Scherenschnitte

Scherenschnitte. Excuse me! Actually, scherenschnitte (shear-n-SNIT-a) is the German art of paper cutting that dates back to the 1500's. Many of the principles of scherenschnitte are shared with scenic fretwork. You have to design the pattern in such a way that the finished cutting is one piece, but still retains the detail of a drawing. However, scherenschnitte tends to be more silhouette oriented and the cut design usually represent the shadows.

I have found a great gallery of scherenschnitte designs by Karin Dickel-Jonasch. Her main website is in German, and since the website is flash based, translation tools won't help. But her gallery is fantastic. Here's a direct link to her gallery. Its really neat to look at these type of designs, as they're much more unusual than the patterns we typically create. It definitely has its own aesthetic and her designs obviously have reference to folk and fairy tales. Take a look. I think they'll really be a great inspiration to some of your own designs.