How to Cut an Intricate Design Out of Nori

First off, a disclaimer: I do not pretend to be an expert on this topic. I am not even sure this is a good way to do it. This is the first time I've tried cutting out anything at all complicated. But below I will show the steps I took to cut out Sally and Jack for my Nightmare Before Christmas bento.

First I found a simple silhouette online and printed it out the size I wanted. Next I cut the major portions with scissors.

At some point, it occurred to me that scissors were probably not the right tool for the job, and I switched to an Exacto knife.

When I had finished cutting out my model (I know, cheating, right? - but who's to say those "bento artists" I see online don't use gimmicks like this? Not everyone can manage things freehand, people...) I paper clipped it to a sheet of nori. (Again, not sure that this is a great way to do it - any suggestions people have on how to attach a guide to nori would be great!)

My first try, Jack's coat-tails broke off. My second try, Jack lost his head:

Not wanting to waste the Sally and landscape I had intact, I just cut Jack off and redid him by himself.

This seemed to work well, and on this, my third try, Jack turned out pretty well.

I would welcome any thoughts if fellow bento-ers have an easier way to do this. Otherwise, I was pretty happy with my first attempt at such a design.

Happy Bento!

Related posts:
Jack and Sally Bento

Jack and Sally Bento

I am so excited to share this next bento with everyone. I am very pleased with how it turned out.

But first of all, a little background info: I am already getting excited about Halloween. I had my "Trick or Treat" mug out this weekend and was sipping spicy teas from it; dreaming up designs for my jack-o-lantern this year. So it was only natural that my mind would turn to The Nightmare Before Christmas when choosing a bento to do for Monday.

(For my mom, who I'm sure will be shocked that this is now a favorite flick of mine, I must say, "It's not really about ghouls - it's a romance!")

I was at home feeling pretty puny all weekend, which gave me plenty of time to mess around with this bento and get it just the way I wanted it. And here it is:

Close-up of the love-birds:

All packed up and ready to go:

Contains:

• Steamed white rice background
• Usuyaki tamago (thin omlette) moon
• Nori cut out of Jack and Sally
• Iceburg lettuce filler
• Homegrown tomatoes (4)
• Carrot shards
• Filet mignon

Happy Bento!

Related Posts:
How To Cut Nori

Something Fishy

I can't quite put my fin on it, but there is something fishy about bento #18. Here is the lunch I will be taking with me on our feild trip to the swimming pool today:


Up top we have a fish shaped onigiri with a nori smile. It is filled with a bit of tuna fish. And I can't remember if this is the spicy kind, or the kind with relish, so I will just have to wait and see. (Since I froze them earlier and thought I'd be able to remember and...um...no, I don't.) It is swiming through a sea of spanish rice-a-roni near a school of carrot fish.

Below is a tuna fish sandwich (are you sensing a theme?) topped with little nori fish. Next to the sandwich are grapes and almonds, respectively.

And that's lunch!

Nori Faces

My "sweet sixteen" bento is the first that I have gotten to use nori to make faces with. I put them on the carrots from my garden, as well as the onigiri. But I found the seaweed very difficult to cut into nice shapes. It will take practice, I'm sure.

Here are the carrots, picked from my garden the morning of:


And here is the lunch itself:


On the left is the onigiri, steamed broccoli and some of the last cherry tomatoes from my garden (oh, wait, one of those is a roma). On the left are the two carrot characters, some raisins, little tortilla wraps with ham and dijion mustard in them, a few almonds, a couple crackers, and a chocolate chip cookie.