Papercutting from design to cut-
Basics of the craft design - where is all comes from
Learn the craft design basics of papercutting. Call it Jian Zhi – Chinese papercutting, Scherenschnitte – German and Pennsylvania Dutch, Wycinanki – Polish, or Papel Picado - Mexican papercutting, they are just different ways of saying cut paper art. The craft design of cut paper art is fun to learn.
Papercutting - where do you start?
Papercutting is a folk art that has been practiced by young and old for many centuries. What are the design basics? How do you get from an idea in your head to an intricate and delicate cut paper art? It all starts with the concept of positive negative space
Positive Negative Space Design
Positive space is an object itself. Negative space is the area around the object. Often the negative space defines the positive space.
In the picture to the right, the black teddy bear is the positive space. The white space around it is the negative space.
How do these spaces work in papercutting?
In the examples below, you always will cut out the BLACK space, whether it is called the positive or the negative space.
To create a papercut out of positive space you could simply cut out the positive (black) space. In our case above, cut out the white teddy bear. Or, you could break the image into smaller positive (black) spaces as in the picture on the left. Then cut out the positive spaces.
Creating a papercut out of the negative space means you must concentrate on what is keeping the papercut attached to the border. Back to our teddy bear, you can enlarge it to touch the edges so that when you cut out the negative (black) space around the teddy bear - the object will still remain attached to the borders around the page. If you use this method, leave a border around the page of at least a half inch to hold the image together.
Another way to keep the positive space - the teddy bear - attached to the borders of the page is to add design elements in order to keep the teddy bear connected to the edges of the page. While cutting out the negative (black) space - the space around the bear - the design elements need to touch both the teddy bear and the outside borders to keep them all connected.
Once you have figured out how your image will stay in the paper, with all of your borders remaining attached you can continue to create you design and add more intricate patterns to it.
Free Craft Project -
Try your first papercut now
If you would like to draw your own based on the lessons here, try it now. You can also download a free papercut design click on the image below to print our your free craft project to try.
Easy Papercut
Click here for a free papercut
Click here for a free papercut
Free Art Projects - More challenging
The following papercuts are more challenging, try them out. Follow the instructions pages and remember to have fun!
Click on the image for your free papercut
Click on the image for your free papercut
Click on the image for your free papercut
Negative Space
Click on the image for your free papercut
Easy
Click on the image for your free papercut
Go to the instructions pages for learning how to cut the papercut. For cutting with a craft knife click here, and for learning with a scissor click here.
We are happy to show you how to learn this fun craft, and hope to teach you a skill that you will use many times over with pleasure. After you’ve seen the instructions and some tips and techniques on the art of papercutting, you can get starting creating stunning art. Project kits that make paper cutting art easy to create are available on the Craft Cuts and Scissor Cuts pages. Each craft kit is clearly laid out, and simple to follow.
Enjoy!
