed original piece here on etsy.

After completing that and getting lots of "oohs and Ahs" I felt pretty good about the decision to go small and immediately started thinking of new ideas. Apparently this is harder than it looks to go so small because I've had a hard time coming up with ideas for interesting, cutable designs. I soon thought of the world map, since I was working on the Continent papercut designs.

I had to subtly modify the map a bit (bring the two hemispheres a bit closer together) but in the end, I was really happy with the design, which measures 1 x 1.75 inches huge.

Apparently it was a really awesome design because it was on Etsy a whole 6 hours before getting snatched up and now lives in a great home in Missouri:)

Like I said before, I'm struggling to come up with designs that would both look interesting small, but also be physically cut-able. Here are some recent experimentations that I love, but I'm not listing yet as I'm hoping to do even better.

I am working on a 1x1" version of this piece, which now hangs in a private collection in London:

About 1/3 done as you can see

Okay, that's it for now. If you have brilliant ideas for microcuts, do tell, do tell. And, speaking of telling, I have some very exciting news that will be confirmed at 10am today, after the confirmation, I'll be back with a nice announcement:)

Shows, and new stuff

2010-03-10T09:36:00.003-05:00

Wow, first off, a huge thanks to Ann Martin and her All Things Paper blog for featuring my work recently, and also to the incredibly kinds comments that followed. You have no idea how much I appreciate it!

With that has brought a TON of new readers (hi y'all) so I figured I should, you know, actually write something for you to read.

I have a couple of upcoming shows I'd like to plug.

I just got back my piece from the Terminal 22 show, and the two largest (below) are now heading to a papercutting show at the High Wire Gallery in San Antonio, TX. Both are 18x24 inches.

I'm hoping they'll make a bit of a splash there since, as many of you who are familiar at all with the art of papercutting, these are just a little different from traditional scherenschnitte and wycinanki. Just a bit.

I'm also waiting to hear back from a show in Pennsylvania, and two summer art shows, one the Boston Ahts Festival and Art In the Park, a fantastic outdoor show in my home town of South Portland, ME. Did the latter two last year and had a blast, though the weather could be better for the Boston show this year. Fingers crossed.

I'm also finalizing a commission I received to make an original piece depicting the Massachusetts State House, which will be sold at the Gift shop along with prints of the original. Pretty cool!

Here's some of my most recent work:

Cliff, available on Etsy or Discovered Artist

Detailed photo of the water in Cliff:

Also new, Green, Mother's day Silhouettes, and Car & Bike Portraits

Thanks!
~Joe

Early 18th Century Economics Woes in France Under Louis XV, or, How the Silhouette Got its Name

2010-02-16T10:17:00.003-05:00

Étienne de Silhouette was the French Controller-General of Finance under Louis the XV.

In 1760, a huge budget crisis hit France. To combat the lack of income for the country, de Silhouette dramatically raised the taxes on the richest noblemen of France and instituted several laws including the melting of gold and silverware.

This didn't exactly sit well with the wealthiest of France, and his reputation among them was less than stellar.

A group (and extremely valuable) silhouette by Auguste Edouart

Silhouettes, the art form, were very popular at the time and were often purchased by all economic classes, however they were some of the only records of appearance available to people who were not able to hire an artist to paint their portrait (remember, at this time photography had not been invented). While they were well known, they were referred to by many names including Shadows, Casts, Shapes, and Shades.

In the late 17th century, the anger towards de Silhouette transformed itself into the derogatory use of his name towards anything of lesser value, or cheaply made. Silhouettes, the papercutting, took on this name as an adjective at this time.

Auguste Edouart, without doubt the most famous of all silhouette artists (I'm working hard to be #2), began using the term "Silhouette" to market and promote his goods as he did not like the name Shadow or Shade. Cutting over 100,000 silhouettes across Europe of famous people, dignitaries, royalty, and the general public, his popularity and ubiquitous nature caused his term Silhouette to permanently adhere to the cut paper artform.

Silhouette has now spread from the person, to the art form, to anything shadow or darkened outline of a person, place, or thing.

As Seen on TV

2010-02-16T09:13:00.004-05:00

So Saturday was my big TV debut. Well, my artwork debuted on tv, not me, but it's better looking anyway.

I was contacted at the end of January by Lindsay Roberts, an Advertising Assistant for Good Housekeeping Magazine and blogger, who writes the blog Gift Giving With Love

I made a custom silhouette for her parent's anniversary based on an old photo from their wedding.

She regularly makes appearances on Fox News in Detroit to show great gift giving ideas, and this Valentine's Day she showed the silhouette I made for her and her parents. Very exciting! The video is below (I'm about 3:30 into it)

Lindsay did a phenomenal job on the presentation, I can't imagine staying composed on TV! Thanks so much Lindsay for finding me and showing my work!

Go check out her great blog, if you haven't already: Gift Giving With Love

Papercutting tips: Guide to paper

2010-02-14T09:50:00.004-05:00

Like the adhesive post, this post is also focused mostly on one product, but I'll include some helpful tips afterwards for picking out good paper.

I use, pretty much exclusively, Hygloss Silhouette paper from DickBlick: http://www.dickblick.com/products/hygloss-black-silhouette-paper/

I buy it in rolls of twelve 20x30 sheets, and depending on how busy I am they last about a month or two.

Silhouette paper from Blick in the roll

An un-cut sheet of silhouette paper

This paper is incredible! It is actually white paper that has been covered in a thin layer of matte-black paint. This is good for two reasons: 1, you have one side that is white so you can draw a design on it, and 2. because it's painted, there is less chance of the black fading over time. More about that later.

The "white side" of the paper

I work from the white side of the paper, which means that when I'm done, my designs get flipped around. This is very important when you work from the white side! If you are doing anything that can not be backwards (text, recognizable architecture, etc) you will need to cut your design backwards. In my case, I always create my designs in the computer (easy to resize, tweek, and otherwise mess around with my original designs before cutting them), so before I start cutting I flip my designs backwards, print them as a pattern, and adhere them to the white side of the paper with a bit of light-tack spray adhesive from Krylon

When I finish cutting the design, I peel off the pattern and flip the silhouette paper over to the finished black side.

One draw back of this particular paper is that it does come very tightly rolled, so the paper has a lot of curl to it when you first open it. I have a very large wooden shelf-like thing that store my unrolled paper in. I put the sheets of silhouette paper between two larger sheets of regular paper and then put something heavy on top to hold the paper flat. In about a week most of the curl is out of the paper, but the first few sheets really want to roll while you're working with them.

Another minor drawback is that because it's painted, not dyed, it doesn't like to be folded. The paint doesn't crack, but you can definitely see the white try to peek through the black along the folds. Also creasing the folds can lead to abrasion of the paint and wear it through to the white.

Don't iron them! I tried this and it made them kind of wavy even without steam. Not sure why. Just press them between something heavy.

Okay, that all said, here are some more general tips on picking out paper:

- Acid free and Lignin free are EXTREMELY important! Can't stress this enough. The natural acid and lignin found in most wood/paper needs to be removed or your paper will discolor, become brittle, and possibly simply fall apart over time. Look for fade-resistant paper (should be labeled as such) if you are using non-white paper. The paint on the sihouette paper is much less likely to fade as it is more light-fast

-Thin is good, but too thin is a nightmare. You want the paper to be easy to cut, but not so fragile that you are constantly tearing it. I recommend not going much past 70 pound paper unless you want a really good hand cramp.

-Texture is very important. You want the paper have very tiny fibers in it. If the fibers are too large, your corners and areas where the paper isn't cut completely through will have stringy bits of fiber sticking out of them. This is a huge pet peeve of mine and, in my opinion, a very good indication of the quality and skill of a papercut. You want all your edges, corners, and cuts to be clean with very little overcutting (cutting beyond the intersection of two lines). Hand-made paper is beautiful and I would love to work with it, but it's extremely fibrous. I'm not above tearing a 2mm tear in the edge of paper to see how clean it is, but you can usually tell just by running your hands on the paper. The less texture, the smoother the paper, the better.

Some paper is actually died after it is rolled, whereas with others, the pulp of the paper is dyed first before being rolled. Very hard to tell which it is when you are looking at it, but the pulp-dyed paper has a more thorough dye-job and though it will fade, it will appear to fade slower as there is more dye throughout the paper.

Finally, and probably most important to your paper looking good over hundreds of years, you should frame ALL your papercuts. All of 'em. These buggers are dust magnets and are too delicate to easily clean. Always use UV glass, which will help block some of the damaging ray of the sun from fading or otherwise altering your paper. Keep the paper out of direct sunlight, and away from exterior walls (walls where the other side of the wall is the outdoors) unless your house is very well insulated. The temperature changes of exterior walls aren't terribly bad for your paper, but the more stable you can keep your piece (heat, light, moisture, etc) the less likely your piece will deteriorate over time. Think about mummies: deserts are always dry and pretty much the same weather all the time= preservation. Submerged wooden ships stay in pretty good shape because they are always wet and about the same temperature. Fences in New England, where the weather is always changing and there is about a 100 degree range of temperature throughout the year rot.

Guide to papercutting: Adhesive

2010-02-11T11:29:00.004-05:00

Okay, this has been a long-time promised post, and a BUNCH of people have written me to ask, so here it is: My guide to Papercut Adhesives.

Well, really it's just adhesive, since I pretty much only use one.

It's called Studio Tac or Letra Tac. Both are made by Letraset. I'm not sure exactly what's happening, but it appears the Studio Tac (blue package) is being phased into Letra Tac (yellow package). You can order Studio Tac from Blick online, but if you go to the store, they sell the Letra Tac.

No matter, it's all the same stuff.

Essentiall, this adhesive is a sheet of thousands of very small white silicon adhesive dots. They are packaged in sheets, with a a wax paper cover. You place your artwork on the dots, then rub the back, which sticks the dots to the back of the design, then you peel off the design and stick it to your background. Pretty simple, and it has great coverage.

They stick very well. I have several mess-up papercuts that I simply slapped on my studio walls, and they are still up there after months of dramatic temperature changes and no glass covering.

A few very very helpful tips.

1. It sticks pretty good, so be very careful removing your piece from the wax paper.

2. It's technically repositionable, which is great for when you stick it down not quite in the perfect spot, but it is very good at long-term adhesive.

