Papercutting is the art of cutting paper designs.

The art has evolved uniquely all over the

world to adopt to different cultural styles.

The oldest surviving paper cut out is a symmetrical circle from the 6th century found in Xinjiang China.

By the eighth or ninth century papercutting appeared in West Asia and in Turkey in the 16th century. Within a century, papercutting was being done in most of middle Europe.

Scherenschnitte means "scissors cutting" and is the German and Swiss art of paper cutting. Wycinanki also means "scissors cutting" and is a Polish style of papercutting.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/DogYearPaperCutting.jpg

Wycinanki also means "scissors cutting" and is a Polish style of papercutting.

Scherenschnitte (shear-n-SNIT- a) which means "scissor cuts" in German is the art papercutting design. The art work often has symmetry within the design. The art tradition was founded in Switzerland and Germany in the 1500s and was brought to Colonial America in the 1700s by immigrants who settled primarily in Pennsylvania.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_language

Papel picado ("perforated paper") is the Mexican art of papercutting into elaborate designs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papercutting

• Here's more....

• info - http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/wycinanki/text.html

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• patterns - http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/wycinanki/kurpie.pdf