sharon who?

i've mentioned scherenschnitte, the art of papercutting, on this blog before.  the book below was given to me as a gift many years ago when i first became interested in doing paper cutting myself.  it is a collection of the paper cuttings of hans christian andersen, the brilliant and sad writer of beautifully devastating fairy tales.  as a child, i let him break my small heart as i listened to my mother read "the red shoes" and "the little match girl," and having often listened to danny kaye's lovely record of silly songs and andersen stories, i was so pleased to discover this little book.  andersen delighted children and adults not only with his stories but also by cutting paper while he told them, and at the end of the story would unfold these magical illustrations.  having attempted this art form for years while wielding an x-acto knife and pre-designed pattern (mine or someone else's), i find his art even more remarkable considering that his only tool was probably an awkward pair of scissors.

one of my favorite contemporary paper artists is an englishman called rob ryan and his work can be seen in the next two photographs.

paper dress

the intricacy is mind-boggling, especially when you consider that everything belonging to each image is connected and from one sheet of paper. (mine is too, at least in theory...)

below are examples of work by a local artist, cindy ferguson.

casting pearls before swine

cherry blossoms

cindy is a talented graphic designer and paper cutter and hilarious human to boot! and teaches occasional classes, one of which i have taken.

and here are a few examples of things i've done. it helps if you can do simple sketches so you have your own pattern, but if not, there are lots of places on the web that provide free patterns. what's great about paper cutting as a hobby is that while it's quite lovely, it's also CHEAP. all you need besides paper is that x-acto knife and mat... and maybe a lot of attention to detail. 

this design is martha stewart

the next two are my designs