SW Craft Club: Paper Cutting at The Make Lounge

With only 2 weeks to go before Christmas, I thought I would treat myself to craft course, something relaxing and not to difficult. Lately I’ve been mesmerise by the work of Rob Ryan. If you don’t know his work, essentially he specialise in paper cutting, but over the last year it’s taken on a new commercial lease of life, with his work appearing on mugs, bags, plates, umbrellas and even as the cover of the Stylist magazine.
I think he is a true romantic, look out for him, his images are perfect for valentines day.. hint hint!

Source: google.co.uk via SWCraftClubLondon on Pinterest

It was quite apparent I was never going to produce a paper cutting image to the same stand as Rob Ryan in a 2.5hour class, but I’ve never tried paper cutting before, so I was keen to learn the basics. I couldn't find anywhere in south London which runs a course or workshop, so I booked onto an after work class at The Make Lounge in Islington.

The Make Lounge runs multiple classes during the evening and even though I loved my paper craft workshop I was getting craft envy for the lampshade making workshop going on in the next room, it may possibly be the next class on my to do list.

Our tutor was Suzy Taylor and her own work really does speak for itself, not only is she talented with a knife! she's also very, very patient, which for a workshop like this is a necessity, as our group worked at different levels, each person with a different style and she made time for each of us.

I found the Make Lounge welcoming and with groups for no more than 8 people it was just the right size workshop.

We started by learning some very basic techniques and searching through books for inspiration.

I think most people can pick this craft up easily and be good at it, you just need to be accurate, patient, have good attention to details and even if you aren't great a drawing or your imagination is taking a break, you can still trace images from books or magazines etc. As Suzy said ‘it’s a really inexpensive craft, all you need is a cutting board, scalpel and paper”

Here’s one I made earlier....