Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Scherenschnitte


Remember when you were little, and you folded a piece of paper a few times, cut out little squares or circles, opened it up and had a snowflake? Or the little chain of paper dolls? That is scherenschnitte, or paper cutting. I'm sure at the time our elementary school teachers didn't think we'd ever use those early lessons to create beautiful silhouettes, but some of us took those childhood memories and ran with it. I can remember sitting in some boring class in high school (don't even ask me which) and folding my paper until it looked like a slice of pizza. I then drew flames along the three edges, and cut. I opened it up and loved the way it looked. My teacher, on the other hand, did not like what I'd been doing, and sent me to the office. So much for supporting the arts :). Anyway, the point is, I never grew out of the desire to make snowflakes.

When I was 18, I made my first Jack-O-Lantern. Yes, 18! I didn't make a simple face with triangular features, I went all out. I found a profile picture of George W. Bush, printed it out, poked holes all along the lines and into the pumpkin, the connected the dots as I cut. He came out looking AWESOME! I was so proud of myself. Carving that pumpkin used the same skills as making those snowflakes. Now that I have two small kids, I don't take as much time to carve. We did Domo, a wolf howling at the moon, and Jack Skellington. Easy. But I can't wait to get back to the intricate stuff.

Back on topic. So, I've been falling in love with paper cutting all my life, and only now come to realize it's true potential. For Christmas I made a simple nativity and this tree:


Yesterday I got some inspiration, so I spent a good part of the day drawing and cutting a castle. I wanted it to have LOTS of detail, but since I'm still relatively new to the whole paper cutting scene, I didn't want to go too far. I think I may have. Remember, this is a beginner's piece. As I worked on it, I saw where I could have changed things.




Yesterday I got some inspiration, so I spent a good part of the day drawing and cutting a castle. I wanted it to have LOTS of detail, but since I'm still relatively new to the whole paper cutting scene, I didn't want to go too far. I think I may have. Remember, this is a beginner's piece. As I worked on it, I saw where I could have changed things.

This art form is used all over the world. Germans call it scherenschnitte, the Japanese call it kirie. There are some great blogs out there that give great instruction and ideas. You can also check out your local library. I got some great books.


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