3. Because it's silicon, it has a bit of a rubbery ness that allows your piece to expand and contract with weather and not become detached. I've had pieces adhered for years without any sign of detachment.

4. Personally, I would avoid the "permanent" kind since the regular kind is quite permanent and still allows repositioning.

5. Place your piece upside down on the sheet of wax paper that isn't covered in dots, then press the sheet with dots down onto the back of the piece. It stops the piece from moving and getting wrinkles, trust me.

6. Rub the back of the piece (the side with the dots) not the front of the piece. This makes the dots stick more thoroughly

7. When mounting your piece, lay your piece face down (sticky dots up) on a grided surface, like a quilters mat, and use the grid to place the piece in the right spot, then take your pre-cut background, and line it up with the grid, and slowly fold it over your papercut. This I have found to be the best way to mount your work without damaging, folding, creasing, or otherwise messing up your papercut.

8. This adhesive works best for white backgrounds as tiny bits of the dots will overhang your papercut. If you are adhering it to a white background, these will become completely invisible, but if you are mounting to a colored background, they may be very noticeable and I recommend a different adhesive like double sided tape.

9. If any stray dots get on your work, you can remove them with a very clean soft eraser and they come right off.

10. #9 is especially helpful if you accidently put the wrong side down and cover your presentation side with thousands of tiny sticky white dots.

Photos of me using the Studio Tac:

Each of those dots is a dot of adhesive, and yes, I accidentally covered the back of my ruler with studio tac taking this photo

This shows me pulling one of my papercuts away from the adhesive. Note the fact that one side of the paper is white. I'll discuss that in my next post...

Next helpful post will be on the paper I use. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments section. I'll answer them the best I can.

Hard work (and a little play)

2010-01-28T12:43:00.003-05:00

The valentine's day orders are rolling in left and right, which is fantastic considering last year I literally did not sell a single piece that I knew was going to be a V-Day gift.

Right now the two biggies are my custom silhouettes and hand-cut valentine

Anyway, the real point of this post isn't to get you guys to buy stuff, but to encourage you all. Last January was the start of what I call "the rough months". My sales plummeted, almost nobody was interested in my work, and the entire country was in near-panic over the economic situation.

The incredible amount of "down time" allowed me to focus on my art, get some pieces cut, and come up with new ideas for my etsy shop. It got so bad that in February of last year I had $300 in total sales. That isn't profit, that's TOTAL sales. It was rough, and when you are working 40+ hour work weeks and seeing nothing for it, it hurts. Wasn't much better in January or March. Fortunately we were expecting a dip after Christmas and cut our spending WAY back and just managed to squeek by through March.

If you are also self employed and facing a minor crisis and possibly considering quitting, look at your goods. Look at your website, blog, twitter, facebook, etc. What can you do better? Think of it as a bit of a vacation and do something crazy as an experiment. Can't get much worse right?

I did some CRAZY pieces last winter, and I don't have them any more, because come summer and fall, I had a better blog, a better site, increased my items in my etsy shop (more items, the better I have found) and had a TON of new pieces that were ready to go any time a show came up and sold a bunch of pieces.

If you need help, tips or encouragement, especially these slow times, I'm a pretty good cheerleader. Drop me a note!
~Joe

Terminal 22 Papercuts Show

2010-01-27T13:03:00.004-05:00

Just sharing the announcement for the Terminal 22 Papercuts Show including seven of my pieces:
If any of you happen to be over in the San Francisco area, please attend the show and let me know how it goes. Unfortunately I won't be able to make it!

Experimentation!

2010-01-26T19:46:00.007-05:00

I've been itching to make things, but lately it's been of the 3D variety.

For starters, I made a paper collar my wife was kind enough to model for:

Link to Etsy Listing: Radiant- Avant Garde Paper Neck Piece

I have another collar that's all done, just need to photograph it and list it.

I also had an idea last night about combining papercutting with origami. Wasn't sure if it would work, and it, guess what, it did!

This one's 14x14x8

Etsy Listign: Origami papercut crane with branches

This inspired me to make this smaller one (7x7x4), which I cut out all the "panels" between the folds making a paper crane skeleton:

Etsy listing: Origami paper crane skeleton

Let me know what you think!

Tools of the trade- Knives

2010-01-18T09:48:00.009-05:00

I get a bunch of emails each month asking how I make my papercuts and the materials I use.

I thought it might be a good idea to make some posts about my techniques so others can give it a try themselves. Plenty of room in the world for more papercutters!

I'll be focusing on knives. I use exclusively Xacto products just because they are, in my opinion, the best available. Trust me, I've tried them all.

A quick note on terminology: Knife is the handle, blade is the sharp part that the knife holds.

Here are my two main knives (I have pretty much every product Xacto makes, but these are my most used ones)

Xacto X3627 Gripster Soft Grip Knife- available everywhere

and my piece de resistance: Xacto 3051 Professional Swivel Knife. (shown with some blue painters tape to thicken it a bit and make it more comfortable for my hands)

Xacto no longer makes the 3051, and I only have one that was given to me by a friend who did rubylith cutting for billboards in the 70s (that's how old the knife is). If you find one, I'll buy it off you! Actually, my birthday is coming up on Feb 3rd...

The Gripster takes standard #11 blades. I use this knife for all my straight cuts as it is very easy to cut a perfectly straight cut with a standard xacto knife/blade.

The Pro swivel knife, however, is pretty much the greatest thing ever and I'd love for Xacto to start producing the knife again (are you listening Xacto???)

This swivel knife, unlike the swivel knife Xacto makes today, is entirely made from metal. There are tiny ball bearings that allow the blade to rotate in the knife without having any wiggle to the blade. The currently available swivel knife allows way to much movement of the blade inside the knife, so trying to put the tip of the knife exactly in the right spot is difficult because the blade wiggles a bit as you press it into the paper (bad).

While they say you cant use the current swivel knives available at stores (they come in a tiny plastic tube and each blade is encased in a white piece of plastic), I found that you can still use the blades for the old style knife, you just need to take the blade out of the plastic case. This is very easy.

I really wish Xacto did not package these blades with the point down as they are very sharp yet delicate. When they get jostled around on the shelf or in shipping, the tips can sometimes break off in the package. At $1 each, I don't want to waste ANY blades in the package and I'll check every one before I buy them.

I use a pair of pliers and squeeze the plastic case just below the blade. This crushes the plastic and loosens the blade, then I take the pliers, pull the blade out, and put the blade directly into the pro swivel knife, which holds the blade in a brass mechanism. A bit of work, but totally worth it for the stability of the pro knife.

The best thing about the pro knife is that the blade swivels inside the knife so incredibly smoothly, you can cut your work just like you would drawing with a pen. Here's a video of my using my swivel knife to cut a piece. It doesn't cut straight lines very well though, that's why I use the traditional knife with #11 blades.

I hope this was helpful to all of you. Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments, I read them all, and I'll try to answer them all.

I'll be doing another post on paper, adhesive, and design.

Papercuts By Joe the movie!

2010-01-07T12:01:00.001-05:00

Just uploaded this video to youtube showing some of my work, and some in-progress photos showing them being made.

Happy New Year

2010-01-07T08:57:00.003-05:00

So I'm starting this year off by actually following one of my resolutions: Blog more.

With that, here's my biggest announcement of the new year: A new gallery show!

Just before New Year's Eve, Jessie Wusthoff, of Terminal 22 Gallery in Oakland, CA (Just east of San Francisco) wrote me saying she her gallery has a show coming up in February featuring paper artists and she has openings.

I was quite surprised to hear she wanted several pieces, and more than happy to accommodate!

I will be sending SEVEN pieces, including two large pieces made especially for the show.

Unfortunately, because it's such short notice, I will not be able to attend the opening personally, but my spies in CA (fellow full-time Etsy artists) have agreed to attend and take some photos for me.

I'm extremely excited about the show! Rarely do I get the chance to have people know what my medium is before the look at the piece, so unless I get to talk to them personally, many think they are prints, woodcuts, pen&ink, etc.

This will be my first West Coast show, which is exciting for being what it is, and also I can now say I've shown in galleries across the country:)

I've read some great reviews of the gallery and I trust them to show my work well.

Show info:

The Paper Show
Terminal 22
2443 Telegraph Ave.
Oakland, CA 94612

Opening Gala: Feb 5, 6-9 pm

My birthday is the 3rd, so I'm considering this a great present!

I hope any of you Bay-area people can make the show and let me know how it goes (and buy a piece!)

Wicked busy but...

2009-12-07T11:35:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to share a silhouette I just finished with you all. More updates after the new year. I currently have 15 custom pieces I'm working on and expecting (and hoping) the onslaught will continue all the way to Christmas. I'll be back soon with much more regular updates:)

Exciting Development: Acquire Boutique gallery show 2010

2009-10-13T17:16:00.005-04:00

Hi all,

First, the lull in interest in papercutting last week is now over, thankfully, and the panicky-aspects of my personality can calm down as custom pieces head out to South Carolina, Illinois, Scotland, and Queens.

So, over the past few weeks I've been poorly keeping a secret about a new gallery opportunity.

Meet Nikki Dalrymple:

Nikki was a producer for PBS and the National Geographic Channel, but decided to follow her passions and started a Brick&Mortar store and design business in the North End of Boston named Acquire Boutique.

The North End is legendary for a couple reasons: Food, food, food, pastries, history, food again, and oh yeah, food. It is also one of the oldest and best preserved neighborhoods in Boston (Paul Revere's house is still there).

It is also the best up-and-coming retail district of the city and boutiques and beautiful shops are springing up. Beyond a doubt, Acquire, with its quirky mix of vintage and modern decor, is the best! I can prove this better with photos than words, so here's some design "porn":

But don't take my word and beautiful photos (thanks Nikki for letting me "borrow" them), Nikki and her shop have been featured in the following: Lucky, Boston Home magazine 2009, Stuff magazine, New England Home, Daily Candy, the Globe, Home Furnishing Now, Travel and Leisure, The Improper Bostonian, Boston Common, and recently won a Best of Boston award. That's some crazy good press!

Anyway, Nikki posted on her blog back in July 29th looking for interesting silhouette artists/papercutters. Well, during the Boston Arts festival, Nikki just happened to walk into my booth, and after talking briefly handed me a card and mentioned showing my work at her store.

Jen and I visited a couple days later and were BLOWN AWAY by the store, everything in it is beautiful, stylish, and best of all, reasonably priced! Seriously if you are anywhere near Boston, check out her store, buy everything, and afterwards, get a cannoli down the road.

