Are the papel picado banners made by laser cutting machines?
Absolutely not! Papel picado or paper cut banners are a very old Mexican tradition dating back to the 17th century. Traditionally using “papel de china” (tissue paper), the original paper was imported from China. Stacks of tissue paper are cut with chisels and hammers by expert artists (with strong arms), cutting every little cut into the stack of paper. One wrong move and the stack of paper is ruined. The artist that makes our papel picado is an award winning, seventy + year artist who draws every banner design. His detail contains double the cutouts and work as most commonly found banners and his rick rack bottom edges go back to photographs of papel picado he found in his research and in museum collections. His work is exquisite and I’m sure you will enjoy looking at it.
