Chinese Paper
Cuts
(Take Notes)
What are they?
Chinese Paper Cuts also called Scissor-cuts, it
is a kind of folk artwork with rich local
flavor popularizing in numerous people.
Chinese Paper cuts come out during the period
of Chinese New Year. Colorful paper cut by
scissors is often used as decoration and
forms various artistic styles because of
different purposes, such as for window
decoration, basket decoration, present
decoration and designs.
Jianzhi (剪纸)
chuāng huā" (窗花)
Wall Flower
Shuāngxǐ – Double Happiness
Chinese New Year –
Year of the Dragon
Good Business
History
•Han Dynasty - 6th century
•Western China (Xinjiang)
•Women used to paste golden and
silver foil cuttings onto their hair at
the temples
•Men used them in sacred rituals.
•Later, they were used during
festivals to decorate gates and
windows.
•After hundreds of years'
development, now they have
become a very popular means of
decoration among country folk,
especially women.
Potala Palace, Lhasa
More Cuts..
Less traditional cut
Jewish Paper Cuts
• Jewish art form since the Middle Ages
• Ceremonies, holidays and family life.
• Paper cuts often decorated ketubot
(marriage contracts), Mizrahs, and for
ornaments on festive occasions.
•A story tells of Rabbi Shem-Tov ben
Yitzhak ben Ardutiel, finding that his ink
had frozen, continued to write the
manuscript by cutting the letters into the
paper.
• By about the 17th century, papercutting
had become a popular form for small
religious artifacts such as Mizrachs and
Shavuot decorations.
•In the 20th century, the art of Jewish
papercutting was revived in Israel.
•Today it is most commonly used for
mizrachs and ketubot.
Mexican Paper Cuts
Papel picado is the Mexican art of paper cutting. Tissue paper is cut into intricate
designs with scissors or small, sharp chisels; this technique is frequently used to
produce decorative banners
Symmetrical Paper Cuts
Other Western Paper Cuts..
Compare and Contrast
Find the difference and similarities with Chinese
and Other Paper cuts.
Consider:
The material
How they are displayed
The color
The Process
The subject
At home collect and add examples of Eastern
and Western paper cuts
Negative Space
To make a paper cut you must cut away the
negative space.
Here you should cut away
the white space.
Negative Space in Action
Do you see a Vase or two faces?
Task 1: practice page
• Task: On your note page in your
sketchbook, place a cutting mat under one
page.
• Remember your craft knife safety!
• Practice cutting out negative space
• Label the positive and negative space
• Practice making cuts in your paper. How
much pressure does it take to cut through
one page?
Negative Space
drawing using
Ink and charcoal
Negative
Space
Josh Dametto,
SciFi Fantasy Art
Have a go!
Make a symmetrical Paper cut
• Think about what you want to cut
• You can sketch it out on your paper first
• Expreriment folding and cutting out details
with scissors and/or your craft knife
• How creative are you?
• Aim to finish in 20 mins
Artist Research
Homework:
Choose one Paper cut artist and make a research
page. It should have:
– Images of his/her artwork.
– How the work is made and what from.
– What you think about the work and why.
Choose from one of these artists:
• Peter Callesen
• Karen Bit Vejle
• Nikki McClure