Making Paper Illustrations in July 2026

Electric Caterpillar, 16x9cm, 19/07/26

I've made paper collages and paper cut illustrations before, but I think this is the smallest I've ever managed to go with hand cut stuff. This was insanely fun to make. I first plotted it out by drawing it digitally, flipped it, and then printed out all of the individual shapes onto white paper.

I then stuck those onto the separate colours of card and cut those out by hand. I also printed a sort of stencil, so all of the pieces stuck together in the same orientation. I started by sticking together the body pieces, stuck that to the background piece, and then added the feet, face and antenna, on top. I think the scale I went for was perfect for this design, and was definitely a challenge for me to cut out all of the detail pieces, I had to use tweezers to position and glue them in the right place! This was made as a card for my friend.

Three Little Guys, 7.5x15cm each, 27/07/26

These guys were the project I took with me on holiday in July. I knew they wouldn't consist of too many pieces or colours of card, so it was easy to pack the supplies with the rest of my stuff. I had already planned them out digitally and printed the pieces, so all I did on holiday was cut them out and glue them together. I love how they came out, I wasn't sure I was going to have enough shades of each of the colours to make the features, especially the ears, but I managed. The orange guy was originally going to be pink, but I liked the texture of the orange card I had much better. These were not made to be cards, but instead came to me in a flash of inspiration and had to be made. ♡

My Initial Sketches of each of these Illustrations

Stuff I Made in July 2026

Back in July, I mentioned in a post that I had sent stuff I made on my jewellery course off the get hallmarked. Some of the things in this post are hallmarked pieces and then others are things I made in my final session of the summer term. I had so much fun making all of these, and I'm so glad my classes have started up again for the winter term!

This is the second bracelet I've ever made. This is one of the things that I got hallmarked. The process for this was so fun!

I began with a sheet of silver, which I annealed to make softer, and then put through a rolling mill with a scrap of lace. This textured the surface of the metal. I used a disk cutter to cut out the small circles. This means they came out as perfect circles and are all the same size. It also means I didn't have to spend ages cutting each one out.

Next, I filed around the edges so they were smooth to the touch. I also drilled two holes into each side of the circles for the links to go through. I had previously made lots of spare jump rings, so all I had to do was link them together and solder them closed. I was successful in all of the soldering, except for the very last link which connects to the clasp. I melted it just slightly, which is why it's crescent shaped. Every time I make a bracelet, I want to make a million more cause it's so fun!

I also used the disk cutter to make this pendant. This is cut from the same sheet that I textured to make the bracelet, so it has the same pattern on it.

I hand cut the star design out of a sheet of silver, then sweat soldered it on, along with the boarder. Sweat soldering is when you melt the solder onto the back of the surface, then place it onto whatever piece you want to solder it onto, and then reheat the solder so it joins the two pieces together.

I then filed around the edge so that the boarder and the back base were flush. This made it look nicer and also made it easier to soldered on the bail and the jump ring. I wear this almost every day, I love it so much and I can't believe I made it all on my own. This also got sent off for hallmarking and is about 2.5cm across.

This was a quick and easy project while my tutor was helping a fellow student with their work. This started out as silver wire, which I then textured using a riveting hammer.

Then, I bent the wire, soldered the joins and then used a mandrel to shape them into perfect circles.

I originally planned for them to just be three separate bangles, but I found when I wore them, they would move around and get misshapen because of how thin they are. To fix this I added these steel jump rings so the bangles stay together on the wrist. The jump rings add some nice movement and weight to the piece, so I'm very happy with how this turned out.

This was one of the final things I made on my summer term course, and is entirely made from left over/ scrap metal from my previous projects. It's about 1.5cm across, and is very lightweight compared to the other things I've made.

I first cut the smaller hole out, once again using the circle cutter, making sure not to lose the cut out. I then cut the outer circle. 

Next, I sweat soldered the small circle onto the base, then filed down the face of it so that it was smooth and flat. Then, I soldered closed a jump ring, and used a hammer to flatten it. This was then soldered onto the pendant to make the bail. I still need to add a jump ring to be able to thread this pendant onto a chain, which is one of my intentions for this term.

In July, I also did a Wax Casting workshop at Enki Gift Shop. It was right in the middle of the crazy heat waves we had, so I felt like I was melting while I was learning how to make this. I had seen Wax Cast Jewellery before but had no idea what the process looked like. I started out with a big tube of wax, which I cut a section of and had to carve away a lot of it.

Once I had the general shape, I uses a file to smooth out the surface and create a more defined shape. 

To create my design in the wax, I first scratched the shapes into the wax using a dental pick, and then carved them out using a craft knife. At one point, the back part of my wax ring snapped, so the tutor showed me how to melt the wax to piece it back together.

Once the class was over, I left my wax carving there so it could be sent off to be cast in silver. I absolutely love how it looks finished! I carved the seven point stars to match the pendant I made on my other course. Before I saw the final version, I was worried it was going to be too heavy for the kind of rings I like, but it's surprisingly light, and fits very comfortably. ♡