So, it's now official, I will be showing a series of nautical-themed pieces at Acquire from, get this, May 15- August 15. That's the ENTIRE summer tourist season, and the neighborhood is very good for buying local and supporting local stores, so it's the best of both worlds! I'm extremely excited, there will be an opening party, and I be sure to post many times as things develop.

Slow week!

2009-10-10T09:17:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone,

I've been hearing the buzz around Etsy that everyone's sales are starting to pick up. Wish that was the same here! Last month was great, and I ended up sending out TWELVE pieces this Monday and Tuesday! But...only one new customer in a week. Strange how that happens!

Regardless, it's given me tons of time to get little projects done like start applying to grad school, apply for a second job (winter is rough for papercutting if I follow last years trends)

I got my new computer yesterday! I've called it the Beast. Dont get me wrong, the processor is pretty ho-hum but still a huge upgrade from what I had. Apparently if you run a busy business 99% online/on the computer and your six-year-old laptop freezes everytime you open photoshop and gmail at the same time, it's time for an upgrade. The Monitor is the only thing I really splurged on as it makes doing several things at a time very helpful. I split the screen in half and do one thing on the left side, and another on the right. It's like having an employee!

Other than that I've done some geneology stuff, cleaned up my etsy shop a bit, and started Twittering!
Oh, and check out my etsy page, I've uploaded seven new items!

Makers Mark

2009-09-29T09:00:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone,

For some time now, I have been trying to come up with some unique makers mark or cartouche to put on my work. I find that my signature can be a bit large, especially on silhouettes and other smaller pieces. I also feel like my work falls more philosophically in the fine-craft than the fine art category and I really like the decorative marks on fine furniture and ceramics.

I have studied craftsmen art and furniture for a few years now. I recently had the opportunity to visitn the JMW Gallery in Boston. I've seen the MFA and METs collection of Arts and crafts furniture and decorative arts, and JMW easily has a larger collection- and its all for sale. If you can afford it (I can't).

I've discussed it before (about a year ago on this blog), but I really love the aesthetics of the Arts and Crafts (Craftsman) movement, and I am also am blown away be the entire philosophy that surrounds the movement. Essentially, the A&C period focused on a guild-like work structure where masters taught apprentices. The earliest craftsman pieces were extremely medieval in appearance.

Overtime, the movement developed it's own sense of style and focused on the use of simple materials (wood, metal, glass, leather, paper, ceramics) and craftsman skill. The kicker was that their work was so incredibly, unbelievably difficult to make, and they deliberately made things harder than they need to be simply to show that the work of a fine craftsman was something to be seen, appreciated, and celebrated. You can see this in Craftsman architecture where beams and support structure are exposed and over-complicated, yet still maintaining a clean look. You can also see this in furniture were joints and pegging is both exposed and emphasized to show the skills of its creator.

At this time (1880-1930) the Industrial Revolution was really moving into high gear producing goods cheaply and quickly. The Craftsman movement was a deliberate reaction to this loss of appreciation for hand-made goods, and presents this idea with an emphasis on exposed skill.

The furniture and decorative arts of this period have clean lines, simple decorations, earth tones, and most importantly, done as difficultly as humanly possible.

I've struggled for some time with where exactly my work falls- is it fine art, fine craft, or folk art? I think it's not really any of them and all of them at the same time. How's that for a cop-out? Seriously though, I find that my work next to paintings will never be appreciated by the general public as an equally-respected medium/style. Also, next to a beautiful raku urn or Roycroft desk my work may seem like simple wall-art. Plus, I have deliberately avoided the traditional folk art styles of historic papercutters.

So, what to do? I'm treating my work as a Fine Craft you hang on your wall like a painting. All great Craftsman artist have makers marks, and I've been wanting to create one that I can use to easily identify my work. I love antiques roadshow, and makers marks are seriously one of the best parts of the show. "Well, this would normally be a simple well-made oak desk, but this "R" in an urn makers mark indicates it was made by the Roycroft Craftsmen and is worth $30,000".

I really wanted to show the craftsman influences and ideas behind my work and was leaning for a while for a picto-gram, but couldn't come up with a plant or animal that significantly meant something important to me. My name wasn't especially symmetrical, however after playing with it for a while and using traditional Craftsman fonts, I came up with my very first makers mark. Drum roll please:

I'm going to keep it approximately 1/2 inch in size on the piece. I usually sign next to the piece, and I really shouldn't do that in case in the future it has to be re-mounted, the signature will be separate from the papercutting. No good. As soon as I get a white archival pen I will start marking my pieces with this mark, and signing the back of the papercut with my full signature. It won't be visible unless unmounted, but I think people always like to know their art holds secrets.

Wow, that was incredibly long and rambling. I need more coffee!

New Website Design

2009-09-22T12:29:00.004-04:00

I do these too often, but I'm really happy with the new design. It's streamlined, less messy, same content, and lots of fun surprises.

I condensed all the pieces into two major categories (Architecture and Nature) with 15 thumbnails for each.

I also am going to be directing people to my etsy page much more since there's no reason to reinvent the wheel when I have a successful shop already.

Overall I condensed the site from about 15 pages to about four.

I also put in some measures to make sure people can still see the site even if the don't have flash. iphone and itouch do not currently support flash, so when they visit, they will be redirected to a flash-less homepage.

I also am in love with Java especially Lightbox, which does those fun effects when you click on a thumbnail.

Let me know if you find any glaring problems

papercutsbyjoe.com

Let me know what you think:

Here's a screen grab:

Two-fer

2009-09-21T20:05:00.008-04:00

Okay, finally giving an update,

The Boston Ahts festival went great! There were so many people I went through the over 300 business cards I brought with in the first three hours of the show. Won't make that mistake again.

It sounds like I may be showing my work at a local boutique that has recently gained a lot of national exposure, lots more on that when the details get worked out.

Four pieces went home during the show. Wish it was more, but I was still happy with the results.

Not much more to say, so here are some photos of the show.

In part two of the two-fer, and the reason it has taken me so long to post these, is that Jen and I took our first days off in almost three weeks and went to the-middle-of-nowhere Maine. We were gone all this past weekend and had an absolute blast. Highly recomend it: no tv, no internet, no electricity except from 7-10pm, quiet, gorgeous, and full of moose. Increcibly affordable too! Here's the website of the resort: The Last Resort, Jackman, ME

And some photos because it was that beautiful!

Rain rain, go away

2009-09-12T06:59:00.001-04:00

Show was canceled today:(

Unfortunately I didn't check until after showering, getting dressed, and getting coffee started. Pouring like the dickens outside now.

Not sure what to do today...

One day to go!... so I missed a day

2009-09-10T09:30:00.005-04:00

Yeah, remember two days ago when I said I had six days worth of work to do and four days to do it. That was before I got seven custom requests in 48 hours. One was an express deal, so I had to set aside everything to work on it. Not complaining, if people want my work, I'll be there!

So I did get lots done yesterday, just flat-out ran out of time and energy to blog.

All morning I worked on a rush-order custom piece, which should be in Florida in a couple of hours (hope you and your husband love it Marisa!)

After that, I really had to mount all the 18x24s or they just wouldn't get done. Since they are the main pieces for the show, thought that was important! My very first attempts of framing on my own. Kudos to Steve for everything you taught me about framing, I think they came out great!

Made a run to Target to get a tablecloth for my the huge 6' table they are supplying me for the show. Still not sure what to do with it, or where to put it, but figured I should at least make it look good. I was completely shocked at how expensive table cloths were, so I ended up buying a flat sheet which happened to be on crazy sale due to college season. Saved me $15 so I was happy.

I also got a box of huge clear bags, which I will use to transport the pieces and wrap them up when people purchase a piece. Looks like it may rain Friday and a bit on Saturday, so I'm determined not to ruin all my work!

Also designed all my "bookmark" pieces for the 8x10 frames. Hate waiting until the last second to do these, but they don't take too long and sell like hotcakes so they're a must. Here they all are unmounted.

Still have to pack everything up and make sure I have everything I need. Also need to mount and frame all the little guys above and two other smaller pieces. My biggest worry about these shows isn't the art, but doing something stupid like forgetting to bring anything to hang the artwork on the wall with, or forgetting my business cards or some other small detail that completely derails the whole thing.

Okay, back to work. I'll try to post again this evening to make up for the lack of post yesterday.

Cheers,
Joe

The road to the Boston Ahts Festival: 4 days to go

2009-09-08T12:17:00.005-04:00

Hi everyone,

In my quest to be fully prepared for the Boston Arts (Ahts) Festival I'm going to be posting what I'm working on each day. I have four days to go and about six days of work left to do, so this will be interesting.

Over the long weekend we found out where the tent will be, which happens to be right in the middle of everything. This is great, because I've noticed tents on the ends seem to get passed up as people first arrive or leave. Also got some orchids for the tent. We decided that when you decorate your tent, it looks like you were so prepared that you even had enough time to bring in flowers. Gives a very good effect, and really instills confidence in people viewing your work. Also got a couple people to come in my tent in South Portland just to see the flowers. Can't hurt!

Here's the view from my future tent spot:

I found out we're sharing a 9x20 tent, which has me a bit scared because I want to hang a wall on three sides and I'm not sure my tent-mate will appreciate a wall hanging between us. I had thought we'd each be getting a 10x10 tent and we wouldn't have to share any walls. Hope it works out because I'm bringing three walls worth of stuff to hang regardless!

Today, my goal is to get the custom pieces that were ordered over the weekend done so I can focus on the Boston pieces. That was quite a task! Two were extremely difficult pieces with tons of very fine cuts with very little support. The hardest part is going from finished cut to mounted piece. Today I had to take this:

And make it look like this:Took forever!

I just got my very first order of 15 frames, all the framing supplies, and glass. I hopefully will be offering my custom pieces with custom framing options:)

I also have to finish my series of Boston pieces I created just for the show. These six pieces are the highlights of the show. Only one is not quite finished, but that should happen today or tomorrow. Here they all are unmounted.

It looks like it might rain Friday but will be great the rest of the weekend. Hope it isn't too bad! Three days is going to be a looooong time to stay outside.

I'm a bit worried I'm putting too much hope into this show. Don't want to be disappointed. The Art in the Park show went so incredibly well, and this show is three times longer with five times more people, so I'm really crossing my fingers!

