Paper Panda Competition

So I entered a papercutting competition that the fabulous Paper Panda (Louise Firchau) created for her Panda trainees. Somehow I won! There were some brilliant entries (which you can see at  Paper Panda 's blog) so I was very surprised to have won! The brief was to produce a papercut inspired by a favourite song.

This papercut was the third ever one that I have attempted! I chose the song 'Without You I'm Nothing' by Placebo. There is a particular line in the song 'You grow me like an evergreen' that really reminds me of a mother's love. My mother's love for me and the love I have for my own daughter. I wanted to produce a papercut that was from one piece of paper and told a story (I suppose my illustration and storytelling skills came into play here). I love animals so it was inevitable there was going to be an animal in this piece- I chose a bird. So we follow mother bird as she appears to be growing a tree-which we eventually discover has been grown for her baby birds. I designed my papercut by hand which I then tweaked on Photoshop. I then flipped the design and printed it, which I then cut. I have designed and cut freehand and as I went on my first and second attempts at papercutting, but I found this process much easier.

Have a look and see what you think. Please have a look at Paper Panda's blogspot (http://originalpaperpanda.blogspot.co.uk) -her work is truly amazing and inspired me into taking up papercutting as a hobby (while the baby sleeps!) I enjoy it so much-love the added challenge of creating a design that works and doesn't fall apart!