Still NO Camera!

I've been working away in the studio like a busy little bee but unfortunately due to a broken camera I have no way to prove it. What I've been doing has been tedious and a little painful but I think It's worth it. Last year I went to visit one of my best friends and she and I started collaborating a bit. My way of responding to her work was to go in with an xacto blade and edit areas by cutting them out. I loved working this way but when I returned to my own studio I abandoned the practice. Lately I've been in a bit of a rut with my work so I went through my flat files and pulled out piles of paper that I'd printed some type of image on and began the process of editing with the xacto again. It's very tedious to do and my fingers hurt but I'm getting more and more excited with the results. It's sort of a new way of layering for me. The image below is an artist I've really taken a shine to in the last year. It's a piece by Christa Donner. I know I've talked about her on here before when I posted artwork that I saw on a recent Chicago trip. She does a lot of hand cutting on her pieces and seeing them in person really motivated me to get back to cutting into my own pieces.
Another artist who employs this method and whose work I've loved for a long time is Stephanie Dotson. She make beautiful "printstallations" out of paper and other materials like felt. I'm absolutely crazy about her pieces and the kind of detail she gets with hand cutting is crazy! Stephanie is featured in the book Illustration Play. This book is definitely worth checking out if you haven't already. There are many great artists here.

If anyone reading this also does a lot of work with the xacto please leave comments telling me how you do it comfortably! My fingertips are a bit tingly and my shoulders hurt. I feel like I must be doing something wrong!