Okay, back to work!

Tomorrow: the 8x10s and some framed work.

South Portland Art in the Park

2009-08-21T14:37:00.014-04:00

Art in the Park was waaaaay back on the 8th, but as soon as we got back, we both had to dive straight back into work and this is my first chance to finally share what happened.

The event was about 500 feet from my family's home in South Portland, so we had free housing during the weekend. My mother happened to be in a store while we were driving north from Boston and found a white EZ-up tent for less than half I've ever seen it, so I got her to nab it for us. Now I had a great white tent, which, unfortunately, has been proven to attract more people to your work than a blue tent. Weird.

Anyway, on Friday we had to frame the 19 pieces that still needed framing before the show the next day, so that took nearly the entire day but came out great! We also had the opportunity to borrow 8 segments of grid wall to hang the heaviest pieces (thanks Harriet!)

The day of the show went incredibly smoothly. Most of my family was there to help set up the tent, and the rest were able to stop by throughout the day.Weird story- My sister had been on a whale watch tour in Portland the week before the show, and it turns out the boat she was on, was the same boat featured in my piece, Odyssey. She called the number on the brochure for the tour and got a hold of the woman who used to own the boat and invited them to the show with out me knowing. Soon after the show started she arrived, introduced herself and told me she used to own the boat and loved the piece. After leaving, she apparently called the current owner of the boat, who came to the show soon after, and purchased the piece! I'm so happy the piece will really be appreciated!

So after that great start, tons of people stopped by to view my work, and were incredibly kind and supportive. We had a great time. Jen told me that at one point there were 19 people in the 10x10 tent! Not bad considering there were 184 other artist at the same show!

Ten smaller pieces went home after Odyssey was purchased.

At the very end of the show, many people started breaking down about a half hour early and I refused since there were so many people that expressed interest in pieces that were still remaining. Literally five minutes before the end of the show, my mom, who was helping break down the display,grabbed the largest piece, Hand, off the wall and began carrying it out to the truck.

A woman and her daughter stopped her and asked if someone had purchased the piece as they were interested in buying it.

Turns out the daughter is completely redesigning her bedroom and wanted a piece of art for it. Her mother agreed and out of the 185 artist there, she chose my piece for her room! I was incredibly excited. Two of my largest pieces found great homes that day.

In the end, 12 pieces went home, and I sold most of the remaining 2008 Christmas ornaments (have to start designing the 2009 ones soon!) The weather was perfect, the people were great, the other artist were kind and had incredible work on display. Didn't go home with any prizes, but my stuff is too "not-a-painting" to get much interest by judges, but I bet I sold more than almost anyone at the show.

Now, as a somewhat odd consequence, I have to really crank out some new pieces for the Boston show. It's three days long, so I really need to pack the tent incase stuff sells as well as it did at the Art and the Park. Wouldn't want an empty tent on the third day. Acutally, that would be nice:)

Support Papercuts by Joe!

2009-08-18T10:07:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone, I'm nominated for the Shine A Light competition through American Express and NBC. I would greatly appreciate it if you read the story below and voted for me! Your endorsements get me to the next stage, so I greatly appreciate your support. Winners receive $100,000 and marketing service from American Express

From the nomination:

Each year 2.2 million couples marry in the US. This means there are approximately 4.4 million people looking for a first anniversary gift each year. Paper is the traditional first anniversary gift. Joe Bagley and his wife, Jen, found a perfect way to use Joe’s talents as a paper artist to create unique and personal gifts for these couples.

Facing a double layoff in the fall of 2008, Joe and Jen had a choice, enter a competitive job market with dwindling openings, or get creative. Joe had been dabbling in the art of papercutting for several years as a hobby, but the sudden explosion of free time allowed him and his wife to explore the possibility of creating a career from his art.

Joe creates his art by hand-cutting hundreds to thousands of holes in a single sheet of black paper. His art has been shown in museums and galleries along the east coast. Papercutting, as an art form, has existed as a folk art around the world for over 5,000 years.

Jen found, online, that paper is the traditional gift for first anniversaries. With this inspiration, they together set up an online business where Joe works directly with his clients to create papercuttings for couples celebrating their first anniversary together.

One year later, Jen has found work in her field of expertise, and Joe has a successful online business that he runs out of his small home studio in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston. Using the most cost-effective forms of marketing and advertising (online ads, word of mouth, and the hand-made goods website Etsy.com) Joe and Jen have managed to create and grow their business from scratch during these tough economic times.

Papercuts by Joe Bagley now adorn the homes of happy couples in almost every state in the US, and eight countries abroad. By far one of the most rewarding aspects of the business is hearing the stories of couples receiving their Papercut and knowing the piece will be passed down for generations.

Along with his art, Joe has volunteered with the Boys and Girls club teaching children the ancient art of papercutting. He has toured numerous local libraries presenting a lecture on the Art and History of Papercutting. Joe has also donated numerous pieces to local charity auctions.

30th Annual Art in the Park - South Portland, Maine

2009-08-03T20:58:00.002-04:00

We're excited to be gearing up for our first art show of the summer! This is a big event for us for a couple of reasons:

Firstly because it is the 30th annual Art in the Park in South Portland (Maine supports the arts!).

Next because this event is less than a quarter mile from where Joe used to live.

And finally because a few years ago this was Joe's very first art show! The first go-around was a huge learning experience, but now that Joe's doing art full time I think we've fallen into a better groove. We're really excited to show off everything that he's been up to since he last presented at this art show.

The details:

Art in the Park
Mill Creek, South Portland, ME (directions)
Friday, August 8, 2009
9am-5pm

Hope some of you can make it!

Accepted! Boston Ahts festival 2009

2009-07-06T16:18:00.003-04:00

Woo-Hoo!

Just got a weird letter in the mail from the city of Boston (parking ticket?). No, it's an acceptance letter from the Mayor for the 2009 Boston Arts Festival! I applied back in March and pretty much forgot about it. I had a string of rejections lately so this was very nice to hear.

I was one of 60 artists accepted, so I'm damn proud of that alone. I think it didn't hurt that I was in the deadly-competitive paper category (ha ha)

The festival is located between the North End, Quincy Market, and the Aquarium in Downtown Boston, so TONS of people will be walking by. Last year, they said 50,000 people attended!

Blue Man Group, the Boston Pops, the Boston Ballet, the Opera, etc. have performed so there should continue to be a big turnout. Here's the official website: www.bostonahtsfestival.com

I would love to see some of you if you happen to be in the area!

New space, and a new papercut!

2009-06-27T14:25:00.010-04:00

Just got back from Haymarket in Boston with bags full of fruits and veggies. Got four quarts of strawberries, four pears, two pounds of cherries, two ponds of roma tomatoes, a pint of blueberries, and eight kiwi...all for $11. I freaking love Boston!

Anyway, I'm just posting now that we are completely unpacked and back to work. Below is my new work space. I just hung up a ton of art and pretty much filled the book cases so it looks a bit busier now, but I now have an entire 12x12 room for my papercutting!

I've been doing between 5-10 custom papercuts every week since May so that's the biggest reason I haven't been posting much lately. It's definitely been my busy time of year with anniversary present requests rolling in. I haven't had much time to do more my-style pieces, however I did get a spare half-day yesterday to finish the piece below that I've been working on for about a month. It's of the Second-Empire building that housed Boston's City Hall from 1869-1965. Below are images of the city hall, the papercut, and just some shots to show scale and that it truly is cut from paper:) I haven't mounted the piece on its white background. Right now it's on a green cutting board and still has the support pieces I cut into the design to keep it's shape while I'm mounting. I cut them off when it's done.

That's all for now...

Some good news

2009-06-01T14:36:00.002-04:00

Okay, haven't posted in a very long time, and I'm tired of the depressing post sitting pretty at the top of the blog, so here's some good stuff.

First, the custom papercuts for anniversaries has completely taken off! I'm shipping 3-4 a day and it's fun but challenging to keep up.

In other news, we are moving back to Boston, right next to Jen's work, and I'll get an entire 12x12 room to use for my business, complete with views of Boston's skyline.

I'll be doing an outdoor show in Maine this August, which is the same place I did my very first show, this time, things will be much better though! I'm finding I'm a bit late for many of the show deadlines, and I only seem to hear about shows when they're being advertised a few days before the main event!

Okay, enough for now, I actually have to get back to work as I need to get a piece that's going to over to the UK finished before the post office closes!

Some bad news...

2009-04-16T10:51:00.004-04:00

So Jen and I went to Maine for Easter with my family. While there, we decided to drive up the road to the Old Crow Gallery where I am having my solo show in June. When we got there, we found the gallery empty and a For Rent sign in the window.

Big time bummer...

I was quite panicked, actually, because I had thousands of dollars worth of art currently at the gallery and I had no idea where any of the piece were.

I eventually got in touch with the gallery owners, whom I love to death, and they explained how it happened. Long story short, the owners of the building were unreasonable and they had to leave shop in an extremely short amount of time and didn't have a chance to call all the artists to get their work.

So, as of right now, there will be no solo show:( Perhaps if the owners get the gallery and frame shop back up and running, I may be able to show later in the year, but for now it's all off. My pieces are going to be moved to several businesses that appreciate art and may help get my name out and possibly sell the piece off the wall.

I'm pretty bummed. I've been planning this for seven months now and had all the pieces ready to go. I've actually avoided applying to shows and galleries in June so it didn't conflict with the show. I'm also worried because most galleries are booked for the year (or more) so I may have to wait over a year for another opportunity to show my work.

Le Sigh.

Regardless, I'm now looking for shows and events locally to get the word out about my papercuts in town. We just decided to not move out of town, and found a beautiful tiny house to rent with a great finished shed (more of a separate building/room with windows and heat and everything) that will become my studio.

Not all bad news, but still pretty bummed about the show.

Oh, I'm on twitter now too. Terrifying, but maybe it will drum up some support or sales?

So...

2009-04-06T12:34:00.000-04:00

What do you think of the new look?

Feel free to leave comments below!

