Craftboston

I was recently accepted into the 2011 Craftboston, the premiere exhibition and sale of contemporary craft in New England!
I've been busily preparing for the show designing and creating a brand new set of designs that will be revealed at the show. These pieces are hands-down my most challenging pieces and I'm really excited with the designs. Currently, there are 9 completed designs and three have been cut. I'm working on the fourth. There are three branch designs, three architecture designs, and three Maine-inspired designs.


I wanted to share some in-progress shots with you all as a thank you for following my journey. I'm keeping the full images of the designs as a facebook exclusive, so to see the entire finished piece, head over to my facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/papercutsbyjoe

I'm really proud of these pieces, and my goal is to completely blow the minds of the visitors to my booth. This is my first time at this show, and I'll be surrounded by some of the greatest craftsmen in the country, so I'm bringing my "A" game.

Other Branch designs currently available in my Etsy shop

If you are interested in coming to the show, please do! Below is the information for the show:

CRAFTBOSTON • Spring
Featuring 200 Contemporary Craft Artists
World Trade Center, Boston
March 25-27, 2011

Critters!

Nothing like a trip to the museum to get inspired. I'm always worried that I'll never have another good idea. I think we all fear that sometimes. Jen and I recently took the trek across Boston by train to the quaint college town of Cambridge, home of a little university called Harvard. Heard of it?

My beetle design, which is based on a photo I took of a massive beetle we found in a park in Iowa, was quite successful, so I thought it would be fun to do some more bug and critter-based designs. I wanted to have a bit more masculine touch to my newer designs to balance all the cute stuff. That and I really wanted to hang some bugs on my wall until they sold.

Well, next time you visit, skip the Yah'd, and head straight to the Harvard Peabody Museum. Okay, fine, you need to walk across the Yard to get there, but don't pay attention to it, it gets enough press.
Since 1866 this museum has been one of the greatest institution for natural history and archaeology in the WORLD. The archaeological collections are close to my heart, and Jen and I got to take an incredible behind-the-scene tour of their storage facility when we took an archaeological collections course at Boston University; however, this trip was for the bugs. And bird, and snakes, and fish, and beasts.



We left full of ideas for new designs, and I quickly got to work creating some Natural History inspired pieces. I still have about 12 more that are designed and need to be cut, but things are getting busy so they may be a while before they are released. In the mean time, enjoy the first batch!

Here's the rest of them: http://www.etsy.com/shop/papercutsbyjoe?section_id=7401476

Gearing up for Art in the Park

One week away!

Please join me if you can this Saturday, the 14th in South Portland, ME's Mill Creek Park for the 31st annual Art in the Park!

I'll be showing 75 pieces, about 35 of which are framed, the others are unframed, and very inexpensive. Figured I'd bring a bunch of pieces people can easily carry away, and a couple really WOW pieces for those with deeper pockets.

This is one of my most successful shows, and I've got high goals this year (bringing over $6k worth of merchandise).

Here's the tent plan so you know what to look for when you get there. Had a blast making this, and it really helps me relax to know I've essentially got a map once I get there.

Art Show Tips

I was just accepted into the Boston Arts Festival 2010 for the second year in a row (yay me!) and I really should be working on stuff for the Acquire show, but I remembered I wanted to post something here, and I'm a huge procrastinator. Anyway, here's some tips from a guy who does his fair share of art shows and has come home with his Boston rent several times.

1. Don't stand in your tent (with one exception below), sitting is much less intimidating to a buyer who may be timid about entering your tent. I personally get intimidated when feeling like the artist is going to pounce on me when I enter their tent. And don't stand outside your tent in a chair like you're a director or a gate attendant. Seriously, don't.

2. Do your art while you're sitting there. Don't care what it is. I was cutting paper in my notebook just to look busy. Again, it makes you look distracted and people will go into your tent thinking they won't be watched. Plus they always love to watch you do your art and I've looked up once while being a bit too intent on what I was doing and literally had five people watching me just as intently. Actually jumped and everyone thought it was funny. ha ha. ALWAYS look up to say hi with a smile when they come in and immediately look away and let them do their thing. If they stay for more than 10 seconds, then say something like "everything is hand-cut from a single sheet of black paper" (for example). If they don't respond, go back to work, if they do respond, then become mr/mrs personality and have a nice chat, they're now officially a customer.

3. When talking to someone, stay seated, it makes them feel comfortable. Only stand to go to a piece or hand them something. Again, you want your potential customers to not feel intimidated or pressured. Give them the upper hand. When they indicate they are planning to buy, then stand up, it give them the idea that you are now engaged fully, confident, and ready for business.

