paper cuttings by Florindamaria

What is a paper cutting?
An original paper cutting is cut by hand by the designer.

A paper cutting is a creative artistic design executed from paper with scissors or a knife. It begins in the mind of its creator, sometimes inspired by nature, family scenes, ethnic motifs, bird and animals, or holiday celebrations. The design is sometimes drawn on working paper first, then traced onto paper which is crisp and lightweight enough to be folded and cut. Asymmetrical designs are not folded, but symmetrical designs can be folded once or many times. Some artists omit the drawing step and create a cutting directly from their mind to the paper.
A variety of scissors can be used: Surgical, embroidery, cuticle, even sheep shears. X-Acto knives are the choice of those who like to work on a flat cutting surface rather than hold the paper in their hands. In Mexico and China, an array of chisels are used to cut through 20 or 30 layers.
The artist then begins to cut, working on small enclosed areas first, then the outline or main body of the design. The finished piece can be pressed in a book to flatten the paper which usually becomes curled while cutting. Some artists embellish the cuttings with watercolors, pin-pricking, or applied layers of colored papers. The cutting is then affixed to the contrasting background and framed.
It may be...
- Cut from colored or uncolored paper, usually a single flat sheet but may be cut in multiples
- Often it is folded before cutting to produce a finished object with multiple-fold symmetry usually on the centerline, but not necessarily
- A portion of the original paper is always removed, usually by knife or scissors, however other methods of cutting or tearing by hand may be used.
- Paints or inks are sometimes applied
- The paper may be modeled into a 3-dimensional shape
- Metal foils, plastics, fabrics, and other objects, colored or uncolored, in single or multiple layers may be added to the paper and may be treated similarly to the paper

An original paper cutting is not
- Made by a machine - A laser cut, die cut or similar mass-produced item - Made from a pattern

Older then scissors, paper cutting probably originated in China around the 4th and 5th centuries, where artisans used knives to cut paper embroidery patterns. Scherenschnitte(scissor cutting) was the word used by the Swiss and German immigrants to describe intricate cuttings made from a single sheet of paper. Polish cutters called their craft Wycinani and created designs with layers of brightly colored paper, while 17th century Jews in Europe and the Middle East used cuttings to decorate the eastern walls of their homes and synagogues.
What unites these diverse traditions is that cutting usually were made by amateurs and not intended as 'art'. Cut-work decorated the borders of documents, the the form of house blessings, baptismal records, and love tokens. Cuttings were made by teachers as rewards for their pupils and by homemakers who used them as shelf paper. Children made cuttings a play in an era when skill with one's hands held high value.
By the end of the 19th century, technology had advanced for producing machine cut designs, such as paper doilies and inexpensive silhouettes. The craft of hand cutting nearly disappeared.
Paper cutting can be enjoyed by everyone from the beginner to the expert. The tools are few: paper, scissors or knife,maybe a cutting board and your imagination.