Adult - beginners papercut workshop - Letchworth Art Centre

Yesterday I ran a workshop for adults, a beginners course at Letchworth Art Centre for people to have a go at the techniques I use and make their own paper cuts. Only one of the students has a fair bit of art experience, the others had dabbled with art but never made cuts or done printing before. I have taught up to year 13(sixth formers) but this was the first time to teach adults. Though I use a scalpel to make my cuts,the students of the course used craft knives which do the job but are much slower through the paper.

On the day workshop the students made white line and black line cuts, also had a go at cutting text and combined all the methods on single pieces. I initially started the workshop with a simple exercise of a folded A4 piece of paper, using scissors to make cuts and shapes to make faces and abstract shapes. Its a useful start to working with paper as paper cutting is a techniques that about cutting away and it taker while for the brain to get the gist. Bit by bit through the creative juices start flowing and through direct experience of doing the cuts, the students attempted more subtlety of shape and pattern. By 4pm they were still hard at it and didn't want to stop! It was a really lovely day and a great bunch of people to work with and meet.

Photo ©Vanessa Stone Papercut ©Kim Raymont
Photo ©Vanessa Stone Papercut ©Kim Raymont
Photo ©Vanessa Stone Papercut ©Kim Raymont