Paper- cutting, not as easy as it looks
Paper Cutting seems like an easy craft. You don’t need many supplies- just paper and scissors, maybe a cutting mat and knife. Definitely worth playing with.
I’ve made snowflakes for years. There are several ways to fold them, I demonstrated the cone style on a board at my library craft table. There are many snowflake designs online, like Star Wars snowflakes. Pay attention to how the paper should be folded before beginning, or you won’t get the same results. I enjoyed 100 amazing paper animal snowflakes by Marion Nichols, which had designs starting at the easy end and working up to very complicated designs.
Porgs!
I looked into other types of paper cutting. One method is cutting out shapes with a knife. For this (as with many crafts), a better tool will give you better results. A sharp Exacto knife on fine paper will work better than a box cutter on copy paper. Small, sharp scissors will help get around corners.
In Scherenschnitte, a German paper cutting craft, intricate designs are cut with scissors, sometimes with paper folded once, or many times.
In Kirigami, the Japanese art of paper folding is changed with cutting.
I made several holiday cards, experimenting with cutting out shapes. There are many amazing paper artists out there, creating stunning work. I’m not one of them. If I want to pursue paper cutting in the future, I’d probably use a machine like a Cricut to help me.
Paper cutting is an unforgiving art, much like domino stacking or chainsaw juggling. When you’re drawing, you can erase, when you’re painting, you can paint over, when you’re knitting, you can rip back rows. In paper cutting, if you cut something wrong, you have to start over. It takes precision, patience and care to make delicate cuts.
I will keep making snowflakes and kid’s crafts, though.
