Well, better late than never! Our store is back open, the pumpkins have arrived, and school for girls is underway. Shew. Kate's doing pretty well, and mostly working on her own, though we've had a few sit-down sessions with botany. We want to do some more botanical drawing and herb study, but need the schedule to settle out a bit more. She's starting to teach sewing lessons in a week or two also, so she's excited about that. For Jo, we've mostly been a cheerleading squad... "You can do it, you can do it, if you put your mind to it! We don't care how you do it, Do it, Do it, Do it! Goooooo Jo!"

Anyway, to get back to folk art, I thought I'd start with scherenschnitte, since I don't exactly have to think a whole lot to talk about it! First of all, how to pronounce it! It's "Sharon" like the name, "shnit-tuh" with not much emphasis on the "uh" part. It literally means "scissors-snipping" and refers to Pennsylvania German papercuttings. The art of papercutting goes back many centuries. They were used in early China as an at form and as patterns for kimono embroidery. The Mexican people also made papercuttings for holidays such as Cinco de Mayo. Papercutting was very popular in Europe. Poland and other slavic countries made brightly colored papercuts from layers of paper called "wycinanki." However, the scherenschnitte style we'll be looking at has its roots in the Swiss and German peoples that immigrated to Pennsylvania in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

The WHO of scherenschnitte are the Pennsylvania German people. William Penn was granted land in the wilderness of America by King Charles II, who owed a large debt to Penn's father, Sir William Penn. William Penn, the younger, was a bit of a thorn in King Charles's side, as he held Quaker beliefs and was bold enough to preach these beliefs in public. After Penn was imprisoned several times, Charles decided to pay the old debt by granting a huge tract of land to Penn if he wold leave England. This tract was called "Penn's forest" or "Penn's Sylvania." William Penn liked the idea, and realized that if his colony was going to be successful he would need to recruit industrious people. He also wanted to offer a place of peace to others who were being persecuted for their religious beliefs. He offered land to fellow Quakers, Anabaptists, Amish, Mennonites, and other protestant sects currently facing persecution. Penn encouraged skills labourers to emigrate... blacksmiths, carpenters, papermakers (important to our subject!), and many other trades. Along with their skills, the immigrants brought their love of color and decoration to the colony. The Pennsylvania Germans were a thrifty people... they never wasted anything, includiing bits of paper. And, we'll look at WHAT they made with paper on the next post!