Barbican Conservatory inspired botanical paper cut

A few weeks ago now I had a morning to myself as I had booked on a papercutting workshop. I hadn’t cut anything in a while so I was hoping that the Barbican Conservatory inspired workshop would encourage me to start getting creative again.

I love the Barbican, having worked next to it for nearly 10 years. It’s such an interesting part of London and I was very happy to be back for the workshop. I arrived and our small group was told more about the Barbican Conservatory inspired papercut we were going to work on.

Barbican Conservatory inspired botanical paper cut

We were given a selection of botanical templates, a cutting mat and scalpel. There was also a huge selection of coloured card to choose from. The workshop was taken by Hannah, otherwise known as utensils0. She’s a paper artist who I’ve admired for a while. She talked us through the basics of papercutting but I was itching to get started!

I tried my hand at cutting all the different leaves, using a selection of different coloured card. We were shown different ways of putting our plants together to make our own Barbican Conservatory. I ran out of time (2 hours goes way toooo fast) so took everything home to finish off.

It took me a few weeks to finish off my papercut, but I finally found a clear table and some time to myself. I have a supply of different glue products from working with Bostik so used the micro dots to attach the leaves where I wanted them.

Hannah gave me the white frame of the conservatory and Barbican sign to complete the Barbican Conservatory inspired botanical paper cut. The micro dots made it really simple to attach tiny dabs of glue along the white card. You remove the plastic backing from the sheet, then rub the sheet where you need the glue.

I left a few leaves sticking out of my conservatory to give it an overgrown look. The finished result is really fun and a lovely addition to my papercut collection.