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A beautiful old art form
A Swiss style cutting from Jeri's 1st Children's Book
The above is one of my Pennsylvania Dutch Fraktur-Cuttings
Scherenschnitte (pronounced Sharon-sh-net, if German or Sharon-sh-net-ah if
Swiss) is the German word for the art of
scissors snipping or paper cutting. This lovely old art form has been around for
hundreds of years starting in China with the invention of paper. Paper cutting
traveled throughout Asia and Europe and eventually was brought to America by the
Europeans. Germans settling in Pennsylvania, known as the Pennsylvania Dutch
created paper cuttings which were used for: Marriage and Birth certificates, Christmas
ornaments, home decoration and simply for the joy of creating art. Many other
groups have cutting styles unique to their regions: Jewish,
Polish, Dutch, Chinese, Mexican and Japanese papercutting.. just to name a
few. My clear choices are the Swiss and German styles, as well as
some early American styles, however, I do admire them all.
Jeri discovered
Scherenschnitte over twenty-five years ago while
looking through a book on Early American Folk Art and hasn’t put down her
scissors and knives since.
To create a piece of Scherenschnitte:
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Jeri first draws her design using a medium weight paper (parchment paper is a good choice). |
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Next, using tiny scissors, and sma11, razor sharp knives, she meticulously cuts out the image while still leaving the remaining paper intact, in other words, the remaining design is still one piece of paper. This can take anywhere from an hour to a hundred hours, depending on the intricacy of the design. |
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When this is complete, Jeri mixes media by using the silhouette which she has designed and cut as a platform or a canvas, and paints a beautiful watercolor painting atop the silhouette. Or she may paint a watercolor background and places silhouettes atop to give the silhouettes more interest and depth. |
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She then mounts each finished painted cutting on black mat board giving it a very distinctive dramatic look. |
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Finally, each piece is framed in an antique styled Hand-grained frame. |
Jeri’s work varies in size and subject matter. Sizes range from 2” by 3 inches, to her larger pieces, 4’ by 5 feet. Subject matter varies from traditional Early American themes such as barn dances and quilting bees to fanciful finned, feathered or furry critters from her vivid imagination.
Most of Jeri’s original (Painted Scherenschnitte) creations are reproduced as signed and numbered limited addition lithographic prints which are available for purchase.
The above piece was inspired by a very similar antique papercutting created in 1840.
These links will take you to more of Jeri's paper-cuttings and prints
