Paper Cut

As a folk art, paper cutting is practiced by commoners in China. Their cut work served decorative purposes in many occasions - holiday, wedding, assembly, and especially Chinese Lunar New Year, when numerous paper cuts in all colors are pasted on windows, doors, walls and many other articles for daily use.

Usually only women are involved in paper cutting. In northern China, paper cut designs are exchanged as valuable gifts between women. Along with needlework, a girl's skill in paper cut would add weight to her virtue as a bride.

Because it folds and irons well and accepts paints and stains, rice paper is traditional material for paper cut.

Equipment

• Scissors (surgical scissors)
• Pencil
• Rice paper
• Needle and thread
• Dye or watercolor and brush
• Kerosene lamp
• Iron

1. Dying paper - A Chinese paper cutter would be very likely to dye their rice paper red with brush, as red is the Chinese color of good luck.
   
   
2. Ironing - Some wrinkles would occur when the paper dried up. To remove those wrinkles, iron the paper flat with a warm iron. A Chinese iron is shown here.
   
   
   
   
3. Making stencil - The bird pattern shown below is simple. If you don't have one in hand, draw it on newspaper and cut it out along the pencil line.
   
   
   
   
4. Smoking the template - Dampen a sheet of paper of the stencil size, and press it together with the stencil. Hold the papers with stencil facing down over a kerosene lamp. The stencil and uncovered areas of the paper will be blackened by the smoke from the kerosene lamp. When the papers are thoroughly dry, peel away the stencil, leaving clearly defined white and black areas on the paper. This will be the template.
   
   
   
   
5. Stacking - Place the pattern template on top of a stack of, as many as 20, rice paper and sew them together.
   
   
6. Cutting - Chinese paper cutters use large oval-handled scissors with short and sharp blades. By cutting along the visible pattern lines with scissors, all the sheets of paper is cut through simultaneously. Cut interior lines first and then cut the exterior border by making continuous sweep with the scissors. Great skill is required to do this this well.