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Paper & cardboard - cutting, folding and pasting as folk art Tramp-art.com
| Within the antique and collectables market there survives a large body of diverse works that are crafted using paper or cardboard. Crafts made from recycled matchbooks, cigar bands, newspapers, greeting cards, wallpaper, postage stamps, candy, cigarette and gum wrappers - were cut, pasted, decoupage and folded onto (or made into) a variety of utilitarian items such as baskets, boxes, table tops, and dishes. Then there are the paper objects such as silhouettes, collages and cut paper pictures that are decorative art based works. Lacking a common language to describe these items we shall use Paper crafts to reference such items produced during the American crafts movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s. |
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"Cut-paper pictures" and scissors
art . Most every child shares the experience of
folding a sheet of paper and scissoring a chain of jointed paper
dolls. This technique of folding and cutting is so "main stream"
it hardly seems worth mentioning yet a lot of folk art has been made using
this principle. Another form of picture making is achieved by
removing areas within a sheet of paper in such a way that the loss and the
remaining paper forms a design or picture. This is to paper what fretwork
is to wood. There is no folding in this ancient technique just
cutting. This technique is seen in antique "cut-paper
pictures" called Scherenschnitte, a popular American folk craft
of the 1800s. Several cut-out sheets might be used in a work to
achieve more complexity. This craft is practiced to this day.
Silhouettes are paper cut profiles of people and on occasions other items perhaps a pet for example. The technique is simple - trace a shadow on a sheet of paper and trace and cut for a likeness. Very popular before the invention of photography (1840s) the craft survives to this day. Specialist crafters employed a complicated device called a "Physiognotrace" that streamlined and simplified the process. Such labor saving devices allowed for a popular commerce in silhouettes, sitting for your picture in silhouette parlors or for itinerant crafters. Several of these crafter's work have become very collectable in the antique market . Often a crafter might "pen and ink" in various details for more decorative works. |
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Prison
Art: In the movie classic "The Man With The Golden Arm,"
(1955) star Frank Sinatra, on being
released from prison, presents his
wife with a belt made of woven cigarette packs. Prison art describes
folk art objects made from folded and woven
gum wrappers, cigarette
packs (with & without the cellophane), paper bags, matchbook covers and similar
recycled materials. "Prison Art" can describe arts and crafts MADE BY prison inmates and includes works such as paintings drawings, sculptures or whatever. For our purposes we use "Prison Art" to describe a paper folding craft enjoyed and practiced by the public at large. During the 1960s a popular school girl art was crafting gum wrapper chains. Prison art is often referred to as tramp art. This website provides an argument that this is mistaken. |
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Below is a scan of a 1960s era leaflet - showing various uses for recycled gum wrappers
make a gum wrapper chain,
Click on thumb nails - click BACK to return page 1 |
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Below is a scan of a 1960s era leaflet - showing paper folding techniques for making chains
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instructions on how to make a Prison Art picture frame can be found in the following book "BY HAND - 25 Beautiful Objects to Make in the American Folk Art Tradition" by Janice Eaton Kilby, Lark Books, 2001. see page 82 for instructions on crafting a "Folded Paper Bullseye Mirror Frame" (do not ask us to copy this information as this is a contemporary book and is protected by copyright - please, you find the book) |