4. Here's my best tip- If nobody is going into your tent, become a customer. Jen and I are always together at these shows and if nobody is in the tent, we get up and start walking around our tent like customers viewing pieces, talking about which one is our favorite, and deciding if we should arrange pieces in the tent. People will see you and think you're a browser and automatically wonder what you are looking at and go in themselves. It works EVERY time. Ever notice how the more people there are in your tent, the more people want to be in your tent? The biggest turnoff from a browser is an empty tent. Once you get someone in your tent, casually go back to your chair, say hi, and go back to work ignoring them and letting they enjoy the art.


Couple bonus ones that I just remembered- bring flowers and decorate your tent. Makes you look so freaking prepared you actually thought to bring plants. Insta-Pro. I'll add more as we remember them.

Hopefully this is helpful!

ACQUIRE show opening invite

Hi everyone!

My Acquire show in Boston will be opening next Thursday, the 17th with an opening night party from 6-9. You are ALL invited, and I hope a few of you can make it! If not, the show stays up through August, but I can't guarantee everything won't sell opening night:)

Here's the flier with all the info:

Major Announcement

Hi everyone,

So the big announcement here is that I will no longer be offering custom silhouettes via my website, etsy, and any other venue. I will be finishing all requests received recently, and will be making arrangements with several clients with whom I have long-term multi-piece orders and projects.

As this business has grown, and grown in ways that has surprised no one more than myself, I have had opportunities to show my non-custom work at galleries and museums across the country. The 2010 list includes Terminal 22, High Wire Arts, and future shows at ACQUIRE Boutique, Westmoreland Museum of American Art, and The Wilson Gallery so far.

The custom silhouettes have become incredibly popular, and the attention given to my work from sites and folk from around the world has been amazing. Unfortunately, the popularity of these has resulted in absolutely no time to create any new non-custom art. I would love to continue to push myself and the envelope further exploring new ideas for this ever more popular medium, and to cut some of the exciting design ideas I’ve had floating around in my head.

I have removed all custom listings from my etsy store, and will create new listings for those current customers who have put in requests for designs.

With this increase in “free time” I will be unveiling a new and exciting body of work, and I expect my etsy shop to grow dramatically in the coming weeks. This is by no means an end, but a beginning. Most importantly, I am excited about my art in a way that I have not felt for months, and I hope this shows in my new work. Some of these new pieces as well as many others already in my shop will be around the price of my custom silhouettes ($55), and I encourage anyone interested in paper anniversary gifts to consider my entire body of work, every single piece of which is made of paper.

Again, I am truly excited to make this announcement. I hope these new pieces will help bring both my artwork and my art career to places I believe I’m ready to go.

Thank you all for your understanding and support, and for everyone who has purchased a custom silhouette from me, I cannot express the gratitude I have for your interest and support, and I hope you continue to follow my journey, experiments, adventure-- whatever you want to call it. Regardless it will be awesome!

~Joe Bagley (Joe)

Hanging with the cool kids

Working from home can get lonely, so against all odds I've become a frequent user of Twitter, facebook, and online forums.

(By the way, you can be come a "fan" of my art on Facebook here, or follow me on Twitter here)

I've meet some truly incredible people along the way and it seems like in the past week they have accomplished some amazing things, so I thought I'd share with you all some of my friend's do wellings:

Liz over at Madeinlowell, creator of awesomeness, will be on the Martha Stewart show TODAY showing us all how to create her awesome eggs, which I am proud to say I have one hanging in my living room right now:)

Friend and fellow papercutter in the UK, mrYen, was commissioned to create some original paper art for a short stop-motion film by the same folk who created the awesome Amazon Kindle Commercials:

You can purchase the whales he created for the movie on his etsy site here:

And finally UK Illustrator Extraordinaire Natasha Newton was asked to have her original paintings adorn the covers of the latest edition of Jorge Bucay's books. You can purchase prints of the piece in her awesome etsy shop here:

On top of all that two of my teammates on the Full Time Etsy Crafters were approached by Real Simple Magazine and Oprah Magazine, but since that isn't a done deal yet, I don't want to spoil it for them, but still awesome!

I'm so happy for all of them!

Guild of American Papercutters

You are now reading the blog of the newest member of the Guild of American Papercutters Board of Directors, the largest organization of papercutters in the western hemisphere.

I received word of my nomiation from Marie-Helene Grabmanm, the president of the Guild, about a week ago and just heard last night of my unanimous acceptance onto the board.

