Thursday, July 16, 2009

Tools of the Trade

A couple of people have asked me recently about the tools I use for snipping and how I plan the pieces.

Mostly I use fadeless black paper that is white on the back. For cutting I use X-acto knives and scissors with tiny tips. When I use the X-acto knife, I cut the work on a self-healing mat.


When I first started snipping years ago, I used cuticule scissors and embroidery scissors. They worked as well as what I am using now.


When I cut this snip:

this was how I worked.

I did a couple of thumbnail sketches in my sketchbook. Basically I had an idea in my head, but I was afraid I was going to make it too busy. When I sketched it I could see right away that my idea was indeed too cluttered.

Then I roughly sketched the idea on the back of the fadeless paper. From there I cut with the scissors and the X-acto knife.

When I'm done, I mount the pieces on watercolor paper, as it is stiff and has a nice texture.

You can see that I did this snip sitting at a picnic table. Normally I work in my studio, but I did this snip while we were vacationing in West Virginia.

The "traffic" going by my outdoors studio was steady, but they didn't stick around long.


I'm not sure what scared them off.

3 comments:

Little Ol' Liz said...

I love how you've marked your good snipping scissors. That's so necessary if you live with another human being.

I have my cloth scissors padlocked. No kidding!

Julie said...

Thanks for showing us your technique! I want to learn how, but it seems so complex! I am also watching a few YouTube videos which is great to kinda see how also! Your work is so precise and I just love it all! I wanted to show all of the ATC makers on my blog what you do, and they seem to love it as well. It is so unique as an ATC...and I also like to make cards, and this is just beautiful. It has been eye opening to come across your blog...Thanks!!!

Unknown said...

LOL at final piccie. Very interesting to see what you use, the mat is the same as quilters use.