Introducing: Make

2009-04-02T15:51:00.007-04:00

Make

16x28 mounted to 20x30
Single Sheet of Black Paper

Inspired by my previous work, I, I have continued experimenting with texture and scale with this papercutting of my left hand. I was sitting at my desk working on some custom pieces when I noticed my hands were extremely dry. When I looked at them up close, the sun was coming in through the window behind me at the perfect angle. I could see all the wrinkles and grooves in my palm and I wondered if I could capture it with a papercut. This is the result of a very long design process. I really fought for this one! I'm very happy with the outcome and I really love the bold graphic in-your-face quality, but it also has a tranquil side...somehow. Hope you like!

Available on Etsy

Boys and Girls Club continued

2009-03-20T16:25:00.003-04:00

So earlier, I mentioned that I had worked with the amazing kids at the Boys and Girls Club in South Portland, ME. I just found out that several of the papercuts were chosen to go up for auction! The pieces are being sold to raise money for the Club. This is a major fund raiser and I'm really hoping they make tons of money. The kids did such a great job!

You can see the pieces here, and even purchase them!

An homage to Tord Boontje

2009-03-10T14:09:00.006-04:00

I had a wonderful person ask me to make them a paper chandelier through Etsy a few weeks ago. After playing around with designs and construction ideas, I came up with a two-layered paper lamp.

I used paper, since the lamp will be lighted with CFL bulbs exclusively. I have had it on for several hours and the bulb is still cool enough to hold your finger directly on it, and the paper is barely warm.

What do you guys think? Sorry for the terrible photography. I just snapped a few photos to get the point accross. If I continue to make these (hopefully) I will definitely spend a bit more effort on the staging!

Anyway, there are obvious similarities to Tord Boontje's incredible lamps. Didn't want it to look that similar, but I definitely used my own technique and trademark branches design. Not too many ways to make a paper lamp without doing some sort of conical shape. Hope he won't mind. I've been a HUGE fan of his work for many many years.

What do you guys think?

Not So Fast...

2009-03-09T17:06:00.005-04:00

So after much reflection about my previous post, I realized one major issue: Is my custom page actually ready for an increase in interest? Will more people actually request a piece I don't have a well developed site that actually presents my pieces well?

The answer is no, I don't. Or atleast didn't. I hope I do now!

I spent pretty much the entire weekend reading about marketing, and all of today redesigning my custom anniversary paper art page: papercutsbyjoe.com/custom

There's a lot more words on the page, which I realize is a bit of a minus, but it lays out everything I have to say on one page and doesn't require anyone to travel through three pages before the actually know what I'm selling. I'm surprised they actually did before!

I added an About the Artist page, a fun jpg of where my pieces have found a home, completely re-did the Gallery page, and added a FAQ section.

I really want to get across the fact that I personally work with everyone, and that the piece I create for them is both worth what they are paying for, and will last generations. I hope that got across, please let me know if it didn't!

There has been a steady increase in hits from my google Adwords advertising. Hopefully things will start to pick up. Not expecting miracles, just something. Anything!

I'm sure I've got some major tweaking to do with the wording, but overall, I think I'll try this on for size for a bit. What do you all think of it?

Going for it

2009-03-05T11:12:00.004-05:00

Friend-of-the-Blog ArtSnark, whose work I greatly admire, suggested in one of my recent posts to seek out publicity at various magazines and media outlets.

This has worked out well for me in the past, and I feel stupid for not doing it again sooner, but I definitely will! This past fall I wrote the editor of the local newspaper, and within two hours I had an interview. Within a week I was on the cover of the newspaper and had an online video interview and feature! Good fun!

So, because I am COMPLETELY incapable of holding back on anything, I'm really going for it this time. I have three major components to my "business": Fine art, Local Art, and Custom Anniversary Art. Therefore, I will be customizing several digital and printed press releases and harassing (politely) editors until I get some attention. All tastefully, respectively, and humbly done of course.

Here's the lineup, feel free to suggest others if you know of any:

Fine Art:
Crafts Arts International
Art in America
The Artist Magazine
Cloth, Paper, Scissors
Paper Crafts
Elle Decor
ART News
Paper Creations
World of Interiors

Local:
Down East
Portland
Boston
Maine Home Design
Port City Life

Custom Anniversary Art:
Rachael Ray
O
InStyle
Readers Digest
Better Homes + Gardens
Real Simple
The Nest
Lucky
Martha Stewart Living

(took FOREVER to get all those links!)

Frankly, if I get even one of these to so much as mention me in a footnote, I'll consider it successful. I have to believe that my work is the best thing ever or nobody else will think so. I've definitely learned that if you wait for things to come to you, often they never do and you have to sometimes show people what you are worth in order to get any attention. It's pretty much the only way I've gotten jobs, interviews, offers, gallery shows, displays, apartments, internships, articles...

I'm going to look into papercutting classes at Michaels too. I've got the Boys and Girls club workshop as experience and that was SO much fun.

One question for all of you to help out with: Should I send an 8x10 "custom" anniversary papercut to all the major magazines as a good visual (O, Instyle, Rachael ray, etc)? Lots of work, but might be worth it? I figure the more fine-art oriented publications can work with just images since that's really what they do anyway.

I'll share the stuff I'll be sending with the package with all of you when I make them (soon)

Thanks again ArtSnark!!!!

Introducing: Jen

2009-03-04T14:30:00.007-05:00

Jen 2009
20x20 inches

Black Paper on Illustration Board

I was staring at a profile silhouette I cut of my wife, Jen, when I had the idea of combining the very traditional profile with my new branch pieces. This is the result: One of my most detailed pieces yet. By far one of the most difficult pieces I have ever cut. DELICATE! but still bold and very graphic.

available on etsy.com

Hard Work, No Pay

2009-03-02T17:33:00.007-05:00

In August of 2008, my wife and I both lost our jobs. Because of this,
we moved from Florida to Massachusetts where we had better connections
and job opportunities.Fortunately , my wife was able to find a good
job, but me...not so much. Basically, we have a lot of friends in
Boston, many of whom have the same education background as me plus a
masters degree. All of us were looking for jobs at the same time so I
just gave up on even competing with them.

Anyway, this whole art
thing was actually growing faster than I expected so I took the big
chance and went full time. It was convenient, I really enjoyed it, and
for a while, it was the best paying job I had ever had.

Then winter came.

Without going into the numbers, December was rough, January was terrible, and February was about third of January!

Granted, the work level hasn't gone down. Without all the custom pieces rolling
in, I've really gone wild with my own more fine art pieces, expand my
blog and website, and experimenting A LOT.

I have to tell you, It is really, really hard to put in a 40 plus hour work week and not
make a penny for it! The combination of winter making the weather suck
and no sunlight in the afternoons means I'm almost never going outside
of the house- and we live two minutes from the ocean! Not sure if I
should be getting a second job or not. Things feel like they are
bouncing back, but in this economy, what exactly could a bounce even
be? I'm lining myself for lots of summer art shows, but if I start
working, I may jeopardize either work, for having to prepare for shows and not be able to work weekends, or give up on some of the shows, which may actually sell a piece. There are NO jobs in archaeology right now, so I'll have to go into a really saturated job market with very minimal skills. Gah, decisions!

Right
now it's just really demoralizing to not seeing any return for hard
work. I know the saying, find a job you would do for free. I have two.
Archaeology and Art. But eventually you can't be stupid about it.
Unless you are financially secure, working for free isn't really an
option. It's difficult to live on one rather minimal income, and the
stress it's putting on Jen is tough for both of us.

oh
well. You're told your entire life you can do anything you want so long
as you are willing to work for it. But when are you supposed to give
up? Are only those with enough money (whether it's their own or their
family's) to have the luxury to do what they want allowed to do
everything? I really don't want to go back to the grocery store. I've worked so freaking hard to get where I was in my archaeology career (honors, publications, recognition, etc). Now I've put in so much time with the art career. I know I'm at the beginning stages at both, I completely recognize this, but at the same time we can't last much longer without getting a paycheck.

Bleh. Sorry for the rant. I think I'll go cut a bunch of holes in a piece of paper or something:)

Introducing: I

2009-03-01T20:55:00.007-05:00

I , 2009
20x30

So I've been wanting to experiment with scale. I've been doing farily detailed pieces that usually show a scene with trees, architecture, and other large objects. With this piece, I call "I", I have tried to see if I could put the same amount of detail into a papercut with a more Macro appearance. The piece is my left eye, so in some ways it is a self portrait.

Currently Listed on Etsy.com

Papercutting Lecture Tour- Massachusetts Libraries

2009-03-01T20:07:00.006-05:00

As part of the Solo show this summer, I was asked to prepare a lecture to present some time around the opening of the show.

I was happy to do so, and figured if I was going to be writing such a long talk and slide show, I might as well get some more mileage out of it. I proceeded to write every, and I mean every, library between my home and Boston.

Fortunately several agreed to have me come by, so here is a list of the upcoming lectures in Hingham, Brockton, Quincy, and Cohasset, Massachusetts.

All the lectures are FREE to attend. The basic outline is a history of papercutting and its spread around the world, followed with the works of several modern papercutters. A PowerPoint presentation will provide great visuals for the talk, and I will be bringing authentic papercuttings from around the world as well as several of my original works.

March 26th: Paul Pratt Memorial Library (Cohasset), 7-8pm

April 21: Hingham Public Library, 7-8:45pm

April 24: Brockton Public Library, 2-3 pm

August: Thomas Crane Public Library (Quincy) date tbd
Also, I will be displaying my work in their gallery space for the month of August.

If any of you are in the area or know someone who will be, please come by! If you have a venue you would like me to give the presentation, please email me and we can discuss an appearance. I have limited travel ability (gets expensive), but if you are willing to reimburse for travel or charge admissions, I am more than willing to travel outside of Massachusetts for the lecture.

Papercutting with the Boys and Girls Club

2009-02-26T15:09:00.009-05:00

I had the honor to work with some fantastic kids at the Boys and Girls Club in my home town of South Portland.

I gave a brief talk about the history of papercutting and passed around some authentic pieces from around the world (papel picado, Jian Jhi, silhouette, etc) then the kids got to create their own original papercut. There were almost no rules, so they really got to express their creativity.

Here are some highlights of the two-day workshop

Branches

2009-02-03T18:55:00.006-05:00

Joe's been busy lately - whipping up new pieces and actually lining up a lecture tour about papercutting too (cool, right? more details on dates and locations forthcoming...).
He's now finished a new collection, "Branches," and since it's his BIRTHDAY (woo hoo!) I thought I'd post some images from his new collection so he could sit back and relax.
Lots of sizes and styles to chose from, and they look pretty terrific as a set too!
Have a good Tuesday everyone

Introducing: Love Your Bump

2009-01-08T14:38:00.003-05:00

Custom Nursery Papercuts

I was recently asked to provide a silhouette design for a very pregnant woman who wanted to record her body's transformation. The design was absolutely beautiful and it sparked an idea. Why not expand my business into an entirely new niche?

