Stencil Terminology

Stencil technique in visual art is referred to as pochoir, e.g. Banksy.  When a paper-cut, stencil-like image is the artwork itself, it's known as scherenschnitte (scizzor-cut).  It's kirigami (paper-cut) when the cutwork is symmetrical, as in a paper snowflake. (Although I've seen asymmetrical kirigami.) Cutwork is usually used for the effect on fabrics, I've seen the term applied to jewelry also.  Openwork is a term I've seen used for jewelry and crochet. I have been using cutwork mesh up to this point for my work.  But the 3D animation folks are also using mesh. To be honest, right now I don't know what I should call my work.

When I design a cutwork mesh the challenge is to make the bridges the right size.  If the mesh is to do a job like hold a bar of soap, it has to have robust enough bridges, while still letting in lots of air so that the soap can dry out well.  If I design at one scale and then try to shrink the design, the bridges shrink, too, so I have to keep aware of what's happening. I make a test cut and see which bridges are problematic, then adjust the elements accordingly in Illustrator to make bigger bridges, or smaller holes. 2 mm or about 1/16" is about as small as I want a bridge to be.

I don't just design on Adobe Illustrator, sometimes I use TouchDraw on the iPad to design meshes. With TouchDraw, I mail the drawing file as a pdf which I can email to my main computer put it on a thumb drive and take it via sneakernet to my other PC which has Illustrator on it.  From Illustrator I export an SVG file which is the file format for Sure Cuts A Lot.  Sometimes I sing the Madelina Catelina song and juggle a few oranges while I'm at it.

Cutwork Notebooks

These cutwork notebook covers work like jackets for the coil notebook inside. When the notebook is filled up, it can be swapped out for another notebook.

The other feature of these notebooks is that you can change the color of the insert by flipping it around to the white side. Two looks for one!

I was able to use some of the same mesh files that I have designed for the soap bags. It is nice when files can be reused, all that hard work can go towards another purpose.

They are sewn on an industrial walking foot machine, and I make sure that the top thread is on the outside for the nicest effect. I'm looking forward to the reaction these will get when I show them at this weekend's craft show.

The flyer didn't have the address, it is 1919 79 Ave SE Calgary, in Ogden. At this show I will have a ton of soap bags, wallets and notebooks that aren't currently listed on either of my online shops.

Inspiration for cut-work patterns

I went to the library today and sketched some patterns which might work for the cut work patterns I use on my soap totes. (Soap totes are like a hanging soap dish). These were from a book called "1000 Patterns," by Drusilla Cole. I drew them using Sketchbook Pro on the iPad.

Valentine's Soap Totes

Here are a couple of Valentine-themed soap totes. I'm not sure if the heart-shaped one is as successful as the traditional shape.

Expandable mesh in billboard vinyl

I have been designing different mesh patterns for my soap totes. I decided to create an expandable mesh using cuts designed in Adobe Illustrator, then cut with Sure Cuts a Lot and the Cricut Expressions machine. its a real simple cut pattern as you can see, and it produces diamond-shaped holes.

I am enthusiastic about the possibilities, from garden fencing to bags, to oversized-soap-bar totes. I wrapped the sample around an applesauce jar jusst to see what would happen. A bunch of this mesh would be good for packing or storing glassware, and it itself does not take up much space when not in use, and is reusable. Better than wrapping stuff in newspaper, IMHO.

Reinterpreting a Design

I decided to revisit the original soap tote design and replace the mesh with a mesh that was inspired by the shirt that Rachel Ray was wearing on her show a few days ago. This is just a prototype but the gist of the design is there. The position of the design elements needs reworking, for sure. What was I thinking?

Anyway, there's much less sewing on this design and no zipper so it goes together much faster. I'm going to make a bunch of these and market them at local craft fairs in June.

Sorry for the blurry photo, my husband has the proper camera.