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| Sunday, 09 March 2003 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Papertole- a fascinating form of art by Vimukthi Fernando A little boy with a puppy in his arms, a cartful of dogs standing by. A
garden full of butterflies, and a basketful of flowers. Exquisite. Are
they real? Questions arise in my mind....The basket of flowers seems Papertole is the attraction. The specialty and the secret lies in its simplicity says Vittachi, pointing out that there are many male students in her classes whether it is Colombo or outstation. "You do not need special talent, but the basic knowledge and a little bit of imagination." What is papertole? It is the simple craft of making three dimensional images out of two dimensional prints/picture. It is also a fascinating form of art and craft of depth, contour and perception. Definitely an addictive form of craft for you can immerse yourself in its intricacy and ingenuity, forgetting the world around you. How do you create a papertole? It is by cutting out certain parts of different prints of identical prints and then, by shaping and gluing the pieces to the base print to form a three dimensional image. Usually six or more copies of the same print is used to create a papertole. Imagination plays a vital role here for the natural perspective could only be gained by properly and skilfully shaping each cut out piece before gluing. This sculpturing adds realism to the picture and makes an image truly magnificent.Papertole is known to have originated from the 17th century 'decoupage' techniques of the French. Decoupe meaning to cut out - the crafters of the day embedded cut out designs into furniture by applying successive coats of lacquer, sometimes using about 15 to 20 coats. Another origin of papertole is traced back to the 12th century peasant China and Japan. The revival of papertole happened in the heartlands of USA, in the 1930 during the depression era. At that time it was customary for the households to receive multiple Christmas cards with the same image, from different charity agencies.This early papertole used only three to four copies of identical prints.
Papertole craft could have been in Sri Lanka also for many years, says Daisy Vittachi. However, she had learned the craft in Singapore and introduced it to her handicraft students about 8 years back. However, "our Sri Lankan women are very talented for they come up with a lot of new ideas and innovations. They have inborn creativity", says Vittachi. |
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have a particular charm which makes the veteran handicraft instructor and
designer like it. "This was done by my daughter, when she was
14," explains Daisy Vittachi. "Anybody can do it, irrespective
of the differences in age, sex and so on."
As the craft gained momentum moving from layering techniques to actual
paper sculpting the number of prints grew as well. Though only about 6
prints are used in a normal papertole, some masterpieces could hold more
than 10 layers.