In a flurry of activity (it helped that Jen, my wife, and I were snow/iced in for the day) we created an entire new website and etsy shop.

Here are links to the website: Love your bump!
and a link to the new etsy site: Love your bump! Etsy page

As a bonus for all you great people who view this blog, I will give a $5 rebate on any Love Your Bump! order if you or anyone you send my link to mention that you read this here on the blog.

Let me know what you guys think of the new site and etsy page and if you have any suggestions for additional nursery papercut products.

Thanks for your time!

Old Crow Gallery Winter Show

2009-01-07T13:51:00.005-05:00

Hi, we almost forgot to report on the gallery exhibit Joe did last month at the Old Crow Gallery. It ran from early December until Christmas, and we went to the official show opening while we were in Maine before the holidays.
You can see from the pictures how packed it was! The owners did a great job of getting people in the door, and in turn Joe ended up selling a lot of art!Very exciting for us, and we look forward to working with them on Joe's solo show this spring!

Starbucks Exhibit

2008-11-23T20:45:00.007-05:00

It's been a long time coming - it's taken weeks of discussion with the manager and the artist who previous was displaying her work - but Friday night we got to hang up six pieces at our local Marshfield, MA Starbucks cafe.

We divided the pieces into two spaces- the first was in the main seating area where we hung three larger older pieces. I thought the Native American and the Maya pieces would work well with Starbucks' multi-cultural feel. They're currently offering several Latin American coffee blends so the theme works well.

The other space was in the hallway toward the back of the store, and featured three smaller pieces that were inspired by the monuments and architecture of Boston. Many of the residents of Marshfield are visitors from Boston or commute there daily for work.

If anyone is interested in stopping by the address is

784 Plain Street
Marshfield, MA 02050
It's a half hour south of Boston off of Rt. 3.

It's a great opportunity to have my work get local exposure, and it should be up through the holiday season and possibly longer.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Media!

2008-11-19T21:15:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone,
I recently was visited by a local reporter who did an article on my work for the Marshfield Mariner, a small local newspaper. It has a video of me yapping about papercutting and a photo of me cutting out one of the papercut ornaments. Thought I'd share and give a face to the mysterious email person.

Holiday Ornaments!

2008-11-19T21:09:00.003-05:00

I am happy to announce that I have finished designing my line of Christmas ornaments. This year, I have designed three pieces, which I will create a limited edition of 17 ornaments for each. I hope to make a series of ornament each year, this being the first.

Each papercutting is hand cut from a sheet of white card stock and adhered to a colored background (Reindeer-red, Sleigh-blue, and Pine-green). They are then initialed and dated on the front, and fully signed and numbered (x of 17) on the back. The frames are painted a beautiful shiny silver with a hand-tied silver and white ribbon hanger.Each ornament frame measures 3x3" with 2.5" papercutting inside. They are $20 each with $5 priority shipping. You receive the papercut, ornament frame, thank you note, and beautiful keepsake box (with hand-tied bow!).

I have created a new web page on my site for the ornaments with a bunch of photos:

http://www.papercutsbyjoe.com/ornaments

Just to toot my own horn, I'm pretty darn proud of the bow I tied in the box photo. Just wanted to share that.

~Joe

Dare-I-Go

2008-10-22T11:31:00.003-04:00

My new body of work, composed of about 12 pieces, is titled Dareigo. It is the body of work I plan to feature at my solo show at the Old Crow Gallery next year.

It is a take on the Maine state motto: Dirigo (pronounced deer-ee-go) and is meant to reflect both the topic of the work (Maine architecture and nature), my homecoming back to Maine, and my enterprising full-time dive into the art world.

As many of you know I am a professional archaeologist with a degree, tons of experience, and everything, but 98% of archaeology in the US is conducted before major construction and development projects. There is not exactly a lot of construction and development going on right now so the job market is tight. Jen and I were let go a few months ago from our full time jobs after work dried up. It’s crushing when it’s something you are passionate about and truly love.

Well, I’ve decided until things start looking up, I’m sticking to art, which is somehow actually paying the bills (that and the fact that Jen is working full time for the Massachusetts Historical Commission).

Okay, back to the art, I really want to show you some of the new designs, but I really want the solo show to be an official reveal of the new pieces. But I’ll happily describe them.

They are about half-half nature and architecture scenes. The nature scenes come from Portland harbor, Old Orchard Beach, and the Lakes Region. The architecture pieces are exclusively historic structures in Portland including (but not limited to) Old Port, the wharfs, and the Portland Observatory.

A few weekends ago Jen and I spent Saturday in Boston and wandered around two of our favorite neighborhoods: Charles St (antique district) and Newbury St (art and retail district). There are some fantastic galleries on Newbury and truly an inspiring place for anyone interested in art (creating, viewing, or buying). It gave me a good perspective on where the market is, what is currently appreciated by galleries, and the clientele. Very interesting.

My overall impression is that gallery shows typically have only a few pieces, they are the best-of-the-best work, and the pieces are very large. I think this is mostly because big is in (people want a lot of art for their money), galleries want to look clean (not too many pieces on display), and no crap allowed.

I took this into consideration and have made some, I think, good changes to the body of work I am currently creating.

First, I have reduced the number of pieces by about half, resulting in a good trimming of the fat and a hard, but needed, self-examination of what actually is good piece, and not just my ego showing through.

Second, I have increased the overall size of the pieces, since this art form allows me to completely design my pieces before cutting, I can take a digital version of the design, crop, modify, and enlarge it before ever cutting. It also allows me to completely organize and edit the entire body of work before I begin creating it.

By enlarging the designs, I was able to include a lot more detail into the piece, which will, I hope, make them even more visually interesting and impressive.

Okay, hope that has wetted your appetite!

I'm not dead yet!

2008-10-21T10:01:00.002-04:00

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written. The past month has been busy! We moved into a winter rental down in Marshfield, MA and Jen has just stared a new job helping to save and fund historic structures at the Massachusetts Historical Commission. So much has happened, I’m going to break it up into several different posts and hopefully I’ll be posting every day for a while.

First, just before leaving Maine, we had a meeting with the Stephen Popp at the Old Crow Gallery in South Portland, ME.

It’s a beautiful historic home converted to a custom frame shop and art gallery. Steve and his wife were incredibly helpful, supportive, and offered me an opportunity to show at their great holiday show and a solo show in the spring!

This is incredibly exciting and I have already lined up about 10 pieces that I hope to finish by the show. These pieces will all be scenes from Maine with my specialty: Nature and Architecture being the main focus. I’m working on one now, my most complex piece and largest at 20x27 will hopefully be one of the centerpieces of the show. I was originally going to be making several additional pieces for the show, but Jen and I had the opportunity to go to Boston and stroll Newbury street galleries and we saw that the typical solo show usually has far fewer pieces than I was planning. Plus, the pieces tend to be larger than I typically do so I decided that it may be more impressive and challenging to whittle down the number of pieces to only the very best, and make those as large and as complicated as I possibly can.

After a full day of work, I’m about half done with the first piece, but it is coming out great. Perhaps I’ll give a preview soon…

Okay, that’s it for now, so many more things to talk about, but that’s for tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. Here’s what you can expect, so check back again and again: Another show! The view! New Pieces! New Setup! Working from home! Full time artist! Traveling Lecture on the History of Papercutting! And much more…

Our new space

2008-09-19T10:47:00.004-04:00

So we've been making improvements to our "studio" in our temporary living space. We'll be moving to our permanent place in the next couple weeks, but meanwhile check it out! Joe spent last weekend building this REALLY functional and REALLY beautiful storage unit. It's large enough to house all of his huge pieces of paper, mat board, cello bags, and even his finished unframed pieces! It's the cat's meow. Ha.

Also thought I'd share the cool bulliten board system we arranged. Each person who contacts us about commissioning a custom piece gets a post it note with their name and a description of what they'd like. Then as we progress through the stages of custom work their post it moves from the "Contact" board to "Design" then "Cutting" then "Shipping." I think it's a pretty ingenious way of staying organized. It's helped us get through this last crazy bout of custom orders.

Finally, Joe completed his weeks long dream of creating a map that identified each town he's sold art to. We started with a map of North America since so few sales are international, but it's really cool to be able to visualize all the cities in all the states (and territories) that he's sold original art. That's a lot of red dots. Maybe some day we can fill them all in!

And finally, a bit of good news- We have an appointment on Monday with a local gallery who is interested in featuring Joe's work, and may even want to do a solo show! We've got to talk it over so we're trying to stay calm, but we're hopeful that it will lead to good things

Christmas in September

2008-09-07T19:50:00.005-04:00

Ok, so even though most people would say "it's only September!" from a production standpoint it's more like "oh no! it's already September!" which basically means we need to make sure we've got appropriate inventory for those winter holidays.

We're not really sure what kind of demand there will be for art this holiday season. Last year we weren't as serious about getting art selling for Christmas, but lately we've been on a roll. Basically we're trying to make some new fun pieces, especially making sure we cover a broad price range.
One of our bigger pushes is creating tasteful ornaments/decorations. We're looking to find reasonably priced silver (at least silver plated) small squared frames, similar to those from crate and barrel or pottery barn. Then include classic winter papercutting designs, perhaps even on a colored background (either evergreen, cranberry, or blue)We'll keep you updated on Joe's designs for these, as well as the progress (and ultimate unveiling) of his new Maine themed pieces.

Oh yeah, and we finally made an offical listing for a "Custom House Papercutting" since these have become quite popular lately. So if you're in love with your house, your old house, or your friend's house, just send us a picture and Joe will creat a beautiful piece of art for you.
Enjoy!

Buy Local!

2008-08-26T17:25:00.005-04:00

With Joe recovering (but still working!) it's time to regroup and plan some more. We've been working hard to juggle the dozens of custom orders that have been flying in and are finally almost all caught up.

