Mermaid Friends - Kirigami Heart

Sculpture Fest

Although I'm still playing with the tea bags (in fact sewing together a quilt), I have begun to work on a sculpture for the Fest which will be held in Woodstock throughout the fall. I need to get it finished within the next few weeks so began in earnest today.

The theme of the show is "Water" and the concept behind my as yet untitled piece is the idea of watering flowers. I will suspend an old galvanized watering can from a high tree limb so it hangs in pouring position over a set of rather abstract flowers, also made of old metal.

I had some great luck finding old household kitchen odds and ends at a church fair a week ago and have begun experimenting with manipulating them for the piece. It will be challenging to figure out how to make it all stick together, but I'm sure something will work. Here are the metal parts I have to start with.

Love in a Garden

This new hand-cut kirigami oval is a delicate bifold - a two movie creation. This bifold papercutting depicts two friends (or lovers) hoding a flower in a garden with delicate branches forming a bower overhead. You can find this and other papercuttings in my Etsy shop for kirigami here.

Tea Dreams

I finished a piece just in time to enter it in AVA's Summer Juried Show last week. I called it Tea Dreams because the tea bags reminded me of pillows (figure that.....maybe I have been on this project too long!).


I was very pleased to hear today that it made it into the show. It will be interesting to see how they manage to hang it as I've attached some fish line filament to the back so it can sort of dangle. Hopefully it will work!

Puppet Masters: Large Kirigami Papercutting

This is my newest kirigami papercutting. It is a combination cut: the outer edge is a multi fold while the inner area is a bifold. This is a hand-cut, one of a kind creation. You can see this commission and others like it in my Etsy shop: www.EmerlyeArtsKirigami.Etsy.com

My Newest Logo Design

I've finished a logo design for the sweet Australian sheep farm. On my personal art blog here I've posted 12 little articles on the steps I went through to create this design. Of all the versions I presented, my clients wisely chose Version 3 for their primary design.


with version 5 as their alternate.


My creation will soon be out in the world. What more can an artist want?

Cow Takes a Turn

I was creating a post for my food blog and I needed a new image for it.

I created this whimsical, green cow with a watercolor painting and photoshop.

Hot in Vermont

The piece I was working on last week is almost finished. Sewing the bags onto the plastic backing is time consuming and often I need to reposition pieces, but I'm happy with how it is evolving. I am planning at the moment to enter it into AVA's juried show next week.


Meanwhile I had some fun creating a book with tea papers for pages. I collaged the cover with Lipton labels...will have to think of a clever title that refers to reading tea leaves. It's hot here, as it is in the rest of the east, so my thoughts are often centered on staying cool and I'm working more slowly. Ah, summer!

A Wedding Gift of Kirigami

This is a large combination-cut mandala ready to frame against any color. The outer edge is a multi-fold while the inner circle is a bifold. I can't talk about all the rich symbolism in this kirigami papercut, lest I give away whom it is for.

This cutting took me much longer than I had anticipated - about 7 hours - so it's a good thing I was listening to an audio book! It was an incredibly hot day and I had the fan on, which kept blowing the little pieces of cut paper around the room! Occasionally, the cat, who also wanted to be where it was cool, would sit on my legs and watch me cut this. I was terrified that when the paper fluttered, she might take a swipe at it and tear the delicate creation to pieces. Fortunately, for once, she was well behaved.