The Art of Scherenschnitte

originally posted July 1, 2009

Scherenschnitte is the art of paper cutting. The word is German meaning scissor cuts, and it’s a pretty old art form. The cuts are usually made with an Xacto knife or really small scissors {think cuticle scissors}, and designs can be very intricate. My father made these three scherenschnitte Christmas trees about a million years ago.

Now it seems I’m becoming a little bit obsessed with scherenschnitte. I went on a Google search and not a whole lot comes up as far as instruction, but I did find some great blogs, some videos, and a few other sites that I thought I would share so that you guys can start obsessing about scherenschnitte, too.

Videos:

• How to do Scherenschnitte by Cindy Ferguson

• Scherenschnitte{this video gives a little bit of history behind the art form}

• Scherenschnitte by Kaye Wagner {she’s made a video for each step on how to make a scherenschnitte snowflake}

Scherenschnitte and Paper Cutting Blogs

• Scherenschnitte – Cindy Ferguson’s blog

• Papercuts by Joe

• The Heart of Papercuts

Online Groups

• Yahoo Scherenschnitte group

Free Project

• Scherenschnitte tree from Leisure Arts {pdf file}