Scherenschnitte––

Fight The Winter Blahs With Paper And  Scissors

By Dottie Evans

Anyone who knows Caroline Stokes would find it hard to believe this longtime Sandy Hook resident and Booth Library collections curator is ever at a loss for something to do.

Yet there must have been a few idle moments around 20 years ago for Mrs Stokes, who was already a skilled needlecrafter. She had learned the art of tole, or decorative painting on tinware, from her friend, Newtown teacher of Early American decorative art, Lorraine Vanderwende. But she was looking for something that was simpler and more portable.

“I was on a holiday in Bermuda and I saw this woman doing it. She was cutting a pattern of Noah’s Ark and you can imagine how complicated that was. I asked her if I could have a copy of the design, and that’s how it all started.”

So Mrs Stokes took up a new hobby –– scherenschnitte, or scissor cutting –– and within a short time, she found herself teaching classes in it at the Booth Library.

“We had them in the Old Meeting Room before the addition was put up,” she said.

A small exhibit of scherenschnitte created by Mrs Stokes is on display this month in the library’s first floor glass display case that stands in the hall just past the children’s library. Anyone who has ever cut out a snowflake or made a paper chain of hearts by cutting and folding construction paper would enjoy this exhibit, and can relate to scherenschnitte.

Mrs Stokes maintains that she took up the craft “just to keep myself busy,” and “because my mother had always done handwork,” but it seems more likely that its appeal was a more basic one.

“It’s not complicated and it’s not expensive,” Mrs Stokes said, “and you can take it anywhere, except not on an airplane now because of the scissors.”

All that is needed is a flat box, such as a stationery box, some good embroidery scissors, and a pattern that can be reproduced on a copy machine.

Best of all, Mrs Stokes added, “when you’re just snipping, you never make a serious mistake.”

She has become so enamored of the craft that she takes it up for an hour at a time, “sometimes while watching television,” and has always got a new pattern she is working on –– or an old favorite that she’s kept tucked away. The end product, which she said, “can be completed within an hour,” is glued to a colored backing and may be framed, or used as a card to accompany a gift, or sent as a valentine.

During a recent interview in the Church Hill Road home where she and her husband, Bob Stokes, have lived for more than 50 years, Mrs Stokes demonstrated scherenschnitte and even persuaded a visitor to take it up.

“Just try it. You can do it as you talk,” she said. “It’s easy!”

Embroidery Scissors, A Pattern,

And A Box To Catch The Clippings

As she snipped, Mrs Stokes shared a few snippets of advice.

“Before I begin to cut, I poke holes in the places where the point of the scissors will go. I use an old hat pin. That way it’s easier to make the first cuts.”

“Always make a Xerox copy of your pattern to keep one on file. Don’t cut your original or you’ll never have it again. I’ve tried to draw patterns from the original, and it’s not as good as making a Xerox. That’s so much easier,” she said.

“You can teach yourself scherenschnitte; I never had a lesson and I’ve never seen an expert do it,” except, she noted, at the St Rose Christmas Craft Fair where there is a Chinese man who comes every year and does cuttings.

“He’s amazingly fast. He does profiles without even looking down,” she said.

The white paper, which may be heavy parchment or even a good copy paper, is cut out on the pattern side first. Then the completed design is turned over so only the white side shows. This is glued down on a black background, or onto a background of some other solid color.

“I don’t use construction paper as a background because it fades. Get a better quality paper, and don’t use white Elmer’s glue because it runs. Better to use those glue sticks you can get at the drugstore.”

Finally, Mrs Stokes advises anyone who wants to begin scherenschnitte to keep an eye out for patterns, and make copies as soon as possible.

“Put them in a safe place so you’ll always have them. And be on the lookout for old frames.”

The craft of scissor cutting was probably invented as soon as there was paper, she said.

“The Chinese and the early Hebrews began cutting designs a long time ago. The more modern-day word for it, scherenschnitte, is Swiss-German, and the Pennsylvania Dutch have taken it up in this country,” she added.

Many examples of this popular form of folk art may be found in the 1800s, when scherenschnitte designs were used to decorate birth and marriage certificates and to create Christmas decorations for the home.