Lending a Hand

Last week I started a new gig helping out a fellow artist. La Grave Designs creates kaleidoscope art from digital pictures. Her art is so popular that she is finding it difficult to keep up with demand. She is still doing the creative part of her process, manipulating the digital photo into a kaleidoscope and selecting the portion to print out. Once copies of the image are printed, I follow her instructions to cut out various layers and then stack them using foam tape squares. Check out her website for more details on the process and to see examples of the finished framed pieces of art.

The Dahlia. My first try made with guidance from the artist. It is more than just using scissors. There were lots of little tricks and tips she gave me as I was working on this first one. Cutting in a certain direction, how you hold the scissors, the type of scissors, moving the piece and not your hand and on and on. I have since improved greatly. This one I will keep as my guide for future dahlias.

 Each layer is stacked on small sticky foam squares. They reminded me of stale marshmallows!

I cleared off a small space on one of the work tables in my studio. Light was really important for me to cut accurately. I finished all my dahlias and today I am going over to the artists house to stack all of the pieces she cut out over the weekend. Our goal is to have her well stocked for this coming weekends Bellevue Art Fair!