4 Apples of my Eyes

Papercutting Feast

RaShell — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:16:23 +0000

Papercutting is an interesting artistic endeavor. It’s part art, definitely a craft (which involves a VERY steady hand and some skill with a very sharp knife and flimsy paper) and lots of inspiration. I love-love-love doing papercutting. There are various traditional styles of papercutting, from the chinese on tissue thin paper, eastern european folk cuttings, jewish festive masterpieces and the list can go on and on.
The art of papercutting not only survived the test of time but evolved with technology and now includes mass-produced lasercut pieces. I suspect they do start out as hand-cuts or at least hand-drawings anyways, but my heart still belongs to the honest to goodness hand-cut one-of-a-kinds. There’s just something very special in them.
Some of my favorite papercutters include:
Elsita, super talented artist, papercutter, blogger and so much else, who even has a blog dedicated entirely to heArt of Papercutting:

…and offers “make-your-own” papercutting patterns in her shop) @ Etsy.

Site • Blog • Shop
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Julene (thanks to CreativeCurio for reminding me about these):

Site • Blog • Shop
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Book by the Cover wrote a lovely article about book of Jewish papercuts.
But I’d like to introduce you to my own favorite, all the way from Jerusalem, Archie Granot :

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Etsy, as usual, has some wonderful examples for me to share.
Absolutely stunning, both traditional and contemporary style papercuts in PaperCutDieCut shop:

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Different style, also on Etsy, TinaTarnoff:

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Last, but not least, Fog and Thistle – Different application for papercuts:

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And finally, my own. I do mine free-hand. I sketch on the back and then cut “live”. I even try to “recycle” the scraps that come out of it for sort of a “negative” papercut:

Enjoy.

Strawberry Fields

RaShell — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:28:20 +0000

The most amazing harvest of wild (although they grow in my backyard garden) strawberries. Doesn’t it just make your mouth water?

How’s Life in My Universe?

RaShell — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:56:16 +0000

I’m glad you asked…
Life’s good. I’m getting ready to “come out of the closet” so to speak about this very blog.
Watched kind of uninspiring Season 2 Finale of True Blood on HBO

and a very inspiring 3rd Trailer for New Moon on MTV:

Did some drawing, soccer-mommying, eating, drinking, exercising, reading.
Put together 3 New Moon inspired necklaces, all for “Team Jacob”. For some reason, the clips for the upcoming Twilight sequel is awakening some kind of tender ~~motherly~~ feelings towards the wolf-boy. He just comes across as so innocently passionate and lovable, you just can’t help liking him:

I’m also working on a totally different project – a custom made Ketubah (wedding contract in Judaism). I will show a “sneak peek” of it as soon as I get it printed and start decorating it.
As I said, no complaints about life in my universe

Doodling back to School

RaShell — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:13:47 +0000

Adorable doodle sets, available for download by generous and talented Allonzo Inc.

It’s a doll’s world. Out there.

RaShell — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:19:53 +0000

Confession #1. I do read a lot of YA “literature”. Not that there’s something wrong with it… And I am young… adult. Perhaps not as much as it’s implied in this category, but who’s to judge? It’s fun, it’s creative and it makes me think of unusual images, characters and worlds. So what that it’s usually no literary masterpieces, right?

Anyhow. Recently I happened to read a lot of Faery stuff. Not on purpose, it just worked out that way. So in this dark, mysterious world there live (forever, mind you although they do seem to kill each other all the time ) these gorgeous creatures. Some are described in such painstaking detail and with such love that my hand is just itching to start drawing them… But until then, I saw these dolls that are so un/realistically (depending on how you look at it)… pretty and mesmerizing, they look like they just jumped off the pages of Wicked Lovely or Tithe. To my “wizened” eye they look a tad infantile and too androgynous (for my taste), but I’m certainly no expert in faeries. Made by a Korean company, clearly catering to anime-lovers. I think their pricey dolls are quite an eye candy, at the very least.

Dream of Doll:

Welcome to Apples of My Eyes

RaShell — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:03:30 +0000

Welcome to my new Blog – Apples of My Eyes! In the last year and a half over @Doodlage, I made a lot of friends and acquaintances, found a ton of inspiration on other blogs and sites and learned a lot. Even though my Doodlage-ing times have come to an end, I still have a lot of things to share, show and write about.

The name of my blog came from the fact that I am a very visual person, get easily excited by pretty/well designed/unusual things. I have always been fascinated with eyes, and in my artwork, eyes are usually the first thing to appear on the clean fresh piece of paper. Apples in the name are partially due to my unhealthy obsession with all things Twilight, pluse there’s also a hint to the fact that I am a Graphic Designer by day, thus part of the Apple-Machintosh “cult” Together, Apple+Eye make a popular saying, but since I can’t pick only one Apple to be in my Eye, you can fully expect at least 4 major themes being explored in this blog:

DOODLES – Can’t get away from them completely, can I? If you’ve “met” me before, you know that I put all kinds of fun things into this category. From “classic” scribbles on the margines of your notes, to animation, interior design, graffiti and beyond.
BOOKS – I read a lot. I don’t write fiction myself, but certainly love to muse about somebody else’s writing.
DESIGN – I go “cool hunting” on the web probably more than I should So, I’ll share.
CRAFTS – I’m very active in the wonderful Handmade Community that is ETSY. I made a lot of friends over there as well, and discovered their various talents. I will happily promote, review and rave about my new and old Etsy finds (related, or not, to the above categories).

Until I finish making a CONTACT page for this blog, you can reach me with your ideas, links, feedback and/or business propositions through email {AppleEyeBlog a t comcast d o t net} and also on TWITTER.
My ETSY stores are DOODLAGE.ETSY.COM and TWIMOM.ETSY.COM