Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Snowflakes fell on Bahrain last week as the queen of paper-cuts Irena Boobyer showed schoolchildren how to make intricate artwork from the pages of GulfWeekly.
Fresh from a series of exhibitions in the UK, the retired British teacher who helped children with visual and multi-sensory impairments develop a love of art, introduced paper cutting to GCSE and A’ level students at the British School of Bahrain.
“I thought I would show them how to make snowflakes appear in sunny Bahrain as many will probably never have experience seeing them in real life – unless they travel back to the UK for Christmas, of course. And, it also went to prove what a very useful newspaper the kingdom’s favourite read can be!”
One student was so thrilled to make her paper-cut she plans to incorporate the experience into her examination coursework and add an Arabic touch to her assignment by incorporating calligraphic elements to the exercise.
Irena, 64, from Devon, who is on holiday in the kingdom with her garage owning husband, John, 67, went on to explain the history of paper-cutting with examples of early Chinese work and also discussed the rich Polish cultural tradition which influenced her first experiments after spending childhood summer holidays in the Eastern European country with her late father.
As reported earlier in GulfWeekly, she is a member of Exmouth Art Group. Her paper-cuts are intricate constructions that often include text, pattern and shape.
Irena’s work often evolves from a single sheet of paper or fabric where patterns and ideas are manipulated using a simple pair of scissors.
The pages of GulfWeekly proved just as popular although it was hoped the students read the news before cutting into it.
Teacher Emily McKee said: “It was really fascinating and the pupils adored experimenting with the art form – the classroom was absolutely full of snowflakes by the end of the session!”
Irena also visited St Christopher’s School for a classroom session yesterday.
