Pergamano: The Art of Parchment Craft

     Pergamano, also called parchment craft, is paper art in one of its most beautiful forms. It is a fabulously versatile art that combines a number of techniques (such as tracing, embossing, perforating, stippling, cutting and coloring) on parchment paper or vellum to produce some pretty spectacular results.

 

(South American Parchment Craft by Janet Wilson)

     Thought to have originated in Europe in the 15^th or 16^th century, it was primarily used by Catholic craftspeople to create intricate, lace-like cards and pictures for religious purposes. Not surprisingly, it soon became popular with craftspeople outside of the Catholic community as well.

     When Catholic missionaries and settlers moved to South America, they took Pergamano with them. As in Europe, it didn’t stay contained within the Catholic communities for long, but quickly spread to the general populous where it grew into a universally practiced art form.

     With the invention of the printing press, desire for handmade cards waned in Europe and parchment crafting slipped into obscurity until a renewed interest in elaborately detailed handmade crafts in the 18^th century ushered in a sort of Pergamano Renaissance.

     Since then, there have been many new techniques and tools introduced and Pergamano is still popular in many countries around the world today.  

Pergamano Tools:

     Following are examples of some of the tools used to create the pictures and lace-like affects Pergamano is famous for:  

Mapping pen or white pencil - Designs are commonly traced onto the parchment paper using a mapping pen and acrylic ink or a white pencil. 

 

 

 

Embossing tools – Embossing, which creates the effect of shading and dimensional designs in Pergamano, is accomplished by using specialized tools of various size; ranging from ‘large’ to ‘extra fine’ and ‘stylus’ (for intricate details and very fine lines), and can be made of different materials that produce different effects (i.e. plastic for lighter embossing or steel for ‘brighter’ whites). The larger the tool used, the ‘grayer’ the color of the embossed area. Smaller, or ‘finer’ tips create a whiter, more ‘satiny’ look.  

 

Needle tools – Needle tools are used for perforating to create Pergamano’s lace-like effects.  They have either single or multiple points and are used for different purposes. A single needle tool is typically used for embossing or stippling, a #2 tool is for even perforations that will be cut by scissors, a #4 tool is square-shaped and used for lace patterns, #’s 3,5 & 7, as well as half-circle tools are used for creating decorative effects within the pattern. 

Multi-Grids – Multi-grids are pre-designed metal plates with evenly spaced holes and pre-determined shapes that are very helpful in embossing and perforating. 

 

 

Pergamano Techniques:

      The first step in creating your Pergamano masterpiece is to trace your chosen design onto parchment paper. Tracing lays down the design to be embossed and is accomplished using a mapping pen and ink (usually white but other colors can be used) or a white pencil if you prefer. Parchment paper has two sides, one rough and one smooth. The tracing is done on the rough side since the ink adheres more readily to this type of surface. When tracing, one must be careful to use little pressure as this could use too much ink or create unintentional embossing.

 

 

     After the design is traced onto the parchment, it’s time to emboss it. Embossing creates areas of raised relief, both concave and convex, within a design. Using embossing tools and pad, the parchment is rubbed in an up-and-down or side-to-side ‘coloring’ motion with increasing pressure to evenly stretch the parchment. Fully embossed designs appear ‘satiny white’ in comparison with the translucent paper around them. How white the design is can be varied by how intensively the shape is embossed. ‘Light’ embossing will produce light indention with very little white color where ‘heavy’ embossing will create a deep indention and brighter white color. A stylus tool can be used to create fine lines or hatching.

 

(M55 by Pergamano International)

 

     Once the design is embossed, some of the following decorative techniques can be employed: 

Stippling is a decorative technique that creates a matte white surface and is accomplished by using a single needle tool within a lightly embossed area to perforate small holes close together. This type of perforation is accomplished by using a cardboard pad rather than the typical foam or felt pad to keep the needle from completely piercing the parchment. 

 

(M54 by Pergamano International)

 

Perforating is used to create the lace-like patterns. Using needle tools the parchment is punctured so as to create evenly spaced holes that can be decorative designs in and of themselves or cut for different designs within the work. (Perforating has been extensively employed in the above picture.)

Cutting is used in combination with perforating. It can be used with 2 needle groups to remove shapes from the design or with 4 needle groups to create crosses or strips. 

 

(Pergamano Parchment Craft by Martha Ospina)

 

Coloring, or ‘dorsing’, is a technique in which a soft background color is applied to embossed areas. Color can be applied using oil pastels or special Dorso crayons, as well as, felt-tip pens, markers, watercolor pencils, acrylic paint or inks.

 

(M1 by Pergamano International)

 

Good News and Bad News

     If there's a downside, it’s that Pergamano is rather time consuming and labor intensive. But that is just about the only downside. On the upside, it is relatively inexpensive and doesn’t require a high degree of artistic training. Practically any design can become a work of parchment art. With the right tools and a little patience, you can easily create stunning cards, bookmarks and decorations like the ones shown here. (If you want to learn more, YouTube has a number of excellent demo videos and classes to help you learn and master this astonishing craft.)

