Papercutting in Mexico is called papel picado. It is considered a folk art and has its own tradition behind it. A couple getting married in Mexico wanted me to design a ketubah in the style of papel picado. Many of the traditional motifs involve skeletons, doves, and roses. And the colors are usually very bold. I focused on drawing doves and hummingbirds in a Mexican folk style and added flowers and plants that one would find in Mexico.
Papel picado is traditionally created using a very particular technique. Artists in Mexico will settle upon a design and put a large stack of colored tissue paper underneath. The design is then cut out using a chisel and mallet. This gives papel picado a coarse finish, but given that they are usually made for hanging on banners for outdoor events and are then discarded, it makes sense to do it this way. A ketubah, however, has to stand up to the ravages of time. Thus instead of tissue paper, substitute the finest art materials, and Instead of mallet and chisel, I used blades in order to get the clean lines and precise look that a papercut ketubah deserves.
I will be adapting this design for standard ketubahs, so check back in my shop section or send me a message to find out when it will become available.
