A CUT ABOVE
Skilled paper-cutter Anita Bowerman offered to hold a class for nuns at a North Yorkshire monastery. Having revisited 200-yearold paper-cut work in their archives at Stanbrook Abbey, the sisters were keen to unravel some of the mysteries of the craft.
BENEDICTINE NUNS at a North Yorkshire abbey are hard at work mastering a skill which was in danger of being lost to their community forever.
Having revisited intricate 200-year-old paper-cut work in their archives at Stanbrook Abbey, the sisters were keen to unravel some of the mysteries of the traditional craft.
A chance meeting led them to Harrogate artist and skilled paper-cutter Anita Bowerman, who offered to hold a workshop for the nuns at the abbey.
Aware that this could resurrect an ancient and historically important craft, the nuns welcomed her to their home on the slopes of the North York Moors National Park.
Abbess Andrea Savage said: “Aware that we were making history in our own day, the magic of reviving this special craft was evident in the delight of the nuns who had never done this before.
“It’s a joy for us to resurrect an old tradition which could so easily have been lost to the community.”
Paper-cutting was once practised by monastic communities in the 17th century as a way of earning a living.
Anita, who is based at the Dove Tree Art Studio and Gallery in Harrogate, said: “What a joy it was to teach eight pupils, whose ages ranged from 30 to 80. They easily picked up the basics and created perfect paper-cuts.”
The nuns also discovered a significant work of art in the archives – a framed English Coat of Arms first created in their original monastery at Cambrai, northern France.