My project gets inspiration from traditional Chinese paper-cutting, window flower (窗花), or window paper-cutting. The traditional houses have paper windows and Chinese cut window flowers and glue them to the exterior of windows to please passers-by. Now, living in apartments mostly, the Chinese buy window flowers manufactured by machines in factories and put them on the interior of windows. When the light shines on the windows, it passes through the negative space of the cutout and makes beautiful shadows on the walls and floor. The paper used for paper-cutting is always red, meaning happiness and luck.
With a long history, window flower has some common elements. The portrayal of symbols of fertility and protection against evil is typical. And the rabbits and rats associate with marriage celebrations. Because the window flower became popular in farmers in teh beginning, its considerable contents express farmers’ lives, such as farming, weaving, fishing, herding sheep, feeding pigs, and raising chickens. Nowadays, window flowers are most used in Spring festivals as a celebration decoration. Contemporary window flower contains elements such as the astrological animals, flowers, symmetric patterns, Chinese lanterns, money, the year coming, and some Chinese characters about good wishes.
Here are the elements in my window flower.
I started with stacking four pieces of paper together and sketched my design on the top. Based on the sketch, I draw down the lines to cut and paint the negative space in black. The cutting is much more complicated than I thought and takes me hours on this project. Besides few experiences, I believe that this relatively small paper is another reason why it was challenging to cut out details. The origami paper I got is too large for kusudama balls but too small for window flowers. Now, with hours of practice, I got some tips:
It is handy to find out your most comfortable cutting direction and turn the paper to fit your habits.
When cutting circles, stably turning the paper is more manageable than bending your elbows and body.
It is easier to cut straight lines if you lower the blade and make a smaller angle between it and the table.
I am looking forward to trying other kinds of paper cutting, especially three-dimensional ones.
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