On May 21st, I ventured to Lancaster, PA to attend The Guild of American Papercutter's Collection 2008. It was a conference for papercutters that ran Wednesday through Sunday, and I must say, it was one of the most exciting things that I have ever been a part of.
I have been papercutting for about 13 years. I first discovered the art when my mom and I went to a Christmas craft show at my high school. There was a booth of papercuttings and I couldn't stop looking at them. That day we went home and I tried my first papercutting. At first I was very sporadic about cutting. I think I would do about one cutting a year or even every other year. Then I attempted to do some for my Christmas craft - I'd do about 15 and not cut again for about a year after finishing. It's really only been during the past 8 years or so that I have begun to do them on a more regular basis.
The funny thing is that this art form is so rarely seen, I've only met a handful of people who do papercuttings over the years. Luckily I got introduced to the Guild of American Papercutters around 2001 and it has been a wonderful connection to others who also do cuttings. The guild publishes a quarterly newsletter and it has been so inspiring. So it was such a great experience to go to the conference and meet all these people who I've read about over the years and have studied their work. I felt this wonderful sense of community - and it was just so cool to be able to be with all of these people who have the same interests as me. I didn't want it to end!
During the conference we spent most of our time at the Lancaster Bible College - attending workshops and different presentations by various artists. We also had a couple of field trips to The Landis Valley Museum, The Lancaster Quilt and Textile Museum, The Lancaster Cultural History Museum, and the Lancaster Farmer's Market. I also got to visit with my cousin Lisa and her husband Randy and her daughter Tori - they only live about 10mins from the campus!
Overall, it was a great experience and it really helped to inspire me and get me even more excited about the guild.
Here are a couple of pictures from the weekend and if you are really interested, you can check out the slide show of all of my pictures (there are a lot - just to warn you!)
This is my first attempt at using scissors (I do my papercuttings with X-acto knives). This was from a workshop on how to teach large classes.
This is from a workshop on multifolds and layers - my first cutting with layers of paper - fun!
Here I am with my cousin Lisa :)
It was the Guild's 20th anniversary so they had a cake. It was covered with all of these pretty little cuttings done by the committee members.
These are both cuttings I did for fun while I was there. The blue one has initials (SNL) and the gold one is just different designs.
We did a valentine exchange. Here I am with some friends I made - (L to R) Joan Sulecki, Robin Goodfellow (she got the cutting that I made), Me (I got the cutting that Zipora made), and Zipora Ne'eman.
This is another cutting that I did while I was there. It's a heart made out of lilac flowers.
And here is the slide show of all the pictures!!
I have been papercutting for about 13 years. I first discovered the art when my mom and I went to a Christmas craft show at my high school. There was a booth of papercuttings and I couldn't stop looking at them. That day we went home and I tried my first papercutting. At first I was very sporadic about cutting. I think I would do about one cutting a year or even every other year. Then I attempted to do some for my Christmas craft - I'd do about 15 and not cut again for about a year after finishing. It's really only been during the past 8 years or so that I have begun to do them on a more regular basis.
The funny thing is that this art form is so rarely seen, I've only met a handful of people who do papercuttings over the years. Luckily I got introduced to the Guild of American Papercutters around 2001 and it has been a wonderful connection to others who also do cuttings. The guild publishes a quarterly newsletter and it has been so inspiring. So it was such a great experience to go to the conference and meet all these people who I've read about over the years and have studied their work. I felt this wonderful sense of community - and it was just so cool to be able to be with all of these people who have the same interests as me. I didn't want it to end!
During the conference we spent most of our time at the Lancaster Bible College - attending workshops and different presentations by various artists. We also had a couple of field trips to The Landis Valley Museum, The Lancaster Quilt and Textile Museum, The Lancaster Cultural History Museum, and the Lancaster Farmer's Market. I also got to visit with my cousin Lisa and her husband Randy and her daughter Tori - they only live about 10mins from the campus!
Overall, it was a great experience and it really helped to inspire me and get me even more excited about the guild.
Here are a couple of pictures from the weekend and if you are really interested, you can check out the slide show of all of my pictures (there are a lot - just to warn you!)
This is my first attempt at using scissors (I do my papercuttings with X-acto knives). This was from a workshop on how to teach large classes.
This is from a workshop on multifolds and layers - my first cutting with layers of paper - fun!
Here I am with my cousin Lisa :)
It was the Guild's 20th anniversary so they had a cake. It was covered with all of these pretty little cuttings done by the committee members.
These are both cuttings I did for fun while I was there. The blue one has initials (SNL) and the gold one is just different designs.
We did a valentine exchange. Here I am with some friends I made - (L to R) Joan Sulecki, Robin Goodfellow (she got the cutting that I made), Me (I got the cutting that Zipora made), and Zipora Ne'eman.
This is another cutting that I did while I was there. It's a heart made out of lilac flowers.And here is the slide show of all the pictures!!
 |
| 2008 GAP Collection |
2 comments:
Wow! These are amazing photos and papercuttings! I bet you had such a great and inspiring time! I especially love Zipora's cuttings and the Chinese Mouse Wedding cutting. And I LOVE your multi-colored cutting. You are going to have fun! Yay!
I love them all! Esp the multi colored one, and the lilac heart one, that took some paitence!
Post a Comment