We're going to stop taking as many custom orders in the next week or two and focus instead on revamping the stock of readily available pieces. We've done a few photo shoots in the beautiful state of Maine (great to be back!) and Joe will be working on starting several new designs inspired by the coast/sea, Portland architecture, and the inland plants and trees.
We'd really like to appeal to the local art scene which is sooo vibrant in Joe's home town of South Portland. Practically every car supports a "buy local" sticker, and art is always one of the most popular local buys!

Also, keep a look out for a new PapercutsByJoe business card design and new business-card-like fridge magnets. Tons of things going on!

Rule #1 of Papercutting

2008-08-21T21:41:00.004-04:00

Rule #1 of Papercutting:

Cut the paper. Do NOT cut your hands.

We take time now to remember this important rule of papercutting. Joe had a bid of an accident while working on trimming shipping materials for his art and ended up needing stitches to attach his thumb. Yeah, not a fun way to start the working day! We'll keep you posted on how he's doing, but for now we leave you with this amusing picture of his sad boo-boo face.

Scherendoodle- Original Papercutting unfolded

2008-08-21T16:28:00.001-04:00

My first video of a quick folded papercut I did while still in Florida. Unveiling it for the first time! I'm thinking of doing snowflakes for charity this winter. Perhaps donating any money to cancer research. Sound good?

Souvenir

2008-08-05T10:26:00.003-04:00

So we were at Starbucks a few days ago, shocking I know, and I saw this cup and had to get it. It was on sale too! I figure since my very first show at a real museum was sponsered by starbucks, was about scooters, and I actually sold my piece this was pretty perfect. It holds tons of coffee too!

Strike up the band

2008-08-04T23:02:00.003-04:00

Thought I'd share one of the more recent custom pieces Joe has been working on. Most of the custom work lately has been for anniversaries and birthdays, but this piece was going to some of our former coworkers who just moved into a new house. They have a dedicated music room and aspirations of starting a band together. What better inspiration than a funky tryptech of a bassist, drummer, and pianist. There's a possibility that a guitar will someday follow, but for now it's these three energetic images which will inspire the three steadfast musicians.

More pieces to come later (I think there are currently four in the works...)

International Shipping!

2008-08-01T12:31:00.004-04:00

We now ship everything world wide, so please be sure to check out your favorite pieces to see the new revised shipping. Are you in Mexico? Canada? the UK? EVERYWHERE else? No problem! We'll get the art to you!Also, if you aren't on the mailing list, please check out the link to the right. We occasionally send out email updates telling you about events, new pieces, and discounts.

Scooter Piece

2008-07-28T10:54:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to share with you all the piece that I took to the Scooter show at the Tampa Museum of Art

It sold! In the first hour! It was tons of fun and not just because of the free gelato, coffee, and beer.

MORE CUSTOM!

2008-07-21T15:55:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone. I've sertainly been busy! Last friday I got laid off so now I can be even busier. I've had tons of really fun custom pieces recently and wanted to share some of them with you all:

Vinyl car decal!

2008-07-21T15:51:00.003-04:00

So now if you see a mazda 626 driving around somewhere between Florida and Maine with my website on the window, you know who it is:) Thanks again to fleanine at etsy (fleanine.etsy.com) for the custom vinyl decal. If you need anything for your car GO TO HER. She was the best and gave me tons of scraps to play with too!

Ready for my closeup!

2008-07-17T12:56:00.005-04:00

I just took a whole bunch of close up photos of the papercuttings so that people would be able to get a better sense of them when browsing online. It shows the texture a little better and also gives you a better idea of how much detail is in each tiny aspect of the pieces. Palais des Congres is featured above and the Arts and Crafts Wycinanki is featured below. All the pictures I added are together here on flickr, or you can check out some of the individual pages here on etsy. Let us know what you think!

Custom Custom Custom!

2008-07-13T10:49:00.011-04:00

It's been awhile since we've updated, but the since we've been gone the name of the game has been CUSTOM. Joe's been working like mad to fill requests for custom papercuttings- making them look just right for whatever occasion is needed. We've been out of town for work, but Joe brings a travel pack of papercutting supplies and works nights in our hotel room. Dedicated!

To help bolster this new focus on custom work, we've hired a professional web designer (in Brazil!) to create a fun and funky webpage especially targeted at custom work. Please check out the new webpage and let us know what you think!

www.papercutsbyjoe.com/custom

A new product/service Joe is adding is a custom sillhouette portrait for only $15 (!!) and a custom pet portrait for only $20 (!!). These inexpensive pieces will look like a million bucks when framed on your wall. Of course they are great gifts, but they are also truly thoughtful heirloom pieces. Joe just needs a picture to work with and you'll have your very own custom piece in the mail.

Examples on the left include a portrait of me (Jen), a self portrait of the artist (Joe), and a custom portrait of the new Bagley dog (McGreggor).

Let us know if you have any great ideas for custom pieces that you'd love to see Joe make!

Flyer for Kick Start my Art

2008-06-20T22:49:00.003-04:00

Well, the flyers are done! They'll be at a bunch of local starbucks and related businesses

Also, my piece is done, but I'm not unveiling it for a few more days because I need to get it custom framed. It's going to be real funky!

I hope some of you will be able to make it

Introducing: Branches

2008-06-15T08:48:00.003-04:00

Branches

7x16 papercut
11x20 matted

Original hand-cut papercut
I was going for a funky, fresh take on the traditional tree silhouette. I imagine this piece above a fire place, desk, or a calming piece in a bedroom. I hate doing the usual so hopefully this is achieves the goal of abstract, yet recognizable.

On sale now on Etsy

Work Space revealed

2008-06-14T09:12:00.002-04:00

Well, it's saturday morning, I'm bored, and we just got a new camera last night and I'm dying to take some cool photos.

SOoooo... I took a photo of my work space.

I'm in the middle of a new piece, It's a bunch of tree limbs at a funky angle cropped much wider than it is tall all just to look cool, abstract, and striking.

Otherwise, this is where i work. It's a cheap folding table from Target that is the perfect size for any of my three cutting mats, my computer, at least one cup of coffee at all times, and whatever random stuff that happens to accumulate there. As always there is a respectable pile of paper bits in various locations.

That's it. Take care

I am giving away THREE FREE $75 value anniversary Papercuts!!!

2008-06-09T20:27:00.003-04:00

I am giving away tree free 8x10 papercuttings to celebrate the first anniverary of my marriage. The pieces are valued at $75 each and the listing for the custom papercut can be seen here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11802845

As some of you know, the first anniversary is the “paper” anniversary.

Here’s the details

I will be giving away THREE free 8x10 papercutting.

-You must nominate yourself or someone else in a comment on this blog post

-You or the nominee must be having you first wedding anniversary some time in 2008

-You must provide your wedding anniversary date

-You must tell me why you love the person you married or why the couple you nominate deserve the piece.

-I will need a fairly large image of you or the couple, preferably in a profile.

***The best three responses will each get a free piece***

I will be notifying/announcing the winners on Sunday

It's done!

2008-06-09T19:46:00.004-04:00

Hi everyone,

I'm really happy to share this piece with you all. As stated earlier it's a papercutting of the tree Jen and I were married under exactly 51 weeks ago.

Here it is framed, and hanging in our bedroom. It's 34x18 so it's really huge!:)

Paper Anniversary

2008-06-07T11:30:00.002-04:00

The first wedding anniversary is traditionally a gift made of paper. Well, our own one year wedding anniversary is June 16 so Joe has designed a completely awesome papercutting for it. He's working on it as we speak, actually. We were married in the Boston Public Garden and the design is branches of the tree we got married under. The frame size is 34" wide and 18" high, so it will take up a large piece of our wall, and we're going to hang it in our bedroom has the "headboard" to our bed. It's looking beautiful- I'm so excited! Will post a picture when it's finished!
Here's a picture of us last year under that big beautiful tree. My older brother is the one in the center performing the ceremony. This photo was taken by the best wedding photographer ever, Rachel Hadiashar at Merge Weddings.

3D!!!

2008-06-01T11:44:00.002-04:00

Okay, you've seen the sketch, now here's the real thing:

I made a 3d version of the chandelier piece just to see how it would look. I really like it, but I need to work on the material since it's hard to cut because it's so thick.

I hope to make it in a variety of colors and materials since they are simple, easy to ship, and easy to put together. My intended use is some sort of simple centerpiece in smokey acryllic, or a decoration on a buffet for a fancy party or whatever. In Acryllic, it should be strong enough to put a plate on. In paper, you can attach things like actual crystals hanging below the "candels" or drape necklaces on it to make it sparkle. It's a lot of fun!

New store (?)

2008-05-31T21:49:00.002-04:00

We're thinking about opening a new online store that would feature home furnishing type products designed with papercutting in mind. Pretty sure that this should be sold in a different place than the wall art Joe currently makes in order to give each a consistent "feel." But of course, they would still be sold on etsy.com.

The new items we'd make could include
-screen printed pillows
-acrylic laser cut table-top sculptures
-cardstock/acrylic mobiles
-adhesive vinyl wall art

They would probably be in solid bold colors, not only Joe's signature black and white. I think it'll be fun to do sleek and contemporary peices, and also to have some more tangible products that people can engage with. Joe's really going to enjoy learning to make silk screens and cut vinyl.
These are two sketches of potential acrylic/paper 3D table-top sculptures that Joe has designed. The designs would each be cut out several times and set up to fan around their centerline, creating a 3D version.

Inspiration: Wycinanki

2008-05-24T15:16:00.010-04:00

I wanted to give an example of the international papercutting styles which inspire Joe's work. The Polish style of papercutting, Wycinanki, is a traditional folk art using hand cut paper layered to create vibrant and often colorful images. The first two images here are done by traditional Polish Papercutters, the last two are original pieces Joe created that were inspired by the traditional Polish style.Traditionally, these pieces were cut with sheep shears and often depict motifs such as roosters and floral patterns. The designs are often circular and were prominently displayed on furniture, in windows, or on barns.

Joe's interpretation of this traditional Polish style uses motifs inspired by the arts and crafts movement. He also use a circular design, and has experimented with layered colored paper. The following piece, Artichoke, is available here This modern American interpretation is still reminiscent of the Polish Wycinanki, but the use of different motifs and color palettes identifies it as a unique tradition. His interpretation featured below, depicts peacocks and is available here

Custom Wedding and Anniversary Papercutting

2008-05-20T19:25:00.005-04:00

Okay, June is wedding BONANZA month (we should know) so I wanted to make something for all of us crazy people who decide to join the masses (and pick a warm month) for the BIG DAY.

