Paper Cut

Paper cut is popular everywhere in China. On celebration occasions, such as wedding and Chinese Lunar New Year, numerous paper cuts in all colors are pasted on windows, doors, walls and many other utensils for daily use. Usually only women are engaged 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.

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

1. Dying paper.   Rice paper is traditional material for paper cut. The paper for paper cut is usually dyed red, as red is the Chinese color of good luck. Some wrinkles would occur when the paper dried up. To remove those wrinkles, iron the paper flat with a warm iron.
2. Making stencil.   The bird pattern shown below is simple. Draw it on a newsprint and cut it out along the pencil line.
   
   
   
   
3. 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.
4. Cutting.   Place the pattern template on top of a stack of, as many as 20, rice paper and sew them together. 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.