About me

I am an artist who specialises in papercraft and paper cutting with an emphasis on place and the importance of belonging. A lot of my work has a nostalgic feel with an aim to evoke memories and fondness of a place and our past.

 

Having been born in Stoke-On-Trent, lived in Nottingham for 20 years and now Sheffield for the past 8 years my work is heavily influenced by the strong industrial heritages of these special places; pottery, lace making and steel manufacturing are regular muses for a lot of my work. 

 

I have worked in architecture for over 20 years and I am interested on how industrial pasts have shaped our cities. I have a series exploring building facades both here and gone. By using paper I use traditional paper cutting techniques to explore the rhythm and pattern in façade design but also capturing the layering and depth of elevations with the use of superimposition; overlaying multiple cut sheets of paper and card. My experience in architecture has given me a good eye for detail, what makes a balanced composition as well as colour combinations that can enhance my work. 

 

I try to capture the essence of the architecture, industrial past or natural characteristics of my subject through both the careful choice of paper, style of papercraft and paper cutting techniques employed. The paper is often hand painted particularly in the Made in Sheffield series where a stippling effect is used to replicate rusty steel to evoke age and a dwindling industry. In contrast to the rust effect, for the ‘Made in Potteries’ series I use a very flat matte paint applied very smoothly to replicate the very lustreless and flawless ceramic of Wedgwood ware. The delicate characteristics of wildflowers, ferns, seed heads found locally in the Peaks are best represented in fine paper hand cuts and floated in frames where you see the fragility, the negative spaces and pattern within natural forms. 

 

All my work is drawn and composed by me digitally and then digitally knife cut before all fine detail is added by hand using a scalpel.

 

I have a range of works from framed layered paper scenes and building facades, paper engineered items such as sardine cans, lobsters and highland cows, delicate framed papercuts and a series of papercut cards. 

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I have also started combining my paper cuts with cynatography which has produced some unique effects for cards.