 

(M19 by Pergamano International)

 

 

Origami Paper: Not Just For Folding Anymore!

     This month at Golden Seed Arts & Media we’re having fun with origami paper. Origami is the ancient Japanese art of paper folding which, traditionally, called for paper to be skillfully molded into such objects as flowers, animals and insects. They even created beautiful, handcrafted papers to add an artistic dimension to their work.

     Although you may not realize it, you are probably already quite familiar with origami. Who didn’t, sometime during their childhood, take a piece of paper and pleat it in accordion style to make a fan on a hot day or experiment with different designs for paper airplanes? Or make a Fortuneteller? Or a paper football?

The Origins of Japanese Origami
     Paper as we know it was first invented in China about 105 A.D. and introduced to Japan by Buddhist monks sometime during the 6^th century. Early on, since paper was quite expensive and considered a luxury item, origami was reserved strictly for religious ceremonies.
     Later, as popularity of the art grew, it became part of other ceremonies as well. During the Heian period (794-1185) Samurai Warriors added noshi, tokens of good luck made from folded strips of paper, to the gifts they exchanged. There is even a reference in a poem written by Ihara Saikaku in 1680 describing the origami butterflies that represented the bride and groom in Shinto weddings.
     Originally, origami techniques were passed along through oral tradition but the first book on the subject, the ‘Tsutsumi-no Ki’, was published by Sadatake Ise in 1764 and was strictly concerned with ceremonial folds, such as the noshi. The first book dedicated to purely recreational origami, the ‘Senbazuru Orikata’ or “How to Fold One Thousand Cranes”, appeared in 1797.

Origami Goes Global

     Although the Japanese are famous for elevating origami to an art form, people around the world have been playing with paper for more than a thousand years. The Chinese have quite a history with the art of paper folding (which they call ‘Zhe Zhi’), contending, in fact, that origami actually originated in China. And there is some evidence dating from at least 1,000 A.D. to back up their claim in the form of the ‘yuanbao’ (paper folded to look like gold nuggets that are then burned as an offering for deceased relatives) and Golden Venture Folding (3D triangular units of paper that are assembled into large models).
     The first evidence that origami had spread to Europe came in an illustration of a small folded paper boat in the 1490 book “De Sphaera Muni”. Origami historians conjecture that paper folding in Europe might have come from the Moors, who’d already been practicing the art for centuries, rather than via the Silk Road from the orient as one might assume.
     It wasn’t until the 1950’s that origami became the popular global sensation we know today, a movement fostered by Akira Yoshizana and Sam Randlett’s development of the standardized system of symbols currently used in origami diagrams. There are now literally thousands of origami books, free diagrams and videos available on the internet.

Types of Origami Paper

     Kami (meaning ‘paper’ in Japanese) is a thin paper specifically created to hold a crease well (the only real requirement for origami paper!). The most widely used for origami, it was originally developed for use in schools. Origami paper now comes in lots of grades, types, sizes, colors and patterns. Typically, they are square in shape but can also be round or rectangular, and are colored on one side and white on the other, though there are exceptions to this as well.

Some of the different kinds of origami papers (with a few examples) include: 

·         Duo paper which has one color on the top and another on the bottom and is employed for projects where both ends of the paper will be visible.

 

·         Foil paper which has a metallic finish on one side but is white on the other.

·         Washi paper which is softer and more textured than ordinary paper. There are actually many different kinds of washi made from different plant fibers.

·         Yuzen or Chiyogami paper which is a kind of washi paper that is decorated by Japanese imagery, such as that seen on traditional Japanese kimonos. In earlier times, the repeating pattern on chiyogami paper was applied with woodblocks but today is achieved through silkscreen techniques.

 

·         Shinwazome paper which is another type of printed washi that is thick in texture because of embossed and raised patterns. My personal favorite, shinwazome is the most luxurious of the papers because it is often embossed with gold.

 

·         Monigami paper is the same color on both sides and has a leather-like texture because it is made from the bark of the Mulberry Tree. Because of its durability and pliability, monigami paper is used for projects needing a crinkled texture.

     While origami paper has ancient origins, in recent times artisans have found more uses for these gorgeous papers than just folding them into amazing shapes. Origami paper is not only beautiful, but versatile as well. I’m having a great time exploring ways of incorporating it with a variety of different techniques and mediums to produce some pretty stunning results. Check out my origami paper creations at The Golden Seed (click on the 'Bazaar' tab)!

 

 

 

The Golden Seed

Golden Seed Arts & Media, Inc. was born in 2005 as a home-based crafting business. We have since expanded into an online shop, http://www.goldenseedshop.com, offering a variety of products featuring international designs and themes.

We're also very excited to announce the recent opening of our bookstore featuring works from our newly formed publishing division: Indiependence Press.

We are still in the process of transitioning from a small, home-based crafting business to a larger, online format so please excuse our 'mess' as we expand and check back often as more products are added weekly.