Until today, I only knew one way to perforate paper (without some mysterious steampunk machine).

Pounce wheel

(Not everyone knows about these things, so I’ll describe them first.  I doubt I’d have heard of them if we didn’t sell them at ye olde art supply store.  It’s a mural thing.)

Pounce pads and powder sound rather raised pinky to me.  I always figured it sufficed to smash up a bunch of charcoal, wrap it up in cheesecloth, and then slam it against the perforated stencil.

Homemade perforation tool

Basic concept:  file grooves into a rotary cutter.

Sewing machine

Leave the needle unthreaded and run your paper through it.

Sewing machine (but even better)

Sharpen a tiny brass tube and load that into your sewing machine instead of a needle.  The machine will then cut out small circles rather than just poking holes into your paper.

The thing is…these are all fantastic for straight lines.  I need curved perforations.  I may have to farm this stage out to a high tech laser cutter.  Or a die cutter.  Apparently my studio mentor knows a guy.