A good eyesight, steady hands for scissors and a whole lot of persistence are just some of the traits needed to create Swiss paper silhouettes. However, common sense would dictate that adding nine active children renders any of these skills useless...
This is not the case with Jolanda Brändle, the artist behind the stunning advertisement for the Olma exhibit. Not only is she a talented craftswoman for paper silhouettes, she is also the mother of nine children from 2 to 16 years of age!
When we met with Mrs. Brändle at her booth, she explained that she had learned the skills to create paper cutouts in a workshop. "I wanted to differentiate myself by not showing any cows... Everyone is doing cows!", she said with a laugh. So she draws the inspiration for her unique designs from everyday life – with the occasional cow.
While the Brändles run a farm, her paper cutout hobby has evolved into a veritable side business. "At night, when the kids are in bed and my husband switches on the TV, I usually grab my utensils and start clipping."
She always keeps her box containing scissors, pen and paper nearby to produce new cutouts for her clients. The masterpieces for Olma ’12 required 60 hours of work and sold for several thousand Francs:
[…] all the traditional folk arts, paper or silhouette cutting celebrates Swissness in ways none others manage to achieve. In French, this craft is […]