Jewish Papercuts

This summer I spent some time in Kraków, Poland and specifically in the old Jewish neighborhood of Kazimierz. It was a great and very informative time and I only regret it didn't last longer. We ate delicious Jewish specialties and listened to live concerts of klezmer bands.

But I think the greatest discovery I made was Jewish Papercut art. Turns out this form of art is very popular in the Jewish culture and has been so since XIV century. The paper cuts usually have religious or historical theme. The designs are incredibly intricate and often colorful. I am totally in love with the artistry. The following illustrations come from the book by Marta Gołąb.

See more amazing works here.

Spring Paper Project

Spring has been shy so far in this parts. Despite a few really sunny days at the beginning of the month and the temperature steadily rising it is still very grey outside. So, one of the evening me and Mr. P had a nice, crafting session and came up with this lovely origami cranes to put in the windows.



Now we have a nice flock of blue, green and yellow birdies, flying together around the apartment. The day feels brighter right away.


Most of the cranes are hanging in the window. But I am also thinking about bringing some young willow branches from the nearby forest and making more colorful origami decorations to hung on them.

What do you think about it? Do you like to decorate your house? Is origami your thing?

Paper Craft: Christmas Decorations

Now, ordinarily I am not the biggest fan of paper crafts. They just seem...temporary...to me. But, when you think about this, what better time to create temporary pieces of arts, than Christmas.

There is a long tradition in Poland of cutting shapes out of paper (see: here and here) and so every kid at school gets to do at least a couple around various holidays. So I sat down yesterday and, willing my brains to remember the school times, I made these snowflakes:

They look lovely in the window, unfortunately the weather outside is not very Christmas-y (grey skies and rain) and so the picture is nowhere near pretty enough.

I thought I will also take the time and show you how I made it (especially since it is not very difficult).

1. Take a piece of paper and fold one corner to the side.






2. Cut off the outstanding piece of paper so that you are left with a square.






3. Fold square along the diagonal line (now you have a triangle).








4. Fold it 2 more times, every time joining the 2 furthest corners.







5. Now you can start cutting. Many minute cuts make for the most intricate shapes.








6. Unfold and voila!
7. To straighten the folds, you can iron your snowflakes or keep them overnight in a thick book.
8. Connect snowflakes with white thread. You can hang them on the window frame or use as garlands.

Note: You can fold the triangles more times, it's all up to you. You can also use any symmetrical shapes (circles, hexagon etc.)