Ever notice I use parenthecies a lot?

Anyway, I have listed on etsy a new custom piece where I will design a special piece to celebrate your wedding. The piece will use either a traditional background (similar to Scherenschnitte or Wycinanki papercutting designs) or a sillhouette, or even an image of your wedding location (Note the bridge from the Public Garden in Boston where Jen and I got married last year). I will also incorporate your names, anniversary date, or a combination of two, or not---whatever you want, it's a custom piece!!!

ALSO, did you know that the your first anniversary is the "Paper" anniversary? Well, custom original hand-cut papercuts make a beautiful, heart-felt, original artwork gift that you know nobody has seen before or thought of themselves. Let everyone know!
We're designing a large piece for our first aniversary:) It's going to be awsome and I'll share it and all the symbolism behind it with y'all when it's done.

Save a tree:)

2008-05-18T13:05:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone,

I'm starting a program to help rectify some guilt I'm experiencing using so much paper. As of today and for all future sales, I will be donating $5 for every purchase over $50 and $10 for every purchase over $150 to the Arbor Foundation.

For every $10 donated, 2500 square feet of rainforest will be protected.

To purchase a piece, go to www.papercutsbyjoe.etsy.com

Thanks,
Joe

Alchemy is the greatest

2008-05-17T18:12:00.004-04:00

So at Etsy, there is this thing called "alchemy" where people post something like "I need an entire living room set made out of crayons" budget=$40 and people actually do it!

It's great fun really.

Anyway, there has been a bunch of posts recently for everything under the sun, but Ive been having soooo much fun reading through them and bidding on stuff. Papercutting is a pretty specific artform, and not too many people are like "Can I have a custom papercut for..." but some actually have! For the most part, I've had pretty good luck with my bids and many great leads.

Regardless, it's fun to put the sales person hat on for a few seconds and really try to sell my goods and talents to someone. It also helps when I'm in a rut and don't know what to make, I can have someone else make the hard decisions for me.

I just bid on a custom monogram for a wedding so cross your fingers everyone! I'll keep you updated

~Joe

Frank Lloyd Wright

2008-05-16T22:31:00.010-04:00

This week we had a chance to visit the Southern Florida College campus in Lakeland, FL which features 12 buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. He's most well known for his organic style of architecture which started the Prairie School of architecture.
Here we both are posing in front of one of his buildings and the newly renovated fountain (which they just turned off for the night! We missed it!!)

Just walking around it was hard to mistake which one's were designed by Wright- the unique style stands right out! These photos we took are a few examples of his genius and inspiration for thousands of artists.

New Schedule

2008-05-10T09:13:00.004-04:00

Hi everyone,

As some of you know, Jen and I are both professional archaeologist. We recently began working at an archaeological firm conducting surveys in areas where construction may disturb important archaeological and historic sites here in Florida. We started this Monday and boy was it a hot one!!! It's already in the 90's down here and we were usually in a cow field without any shade.

Anyway, just for proof (and because I think it's a really great shot of Jen) here's a photo of one of the biggest finds, a core used to make stone tools. We don't know really how old it is, but it is at least 400 years old and may be many thousands more. We really needed more artifacts to really get the date nailed down, but it was just a minor survey and didn't require major excavation yet.

In papercutting news, because of the new schedule, I will be making all shipments of pieces and products on the saturday after you purchase them. That is, if you buy something on Monday, it will be mailed the following Saturday. If you purchase something on Friday, It will be sent the next day. We live in hotels during the week so I will not be able to pack and ship anything until we get home on Friday nights, and everything will be shipped the next morning (Saturday).

Cheers,
Joe

SALE

2008-05-04T10:42:00.003-04:00

Hey guys, there's a huge sale going on at are shop right now, so if you've always been thinking about getting that one piece, now is a good time!

20% off many of the originals
Reduced shipping

Click here to check out the sale!

Introducing: Cypress

2008-05-02T13:23:00.004-04:00

Cypress

10x20 papercut
18x24 matted

A massive cypress tree located in a park near my apartment

Introducing: Peacocks

2008-05-02T13:18:00.004-04:00

Peacocks

16x16

Inspired by an 1899 Alexander Fisher Sconce

Introducing: Lanterns

2008-05-02T13:12:00.003-04:00

Lanterns

4x6 papercut
8x10 matted

A view of the amazing lanterns outside the Boston Public Library

:(

2008-04-25T16:16:00.003-04:00

So, it's 4:22 and guess where we should be... at an art show!

We were supposed to be going to a cool art night at a coffee shop in Riverview, FL (30 mins SE of us) and were really looking forward to it, but my car battery officially bit the dust. We tried for 20 mins to get it to start, but nothing. It's going to start at 5 and there's no way we'll make it now. Bummer!

I had been working my butt off too trying to get everything ready for it!

~Joe

Tampa Museum Of Art Gig

2008-04-21T15:40:00.003-04:00

I had a request this weekend to create a piece for a one-night show at the Tampa Museum of Art. This will be the first time one of my papercuts has been shown at a large museum! The show is called "Kick Start My Art" and features vintage scooters (vespas) and related art. I met a great couple, Suzie and Chad, at the Tampa Artist Emporium where Chad displays some of his awesome art a few feet from my display. They liked my style and medium and thought I'd be a good fit for the show they were curating. I already have an idea in mind for the design and I really can't wait to work on it. Need to finish another piece first, but there's plenty of time.

Show info:

Kick Start My Art

Friday, July 18

8-11pm

Tampa Museum of Art (Interum location)

Sponsered by Starbucks

http://www.myspace.com/kickstartmyart

Featured at Florida Craftsmen!!!

2008-04-21T09:23:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone,

This past saturday was really rough- I had a confrontation with a fellow artist at the Saturday Art Market who accused me of taking his spot (had no idea), then the first person to come to my display called my work "boring", "static", and declared that I "must not be able to make a living from this" and "the only people who would ever buy them would have to really like traditional stuff". Yeah, my work is SO traditional. If by traditional she means a traditional art form, then yes, papercutting is old... but so is painting...and sculpture, and drawing, and and and. My work is nothing like traditional papercutting! Anyway, the final straw was that half my display blew over breaking one piece (not damaging the papercut fortunately) and doing some nasty damage to my largest and most expensive piece's frame (which the display fell on). Going to need to replace both frames, but at least the cuttings survived and the nice UV protection glass on the large lighthouse piece remained intact. I called it quits for the day an hour into the show because I just didn't want to put up with it any more. I mean, that all happed in two hours, what else could happen?

I went to the Craftsmen Gallery, where my work was supposed to be hung by then, and to my surprise and delight after the rough morning, all four pieces were up and actually very prominently placed behind the register in the center of the gallery. I actually saw my pieces when I first entered the place and thought "oh, look they put up new stuff behind the register" before it really hit me that they were mostly my work:).

I took a REALLY crappy picture with my cell phone. The woman on the left (standing in front of my piece Iris) was really nice and is the assistant manager or something for the gallery. There is a huge glare, but the other three pieces are Brooklyn Bridge, Segrada Familia, and Chrysler. The place looks really empty in the photo, but there are tons of amazing pieces there (see photo Jen posted below).

Just Imagine...

2008-04-18T12:03:00.005-04:00

This is just too much fun! According to a survey that we conducted recently, most people were interested in hanging one of our framed papercuttings in their living room. Sooo... Here's your chance to see how they would look in "your" livingroom!
These pictures are setups used by Pottery Barn to show off their new Benjamin Moore paint colors (something else that we love) but they do a great job of showing how well these black and white originals match any existing decor! Too bad Pottery Barn doesn't really use our art for their photos- anyone know a rep. who'd be interested? (just kidding...)

Even when I start getting a little careless with my photoshop-ing you still can get the idea. They really do go with everything. I speak too from personal experience, since we've moved several times, and always have them hanging in our apartment (in Augusta Maine, Boston MA, and Tampa FL).

If there's anywhere else you'd like to see them (some people said bathroom...?? You realize it's paper though, right? sounds soggy...) just let me know and I'll throw another picture up so you can see.

From the Archive

2008-04-16T14:16:00.005-04:00

Just ran across this photo of Joe at work. Had to share! I love these pictures (not just becuase I took them...) because they make being an artist look so funky and cool. I wish I was that funky! I wish I was that cool! At any rate, I thought they'd be fun to share: it'll probably be as close as we get to an actual self portrait.

Also it's cool to see him actually cutting out all those pieces. Lots of people ask how he does it- almost like they don't believe that its' really cut from paper. People call them prints all the time. But no, they are each cut by hand. All of those tiny tiny pieces. All of that time. Crazy Joe!

New Website

2008-04-15T11:29:00.006-04:00

So now for the big reveal! Ok, maybe it's not that big of a reveal, but I did just want to mention that Joe's been working on getting the website up to speed. There's a new format that makes it more fun to browse around and looks a little more graphically interesting than the last website.

*****
New Website Link
*****

We're still going to add some links, Joe's bio, contact info, a pricelist, and a fairly detailed descirption of what papercutting is. If you guys think of anything else to add just let us know!

Personally I love the color choices Joe used- those deep yet warm colors that you'd love to have in your bedroom or living room. Very calming, but still moving. Does that make sense?

Completed

2008-04-10T20:59:00.009-04:00

The final installment of our Work in Progress Series, this is the framed, completed piece, now titled "Scroll" and listed on Etsy. Hope you enjoyed seeing the process from start to finish.

Here's a brief recap:

Gallery Number TWO!!

2008-04-06T18:06:00.005-04:00

We are delighted to share that Joe's work was just accepted into a second gallery! His work has been on display at the Tampa Artist Emporium in Downtown Tampa, and now it will be on display at the Downtown St. Petersburg Florida Craftsmen Gallery!
Here is a description of the gallery provided on their website:

"Florida Craftsmen, Inc. is Florida’s only state-wide non-profit organization representing thousands of Florida’s established and emerging fine craft artists. For fifty three years Florida Craftsmen has advanced and celebrate Florida’s fine crafts, in St. Petersburg and around the State, through exhibitions, workshops and educational programs. Our mission is to empower the artists, enrich the community and engage the next generation. We are Florida’s most important destination and primary authority for fine crafts. "

Joe's work will be available inside the retail gallery, for sale all through the week. Here is a sneak peak of the inside of the gallery