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. ♡

Stuff I Made in May - June 2026

Digital Drawing of the Hand

Like many artists, I have been cursed with carpel tunnel, as well as generalised hand pain, for going on 5 years now, on and off. It got so bad that I even got it officially diagnosed by a doctor and everything! Luckily (?) I only get it in my non dominant (right) hand.

Because of all of this, I have been looking at various diagrams of hands recently. This lead me to drawing my own, with all the overlapping layers. This was originally going to turn into a paper diagram but with how tiny all the elements are, as well as the aforementioned hand pain, I don't think that's going to happen. 

Swallows, 7.4x7.8cm, 09/06/26

This is another hand drawn design that was made for a birthday card. This time I went even smaller, with each of the pixels being 1mm by 1mm, whereas my previous designs were 2.5mm by 2.5mm.

I have fallen in love with drawing these swallows, I first used them in a Mother's Day card in March, and have been using them in everything since. They are very simple but very pretty, and I like that they're not quite symmetrical.

A Pink and Purple Lighter

I had to buy these lighters for another craft I was making and ended up covering them in my sticker collection. The animal crossing characters and Gogo's, I made myself by printing them on sticker paper and the rest are from Sticker Magic, which is a website I would spend all my money at if I could. 

17 Sea Creature Fabric Patches

These fish prints were originally on the back of an H&M shirt that I ended up cutting up. It was a white t-shirt that I was just never going to wear, but I couldn't bring myself to part with these beautiful fish. So over about 4 days, I cut them out, sewed them onto felt backing, and then stitched around the edges. Initially, I was just going to do a blanket stitch around the edge, but the t-shirt material is quite thin, and would have frayed if I left any of the edges exposed. I think it looks better like this anyway. My plan is to either make them felt pins, or sew them onto other stuff, like a hat or a bag.

I also made some more stuff on my jewellery course but included within the cost of the course, we get the opportunity to get stuff hallmarked, so I've sent off all my precious creations and I will get them back by the end of this week! ♡

Stuff I've Made

Since March, I have been trying to focus more of my time into making stuff, whether that be art or just anything. I fell into a bit of a slump after January, as many do, and I don't think I did anything productive in the entirety of February. But I've been getting better at forcing myself to use my down time in a way that brings me more joy. Here are a few of the things I've made since then:

My second cousin taught me how to make these when I was a kid and I recently got back in to making them. They are so relaxing to make but take forever once you start making them wider.

In January, I started a Jewellery Making Course at my local Art Centre. It's been so much fun learning how to make different things, in March I signed on again for 12 more weeks and I can't wait to make more stuff. This ring was the first thing I made. It started as D shaped wire, which I annealed (heating the metal to make it more malleable), bent into shape, soldered the joint together, and then used a flat hammer to texture it. It was loads of fun to make and I got to learn some basic skills to help me in the next things I made.

This star pendant was the next thing I made. I was taught how to do saw piercing to cut this design out. You basically draw your design on, use a drill to pierce a hole, then put the saw blade through that hole so you can cut the design out by hand. I did this on a copper sheet as it's much cheaper than silver.

Then I learnt how to do Enamelling, which is how I got the green colour and glossy finish. I made a matching blue one for my friends Birthday. 

After that I graduated to making Patterned Enamel. The blue side of this pendant is done by doing a base layer of light blue enamel, firing it, and then doing a secondary dark blue layer through a paper stencil to make the pattern. The white side is done by doing a base layer of white, firing it, buffing the surface to make it rough, and then using a pencil to draw on the design. Then you fire it again to seal the design in. The pencil becomes this lovely silvery colour once the surface is smooth again. Enamelling is one of my favourite processes so far.

This bangle is the final thing I made on my first course. It was also the longest process. To make this textured bangle I learnt a process called Reticulation. This process involves heating and scrubbing the top layer of the metal, which causes pure silver to rise to the surface. This silver melts at a lower temperature than the silver alloy, which allows you to heat the metal and move the silver on the surface to create that texture. It was so fun to do, and the repetitive prep of heating and scrubbing was almost therapeutic.

This chain bracelet is the first thing I made when I started the course again. Every time I make something new, it's my favourite thing I've made.

My tutor was teaching us how to make chains but the design and look of the chain was up to me. I first made the bigger links. These links started as silver wire, which I then twisted round a steel rod. Then, I used a saw blade to cut up the links. I filed the rough edges and soldered them closed. Then, I used the same flat hammer I used to texture my ring to texture these links. In the process, they were also flattened slightly. I then made the smaller links out of slightly thinner wire. I did the same process of twisting and sawing, then threaded the textured links through and soldered the rest of the links closed. I absolutely love how it came out, and I love the chain mail like look it has. A few of the other people on the course also said they liked it and might make their own, so we might end up having matching bracelets lol.

Can't wait to make more stuff soon! ♡