I wish I had a way with words like Elsita Mora. I wrote about her new papercut blog a couple of days ago (here). She has such a wonderful, excitable and almost childlike way of expressing herself... just gorgeous.
Here's what she wrote today about sharing her love for the art of papercutting:
I have just fallen in love with the world of papercutting as I said before and my mission is to pass that love to you. Think about getting a cake for your birthday, it is always much more fun when you share that cake with friends and relatives in a big party. I can say that the wonderful world of papercutting is my special cake and it doesn't make any sense to keep it for myself. I want to have a year-round papercut party with you from my new blog. I promise you that we're going to have lots of fun! :)
Visit The Heart of Papercuts here.
I wish I had a way with words
10 things I'd rather be doing this afternoon
In no particular order:
1. I'd rather be curled up under the doona with a stack of magazines and a cup of ginger tea
2. I'd rather be creating something just because I want to
3. I'd rather behaving a yummy lunch at Longrain with Stuart or some girlfriends
4. I'd rather be doing the harbourside walk from Spit Bridge to Manly
5. I'd rather be comfortable on the lounge with my laptop cruising around the internet
6. I'd rather be packing for an overseas holiday
7. I'd rather be spending all afternoon browsing the shelves of Kinokuniya
8. I'd rather be gallery hopping
9. I'd rather be shopping (with lots of cash)
10. I'd rather be doing something special with Roxy
But instead I am:
1. paying bills
2. sorting paperwork
3. tidying up my studio/office
4. trying to sort out a problem with my external hard drive, which contains all my backed up work. Yikes!
5. PROCRASTINATING! (that's obvious, isn't it?)... and um I have to admit, I'm reading blogs. I shouldn't be, but I just can't help myself.
Inspiration: Teri Howes
How cool is this? English jeweller Teri Howes knits and crochets her pieces from metal. She says: The individually repeated stitches become both the delicately intricate structure and the sumptuously glamourous embellishment. This is a ‘low-tech’ production method, a gentle, quiet rebellion against todays’ culture of ‘instant everything’.
You can check out more of Teri's work on her website here.
A new blog to add to my favourites list
Yesterday when I received an email update from Elsa (Elsita) Mora, one of my favourite bloggers, I was excited to learn she now has a second blog. Elsita is a full time artist and one of the most creative and multi-talented women you could imagine. She is originally from Cuba but now lives in Los Angeles where she creates everything from ceramics to jewellery, illustration and papercutting. She even designed and made (and embroidered) the dress she wore to accompany her film producer husband to the Oscars!
Elista has a wonderful way of viewing the world and her posts are a delight to read, and of course to see, as they are accompanied by her beautiful artwork. She uses her art to engage and teach her children, and is always doing projects with them or making things for them. More than anyone I have seen, she seems to truly live and breathe her art. One of the most inspiring things she has done is the blank book project. Over a period of 2 weeks Elsita, her mother Margo and her daughter Natalie collaborated on a visual diary, creating a few pages every day. The diary is a not only a record of Margo's visit, but it's also a lovely visual dialogue between the three generations of women, and something I'm sure Natalie will cherish. Here is Elsita's explanation of the first thing they completed together:
And here is the beginning of our first project!!! I draw 9 circles on three sheets of paper; one for my Mom, one for Natalie and one for myself. The idea was to create characters using the circles as their heads. With this little creative "exercise" we wanted to teach Natalie how people express their personalities in different ways. If we give sheets of paper with 9 circles for creating characters to 1 million people we would get millions of different characters and that's the beauty of diversity. Imagine how sad it would be if we all did things in the same way or if we all had the same ideas. We think that it is important for children (and adults) to understand that every person is unique and that is a good thing that we should celebrate.
You can see the characters here.
But I digress!... Elsita's new blog documents her latest passion for papercutting. Her gorgeous imagery and the incredible detail of her delicate and intricate papercuts blow me away. She has complied a huge list of papercutting resources including reference books, etsy stores, papercut artists, videos, tutorials, articles, and supplies. You can visit The Heart of Papercuts here... I think I need at least a whole day to just scratch the surface of all that info and those links.
Image Source: Elsa Mora