I very much look forward to being an active participant in the Guild's growth and I am truly honored and flabbergasted that I was even considered!

To find out more about the GAP, to become a member (we publish a quarterly magazine with new art, history, and news from around the world), and to see the work of local and international papercutters, visit their site at www.papercutters.org

Microcuts

I get up at 6:45 every morning and start work some time around 8. Typically I spend part of the morning catching up on emails and The Internet, then I cut or design for people, break for lunch, then finish cutting, package new pieces, trip to the Post Office, return, email people who emailed me while I was at the Post Office. THEN sometime around 3:30, with 30 mins before my wife gets off work, I have this creative time that is MINE ALL MINE!!!

Well, lately that time hasn't been exactly enough time to work on a large 18x24 of a famous Boston landmark I started weeks ago and have gotten almost none of it finished, so instead, I've been focusing on smaller projects I stand a chance of finishing the same day I start.

Inspired by the creative geniuses over at etsy, including kfarrell, creater of tinysaurs, which I have miniature collection of, I decided to go small.

The wonders of the computer combined with the printing ability of laser printers, I realized I had everything I needed to shrink down an original design to mind-numbing porportions. SO, with a Sunday evening filled with Jen madly trying to finish a monstrous reading assignment (studying for her MA in Historical Archaeology- aren't we so interesting?) I dug through a bunch of photos looking for an appropriate idea.

I settled on a photo I took of the Chicago Library domed Tiffany glass celing during our trip to that amazing city last August.

I figured I should probably start with a size that made some logical sense, so I chose one square inch, popped the new design into photoshop, and Ta-Da!

I started cutting, and quickly realized I couldn't use my usual swivel knife as it wanted to move a bit too much for the delicateness of the design (wanted to twist and turn when I was cutting a 1mm thick straight line), so I switched to my usualy #11 blade/knife. Here's a progress shot:

Once finished, I mounted it to a 12x12 inch background to give it some presence on the wall and framed it up but good. Here it is unmounted and finally framed:

AND, if you are so impressed, you can even purchase the $65 framed original piece here on etsy.

After completing that and getting lots of "oohs and Ahs" I felt pretty good about the decision to go small and immediately started thinking of new ideas. Apparently this is harder than it looks to go so small because I've had a hard time coming up with ideas for interesting, cutable designs. I soon thought of the world map, since I was working on the Continent papercut designs.

I had to subtly modify the map a bit (bring the two hemispheres a bit closer together) but in the end, I was really happy with the design, which measures 1 x 1.75 inches huge.

Apparently it was a really awesome design because it was on Etsy a whole 6 hours before getting snatched up and now lives in a great home in Missouri:)

Like I said before, I'm struggling to come up with designs that would both look interesting small, but also be physically cut-able. Here are some recent experimentations that I love, but I'm not listing yet as I'm hoping to do even better.




I am working on a 1x1" version of this piece, which now hangs in a private collection in London:

About 1/3 done as you can see



Okay, that's it for now. If you have brilliant ideas for microcuts, do tell, do tell. And, speaking of telling, I have some very exciting news that will be confirmed at 10am today, after the confirmation, I'll be back with a nice announcement:)

Shows, and new stuff

Wow, first off, a huge thanks to Ann Martin and her All Things Paper blog for featuring my work recently, and also to the incredibly kinds comments that followed. You have no idea how much I appreciate it!

With that has brought a TON of new readers (hi y'all) so I figured I should, you know, actually write something for you to read.

I have a couple of upcoming shows I'd like to plug.

I just got back my piece from the Terminal 22 show, and the two largest (below) are now heading to a papercutting show at the High Wire Gallery in San Antonio, TX. Both are 18x24 inches.

I'm hoping they'll make a bit of a splash there since, as many of you who are familiar at all with the art of papercutting, these are just a little different from traditional scherenschnitte and wycinanki. Just a bit.

I'm also waiting to hear back from a show in Pennsylvania, and two summer art shows, one the Boston Ahts Festival and Art In the Park, a fantastic outdoor show in my home town of South Portland, ME. Did the latter two last year and had a blast, though the weather could be better for the Boston show this year. Fingers crossed.

I'm also finalizing a commission I received to make an original piece depicting the Massachusetts State House, which will be sold at the Gift shop along with prints of the original. Pretty cool!

Here's some of my most recent work:

Cliff, available on Etsy or Discovered Artist

Detailed photo of the water in Cliff:

Also new, Green, Mother's day Silhouettes, and Car & Bike Portraits

Thanks!
~Joe