Sunday 26 February 2017

Representations of rotary cutters

Well I had a go at making rotary cutters out of Fimo for my quilters. They didn't come out that well, but at least they are representing rotary cutters.  For those who don't know, a rotary cutter is an essential fabric cutting tool for the modern quilter, it's a bit like a really sharp pizza cutter and you run it along the edge of a thick acrylic ruler to cut exact strips and shapes from fabric.

I measured my real-life rotary cutter to be 6.5", so that's about a half-inch long in 1/12th scale.  It was less than an inch thick, so the dollshouse size would be very slim. I decided against trying to represent the silver blade of the cutter which would just be too tiny, so I have represented the other side of the rotary cutter with its black sliding protective cutter peeping out.

My Fimo is a bit old and crumbly, and my basement dollshouse room is not very warm which didn't help matters. But I mixed a transparent yellow with another yellow and did my best to cut out six uniformly sized tiny cutters.  Then I mashed one end flatter and cut it into a round shape.  I added six tiny black pancakes to represent the protective covers, and a little button of black which is the nut that holds the blade and cover to the yellow handle.

This is what they looked like when they came out of the oven.  After this I sanded them lightly which helped smooth them out more.



They aren't great, I freely admit.  But I have put them in the shop and the workroom for now.  Maybe one day I will try again.



1 comment:

elizabeth s said...

Oh my goodness!
Your rotary cutters are sooooo good and now that you have placed them inside your shop, they are immediately identifiable for what they are. A Good Job!!! :D