Parchment Crafts

Parchment craft can be best defined as a classic old world decorative paper craft that basically originated in Latin America in mid 16th century and consisted of creating lace work on parchment paper. Another name that signifies this art is 'Pergamano', which came from Spanish words, "Perga", which means parchment, and "Mano," which means hands. Pergamano was basically the trade name for parchment craft supplies, but, now used world wide to describe this fascinating craft. The techniques involved in beautiful parchment art includes tracing, embossing (raising a pattern), perforating, dorsing, and painting on parchment paper.

Parchment craft is basically the art of working with parchment paper, which is a translucent and pale gray paper, until it is embossed. There exists numerous painting and perforating techniques that can be applied to make a very elegant looking piece of parchment artwork. The world of parchment craft enables one to make beautiful cards for any occasion, envelopes, lamp shades, real-looking flowers book-marks, boxes, and much more.

History of Parchment
The first parchment was crafted from the skin of sheep or goats, which was specially tanned to provide a smooth surface to write on, in the town of Perganum in Western Turkey. Parchment craft is a very ancient craft, which was originally used in its earliest stages by monks for decorating religious scripts. It began in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands where the Catholic faith was strongest and worked up by Nuns for making devotional pictures and communication cards.

The beauty of the art
It all started somewhere around 200 years ago that decorative edges around pictures and cards came into style. During the 18th century, larger pieces of parchment were popularly used which opened the door for hand decorated borders to be created to embellish the central motif. The perforations this artwork carries is hand made. In all its forms, the art of parchment design is an amalgamation of techniques gathered throughout the centuries, with every culture adding some of its own character, and this is the reason that the simplicity of this ideal, bright-colored work has become highly popular.

The Present day history.
Over the years parchment craft has emerged as an easy and elegant art, which not only satisfies one's creative urges but also delights the recipients of the cards and other wonderful things that can be made out from parchment paper. Parchment art has quickly established itself as a popular hobby, allowing the crafter to create beautiful cards, boxes, bookmarks and gift tags, personalized for the recipient. It has now become very popular and is also taught in many convents. In the present times, people all over the world has joined the creative world of parchment crafts, and re-discovered a lovely ancient art.