What is paper-cutting

Carved paper is a kind of paper-cutting, one of the traditional Chinese crafts.

There are different styles of paper-cutting works in different parts of the country. As early as in the Han and Tang dynasties, folk women have used gold and silver foil and colorful silk cut into a square win flowers and birds on the temples for the decoration of the fashion.

Later, the gradual development of the festival, with color paper cut into a variety of flowers, plants, animals or characters of the story, pasted on the window (called "windowpane") lintel (called "door sign") as a decorative, but also as a gift decorative or embroidery patterns used.

The tool of paper-cutting is usually a pair of small scissors; some professional artists use a special carving knife to carve, called paper-cutting. The production process of paper-cutting art is divided into the draft, cutting and carving, uncovering, pasting and adjusting and modifying the finished product. Cutting is an important part of the process. Paper-cutting works require painting, composition patterned, the image should be generalized, deformation, concise and clear, pay attention to the contrast between reality and falsehood, neat and smooth lines, color contrast is strong and bright.

Because of the different customs of various regions and nationalities, paper cutting has its own unique style, which can be roughly divided into two categories of simple carving and traditional carving. The north of China is known for its roughness and boldness, simplicity in modeling, which belongs to the former; the south is known for its luxuriant composition and exquisite beauty, which belongs to the latter. With the extensive exchange of paper-cutting art, the style of paper-cutting in various regions is also changing.

Cutting knives are generally divided into large and small two kinds: large cutting knife with two long teeth, good at hinging the overall shape of the shape, characterized by a large bite area, long and straight lines, fast, not tired of hand. However, with a long reaming teeth of the large knife is not easy to turn, for the curve modeling pattern is not good to deal with.