Arts & Design Culture

Kirigami: The Japanese Art of Folding and Cutting Paper

What is Kirigami? I could define this way, kirigami is symmetrical and an art of folding paper which is cut by scissors to make flower, paper doll, paper snowflake and other designs. It is quite similar to Origami (Folded paper) and seen as one of Japanese traditional arts that has been practicing over times by the Kirigami lovers. Anyone can try it by folding a paper and then cut it on your own way. The result would be a delightful creation.

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What A Beautiful Kirigami Pattern! Photo credit: lilzabubba at Flickr through Creative Common Licensing.

Please note that Kirigami is less popular than Origami. I will give you instructions how to make a Kirigami Cherry Blossom here in this article.

The word Kirigami means “to cut paper

Kiru – To Cut
Gami – Paper

Kirigami does not mean just to cut a piece of paper but it does also mean to fold it before you cut it. This is one of the key characteristics I could tell you right now. So if someone ask you what Kirigami is then you just don’t tell it as cutting a piece of paper since it involves with another issue which means folding a piece of paper. I hope you understand what I meant.

In Japan, Kirigami works are commonly spotted in various Shinto culture and Buddhist festivals. History says, Kirigami was first introduced in Japanese Buddhist temples. It represents elegance, wealth and perfection. I have taken a few classes of making wonderful Kirigami creature, during that time I learnt some patterns such as making maple tree leave, chain dolls and cherry blossoms, origamic architecture.

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Kirigami Pop-up Christmas & Happy New Year Card. Photo credit: Dominic Alves at Flickr through Creative Common Licensing.

3D Kirigami and Pop-Up Cards are also categorized as Kirigami because they need to fold a piece of paper first then start cutting to create beautiful designs or patterns. Pop-up card is very popular craft idea specially for kids. They can make this type of card of celebrating Birthday, New Year, HalloweenValentine’s Day and Christmas. In order to make handmade greeting cards Kirigami is the first choice, this is what I believe. It is also very popular when you have decorated packages.

It is hard for me to tell you which one is harder to make some objects Origami or Kirigami. From my point of view, I think both are easy if you know some basic techniques on the other hand both are hard to make if you have not got any knowledge on these two forms of Japanese arts. In fact, some people feel that Kirigami is easy than Origami. I agree with it because to make a paper chain of dolls you don’t have to spend much time as you spend for making Origami.

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Kirigami Supplies. Photo credit: lilzabubba at Flickr through Creative Common Licensing.

Kirigami Supplies are simple and can be found easily in your house. To practice kirigami art you must have to have a scissor and few pieces of paper. I think both of these supplies are available at home.

You can apply your Kirigami knowledge into your home decor idea. There are many snowflake patterns you can learn from various Japanese Craft Books. I wish you would learn kirigami techniques seriously so that you could be a good artist in Kirigami. Then, it will be very easy and comfortable for you to make snowflakes, flowers, deer, maple tree leaves, spider for Halloween and etc. You can learn how to make Kirigami flowers visiting this page.

Learn Some Kirigami Instructions with Step by Step Tutorials

Making Kirigami Cherry Blossom

Are you interested in Kirigami art? If you are then why don’t you learn it right now! Yeah, it is the time which will lead you to be an expert in Kirigami art. Before we start, make sure you have got basic Kirigami supplies. Ok, lets get started!

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Origami Pentagon Base. Photo Credit: takkhis

Step 1 – To get the exact shape before cutting the paper who have to make a Pentagon out of a square paper. Learn how to make a Kirigami Pentagon. Make sure you learn that first and then come back here again to continue learning this craft idea. I suppose you have the right shape now. Place it on a table.

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Follow the Pattern I Draw Here. Photo credit: takkhis

Step 2 – Now, you have to draw a pattern shown in the picture above.

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After Cutting the Paper You Get This Shape. Photo Credit: takkhis

Step 3 – Discarding the remainder you will have to cut the paper along the pattern that you just drew.

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Take A Look at This Cherry Flower! It Is Looks Nice.

Step 4 – This is the final step. Unfold it and WOW! You have created a nice Cherry flower!

I apologies for uploading bad looking photos, to be honest, I took this with my phone not with my camera. Thanks for understanding.

To learn more Kirigami instruction, I suggest you to visit the following pages given below:

1) How to make a paper snowflake

2) How to make a Kirigami Spiderweb

3) How to Make Maple Leaves

Indeed, Kirigami is a fun activity especially for little kids. They need small size of scissors to make Kirigami and you always have to be watchful, accident may happen while doing this. To find special scissors for your kids, please visit here. You better stay with them and see how they make Kirigami learning from you or from book. I have a little cousin who tries to make leaves and flowers. My aunt helps him, in fact, she has a Kirigami book from where she teaches her son. By visiting this page, your kids may learn how to make a paper snowflake, easy pop-up card, paper spider web, Christmas tree and so on.

Well, that’s it for today, I hope you have enjoyed reading about Kirigami Art. Make sure you learn it if you just loved it!

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