Study in black and white III
Idea
Continuing with the series of high-contrast, geometric shapes, this card uses circles. After deciding on the shape, I created a few prototypes. One had circles standing up, and another used spirals. Having multiple layers gave a satisfactory appearance and made it interesting to look at from various angles.
For the pattern within the circle, using four split concentric rings gives it a disruptive pattern I was trying to achieve.
Design
Of the series so far, this is the simplest mechanism. The pattern was printed three times, each progressively smaller. The bottom layer fills the card. The second has seven circles. And the top has just one with the trademark splash of red on it. The two layers are floating planes held up by several supports, as shown below. Note in the center there are two supports that form a triangle.
You could get by with one vertical support in the center, but then the layers can move side-to-side. That could make the card open skewed left or right. By using the triangle in the center, each layer always opens exactly the same way each time, perfectly centered over each other.
As you can tell, this was not drawn by hand, but designed on the computer, printed, and cut by the Silhouette Cameo. The machine does a good job at cutting where you want, but even so, you have to carefully design the pattern to have a little leeway. The center layer was complex since it had a complex outer cutting edge made up of parts of the six outer circles. In addition, I cut out the six spaces between the outer the inner circles to give some depth the patterns.
Cover
Like the other cards in this series, the cover is some of Howard the Younger’s pre-school artwork with a square added to it.
Build
- 9” x 6”
- The base pattern was printed on Strathmore 300 Bristol 100lb
- The upper two layers were printed on Michael’s cardstock, then cut using the Silhouette Cameo’s Print and Cut feature.
- Paper was used for the red half circle.