At the time my grandmother had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and I agreed pretty much immediately.
Sadly Nanna passed away in September of 2011, I miss her greatly she was a very strong and amazing woman with the most wicked sense of humour, all through her life she was uncomplaining and right until the end she refused to let anything beat her and I am very proud to be her granddaughter.
This is a picture of us together not long before she was diagnosed;
Nanna had support and care from the wonderful cancer nurses from St David's Foundation so I knew from experience that giving support to Marie Curie would allow someone else to receive this kind of care which is so wonderful and the nurses are amazing people who are needed by patents and their families.
Whilst emailing back and fore with Emma she asked if the Marie Curie logo of the daffodil could be incorporated within the design so I suggested a heart made up of flowers possibly an A-Z of different types and so this idea started research into lots of different flowers!
This is the initial stencil that I drew and cut;
This was then drawn out on grey paper as myself and Emma discussed colour option and I said about something neutral as the winner would the be able to place it anywhere and it would not clash and black seemed a bit hard so we settled on a nice grey. It will then be backed with cream paper.
This is the drawing of the cut, I made some minor adjustments and changed the sizes of some flowers to make it flow better and make the scale of each flower similar.
Then I started cutting and this is how it developed!
Sometimes my hand hurt a lot and became quite sore from the intensity of cutting such a large piece so I ended up with some plasters on my hands like this from time to time.
The daffodil was a very special part to cut and it is the Maie Curie logo daffodil adjusted slightly to make it work as a paper cut but is still recognisable.
Just keep cutting!
You can see the pencil drawing on the following images that I used to cut the piece
I then came to the final section that needed to be cut
The Allium was the final flower to be cut
This is complete but unframed
Pinholes were put into the centre of some flowers to give the effect of pollen/seeds and small cuts were made in some places to give the effect of creases in petals.
This is me with the piece it is A2 in size and I am 5ft 2" tall and weight about 7 stone.
I then went on a little trip to Ikea for a frame and the daffodil was backed specially in yellow to make it stand out.
The piece will be up for auction on the 3rd of March at the Daffodils in the Parc Charity Ball, bids can be made on it even if you cannot attend the ball by emailing your maximum bid to Emma Finch at emmafinch@ymail.com and bids will be made on your behalf.
I am so excited to be raising funds for such a good cause and I hope the auction winner is pleased with the piece.
