Zulfiya Dadashova is a master in the manufacture of paper trimming, the author of several popular books on this type of art for beginners and schoolchildren, a well-known blogger who exhibits his works, postcards, pictures and tunnel cubes, you can buy them on the website or order a separate scheme cutting to try to make such a beauty yourself.
Thanks to the works of this master, interest in this ancient and recently forgotten art form has significantly increased. In the article, we will consider several interesting works of Zulfiya Dadashova, get acquainted with her books, and also remember what are the poppies and when such a beautiful art of carving figures appeared.
What is a vytynanka?
The ancient craft of paper cutting appeared in China, almost simultaneously with its occurrence, although much earlier people from different countries carved patterns on leather or birch bark, on fabric and even foil. In the homeland of paper, this art is called Jianzhi.
Since paper was very expensive from the first years of its birth, only wealthy people owned it, only a few craftsmen were engaged in cutting. With the advent of factories producing this material, it became more accessible to a wide circle of the population and decoration was also done by craftsmen in our country. Slavic peoples decorated such dwellings with their protruding homes, often using paper-cut stencils for painting on the walls of rooms.
For large church holidays and weddings, cards were cut out, which were mostly symmetrical, as they were made by folding a sheet of paper in half. The word "vytynanka" itself comes from the Ukrainian "vytynannya", which translates as cutting. Everyone in childhood tried to make Christmas snowflakes or Christmas trees in this way.
In Western Europe, masters valued silhouette carving when portraits or views of nature were created from a white sheet, and then the finished image was attached to a contrasting background.
In the creative works of Zulfiya Dadashova you can find both symmetrical crafts and silhouette volumetric pictures. Many figures are made separately, and then connected into the big picture by layer-by-layer attachment in special cubic boxes.
Description of the artist's work
Who wants to get acquainted with the master’s work in more detail, you can go to the blog of Zulfiya Dadashova, where she posted a huge number of crafts, both planar and voluminous.
There are simple postcards that have only the title page carved, and there are paper figurines similar to the camel presented above. It seems that he is about to take a step forward and go far from the arch. Many of the smallest elements carved by the diligent hands of Zulfiya Dadashova make the work openwork.
Tunnel cubes
Another way to do the work is to place cut-out paintings in layers in a paper cube. It is composed of several layers, which all have the same shape and are assembled on PVA glue around the perimeter.
On each part, one of the elements of the general image is cut with a clerical knife. This is a very delicate and responsible work. One wrong move - and you have to redo the element again. Then the components are connected together, the parts are placed with a shift so as not to overlap one another. In the online collection of works "Country of Masters" Zulfiya Dadashova put up many such cubic tunnels on various topics. This is not only a beautiful picture in a frame, but also a great gift for a birthday or anniversary. There are wedding cubes for Christmas themes.
Postcards for the holidays
The talented craftswoman and postcards for all the holidays did not pass her attention. The performed works contain plots of spring or winter nature, which can be presented to a loved one for New Year or March 8. There are many patterns of numbers with carved patterns, which you can try to cut on anniversaries.
Zulfiya Dadashova decorated the openwork vysytanka of figure 8 with climbing plants with twigs and leaves and placed patterns on the cover side of the postcard. The work was done on dense colored paper, and a background of a different color is visible from below. Such a beautiful card will be a pleasant surprise for any woman on Women's Day in March.
A voluminous postcard with a carved figure eight mounted on a round base is beautifully made.
Winter cards
For New Year's holidays, the artist designed greeting cards both in cubes and on flat sheets.
Carved New Year's cards by Zulfiya Dadashova include elegant Christmas trees that have a complex geometric ornament, and snowflakes such as the one in the sample in the photo above, and voluminous landscape pictures in cubes-tunnels. Work on such straight lines is quite painstaking and takes a lot of time and effort. It is necessary to be able not only to make a neat drawing of the craft, but also to work very carefully with a clerical knife. If you want to repeat the work, do not forget to substitute a piece of plywood or a board under a sheet of paper so as not to cut the countertop.
Author's books
Devoting all the free time to the art of vytynanka, the craftswoman decided to share her skills with beginning masters and school-age children. As an author, Dadashova wrote several popular books on this technique. This is “Magic paper” (3 books), “Carved postcards”, as well as many “Creative kits”, in which there are step-by-step photographs of crafts, written instructions for completing work and special metallized paper with a picture-cutting scheme drawn on it. The Ast-Press Book publishes such sets.
Zulfiya Dadashova gladly shares her schemes and knowledge with beginners.