Paper Fox Studio

Cut-paper illustration, small-batch cards, and notes from the workbench.

Winter cards are drying on the line

This year's set is three foxes, a heron and a very stubborn snowman. Everything is cut from 160gsm cotton paper and layered with a few millimetres of foam tape, so each card throws its own small shadow. They take longer than printed cards, but nobody has complained yet.

The heron took four attempts. The neck kept tearing at the narrowest point until I switched to a fresh blade every ten cuts.

On blades

People ask about tools more than anything else. The honest answer: a cheap scalpel handle, number 11 blades, and changing them far more often than feels reasonable. A dull blade doesn't cut paper, it pushes it, and you can see that in every curve.

Autumn colour tests

Before a new series I cut the same leaf shape in every paper I have and pin them to the wall for a week. Some colours that look rich under the desk lamp go flat in daylight. Rust and ochre survived; the pretty plum did not.