Isagra Naglia

We've got this little intern at our work, her name is Montana, and the other day she said, "You need to make me a papercut." Generally I don't succumb to demands like that and need a little bit more sweet-talking but since she was so blunt about it, I was a little taken aback. "What do you want?" I heard myself say. "A fairy. A fairy blowing on one of those puff things." I don't know if she actually said a puff thing, but that's what I heard. I made a different fairy a while back, more of an Arthur Rackham fairy, but changed it this week. I like this fairy better. Not to say that Arthur Rackham fairies are bad, because they aren't, they are beautiful. So anyway, I used to draw fairies a lot when I was a teenager, but my college professors shamed it out of me, so this is a nice "poo on you" to them.

Download your free papercutting template here: Fairy

I had a busy weekend this last week. It was filled with wonderful, fun things. Sometimes things don't turn out like you want them to though. That was the inspiration for this cut, the beauties of life being the fragile bubbles and the popped one the disappointments. But just because there are disappointments doesn't mean you should stop blowing bubbles.

Here's what the template will look like. The thin lines are tricky. On the loopy parts, cut the insides out first and then cut out the line. Cut from left to right, unless you're left handed. Also, I find it best to cut the intersecting parts, like the part where the lines meet the bubbles, going from the corners out.

Here's the free papercut template: Bubbles

I've got a set of new cards up on my Etsy site! I'm really pleased with these. They are quotes from the great Charlie Sheen and are so versatile. You can use them for enemies, for friends AND as thank you cards. They are prints based off of my cutout for the Blonde Grizzly show.

Size: A2 (5.5" x 4.25")
Printed on French's Kraft Cover paper with black ink.
Black Envelopes.

About a year ago, my friend Marie commissioned me to do a papercut for her. She didn't have anything in mind at that time but she knew she wanted me to do something. Eventually she settled on something from Jabberwocky, a poem found in the Alice in Wonderland books. What she had wanted was for me to illustrate just the first stanza:

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

For some reason my listening skills were not up to snuff and I just thought she wanted me to illustrate the whole poem itself. This threw me for a loop. I had never really been into the Alice stories, although some of my best pieces have come from Lewis Carroll's mind. There's not really a description of the Jabberwocky itself, except that he has eyes of flame. So I spent the whole year fretting about what the Jabberwocky looked like and I couldn't imagine it. So last month I just sat down and got to work. Sometimes that's just what you have to do, you have to sit down and work and stop freaking out about things. And it took a while, but I finished it. I'm quite pleased with the results. Here is my papercut of the Jabberwocky, complete with toves, borogoves and mome raths:



What does the Jabberwocky look like to you? Here's the poem if you're not familiar.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.