Paper Cutting

Paper cutting is an art form of cutting paper with a sharp knife and creating designs or pictures. It can be as simple or complicated depending upon the artist’s wish.

I have been making them for several years now and have discovered that they are a really good way to make beautiful artwork with different types of paper. You can even colour those papers according to your requirements or use readymade colour craft papers.

Here, I will discuss my favourite art style of paper cut i.e. with mandala patterns. I will share some basics along with some tips and tricks to make this paper cut art.

Step 1 : Material required

Pencil (light shade).
Ruler, Protractor and geometric compass.
Paper or craft paper.
Cutting Board.
Paper cutting knife/scalpel/pen knife

Step 2 : Tips and Tricks

Don’t use any box cutter knife. It is not useful to get fine and perfect details. Any paper cutting knife/scalpel/pen knife will do a perfect job as it comes to a sharp point and is flexible.
Use Spare blades of knife. When your blades get blunt, do buy new and extra blades. There are lots of different types of blade shape but I haven’t noticed much of a difference in performance.
The thinner the paper is, the easier it is to cut, but the less it will tolerate mistakes and tearing. The thicker the paper you use, the harder it is to cut shapes out, but the more abuse you can put it through.
You can draw your own pattern or picture, like I did or use references or printed images on another piece of paper as per your requirements.

Step 3 : Drawing Mandala pattern

Measure out your paper and pick a point that is the center of the paper, mark that point with pencil so that you can erase it later. Use a drawing compass to draw a circle around the centre point. Measure distance from the center point and draw a series of circles around this centre point. It is not necessary that each circle should be in the same distance, it totally depends upon the pattern which is in your mind to create.

With the help of protractor, mark dots in each degree along the outer edge, with a straight line running from 0° to 180° around the circle, then with a ruler, draw lines going through the centre point by touching the dots of degrees to the last circle of your paper. This will form symmetrical triangles coming from the centre point. They can help you to line up your pattern around the centre point.

Start drawing your pattern within each circle and triangles with pencil. The base which you have created i.e. circles and lines, help you to design any pattern in an equal size and in perfect shape. This design could be leaf, flower, triangles or any other geometric patterns.

Step 3 : Cutting

With support of your fingers hold the paper, and start cutting the internal part of the mandala pattern. Start with the central circle part of the pattern and move forward towards the end circle pattern. Sometime it is easy to rotate the paper, instead of a knife, to cut out a piece, don’t try it in a rush, be patient with your move. Carefully cut out slices of paper from the internal portion of the pattern without touching the borders/lines drawn.

Remove the pieces of cut outs. You may use a knife to lever out the cut out piece of paper and then pull it with your fingers. If it doesn’t come out at first you can use a knife to hold the corner that is stuck with the paper and then pull it out. Remember to take breaks regularly. Stop and look at your work and check the pattern whether it is cut out correctly or not. Do the same process until you cut out the pieces of the last circle pattern. After that you will get your final single cut out piece as shown in the picture. You can decorate it with the help of wall frames or table frames as per your choice.

Hope you will love this art form and will make it in your own style. I am sharing this process with you by my own experience with this art form. All these tips I learnt in the process of creating them, I hope it will help you to create this in a better way.