CC: NJ - Kirigami/Jianzhi/Scherenschnitte swap

Kirigami is Japanese paper cutting. Jianzhi is Chinese paper cutting. And scherenschnitte is German and Pennsylvania Dutch paper cutting!

All of them involve cutting a picture -- sometimes a very intricate picture -- from a single sheet of paper. Sometimes the paper is folder and cut double, producing a symmetrical picture; others are cut singly.

European paper cutting, as far as I can tell, is usually done with small scissors; other forms can use scissors, scalpels or craft knives.

For years I've looked at and admired examples of the art, but have never had a go myself.

But with the formation of our New Journeys Group, it seemed a good time to try.

For this swap, create a papercut picture, at least four inches square. There's no maximum size.

If you are working with cardstock, it's fine to send it as it is. If you are working with thinner paper, you must mount it. And many of the examples I've seen have been mounted on contrasting paper or card and have looked really good. So even if you are using cardstock, you might consider mounting it.

The swap is for a flat picture. There are versions of kirigami which create three-dimensional objects -- we'll save that for a possible future swap.

It's absolutely fine to use a pattern or a template. The craft here is in the cutting skills -- you don't have to be able to draw the picture yourself.

Make it as simple or as complicated as you personally are comfortable with. Better to create a really nice simple design than a badly cut complicated one.

And it's crafter's choice whether to go for a folded symmetrical design or one cut without folding.

I'm giving us a longish time to do this swap because I have a feeling I may have to make several attempts before I get something I'm really happy with. It is, I suspect, rather easy to make a miscut halfway through the project and have to start again.

Link to papercutting images

Paper cutting tutorial including some patterns and templates. Good on links to other sites.

Website with irritating adverts but some links to nice fairly straightforward folded cutting projects

A simple and an intricate heart template

Free to print templates

If you're googling for templates, it's worth trying 'kirigami templates' and 'scherenschnitte templates' as well as 'papercutting'.