I have had scissors on the brain lately. Maybe because there are always several pairs of them on the dining room table. (And yet, never any when you go to look for them. But that’s a rant for another post.)
I started drawing this set of scissors to make earrings. I do a set of fiber art related jewelry for a local shop. Button earrings, zipper earrings, earring made from snaps. And I wanted to add something new to the collection. I love making laser cut doo-dads and I had a brainstorm to make little tiny scissors from mirrored acrylic that look like Gingher sewing shears.
Those were so much fun that I also drew some little embroidery scissors and stork embroidery scissors. I did all the artwork in Adobe Illustrator because I was making vector shapes. That’s what you need for laser cutting. But the cool thing about vectors is that once you get them drawn, you can scale them up and down without anything getting rough and jaggedy. So then I thought, since I have these scissors I should also make a fabric design. So that’s the design at the top. Which I think will make really great project bags and I might even make a t-shirt. Why not?
So then I made it in another colorway. And then I got on a roll and did a knitting design to match the style of those scissors. And then a design for lacemakers with bobbin lace and tatting. (I get a lot of requests for lacemaking buttons through my Etsy shop, so I know they are out there looking for things!) And then when I showed off these designs to a friend at Textile Center, they gave me a hard time about not having a design for crochet and weavers, so those are in the works. I’m even considering a skirt design all made of scissors shapes.
So one drawing of one pair of scissors has now turned into 9 different designs and more in the works. Stuck in a rut? I don’t think so. By taking the time to draw those vector shapes, I have now added them to my toolbox. It’s like finding a new color in the crayon box. I did the tedious work of making the vector shapes but now I can just drop them in anywhere and play with them. I am sure that I will get tired of them at some point, but for now the variations seem to just keep coming.