Her Art Looks Good on Paper
When Olga Ponce Furginson takes up her hammer and chisel, there isn’t a slab of marble in sight. Furginson uses the tools to hammer out delicate designs--on tissue paper.
She is Los Angeles’ resident expert in papel picado (picked or cut paper), a Mexican folk art done by cutting stenciled designs out of sheets of tissue paper to create lacy-looking panels hung at fiestas. She has been called into action to supply decorations for celebrations as diverse as Mayor Tom Bradley’s inauguration (“I made some that said ‘Viva Bradley!’ ”), the Olympic Arts Festival and the city’s annual Cinco de Mayo festival, as well as private receptions.
Furginson, a cheerful presence in her traditional embroidered blouse, traces the art form to Spanish colonial times, when trade with China began. In Spanish, the tissue used is called papel de China .
Ten years ago, she was preparing to teach an art class in Pasadena and wanted to decorate her room with brightly colored little paper curtains. She traveled to Tijuana and Mexico City to search for them, but found very few.
“They were in bins, all torn, in very poor condition,” she recalled. “So I picked out the few good pieces and decided to make some myself.”
The 62-year-old mother of five had already published six children’s books on Aztec, Mayan and other traditional Mexican folk art. Her first
cut-paper designs were copies of the Mexican paper she had found. Working with crude tools--a hammer, a chisel and an Exacto knife--made the very delicate patterns difficult.
But with practice, she began refining her work and gathering finer tools with which she could cut more intricate designs from stencils she created.
Hammering her chisel through stacks of up to 50 tissues can get noisy. “Usually, I cut while I’m watching baseball or football games. But lately my daughter has been saying, ‘Ma, would you mind just doing this during the commercials?’ She can’t take the pounding,” Furginson said with a laugh.
“It isn’t that it takes so much artistic ability,” Furginson said. “It just takes patience. Kids will usually say they can’t do it at first, but then they see that they can.”
Although her classes began with bilingual students, now she teaches papel picado to adults and children of all backgrounds. “That’s how people know each other--by their art and music,” said Furginson. Depending on the design, papel picado can cost from $1 a foot to $3 a sheet. Some very special designs are meant to be framed and can cost $60.
Adults and children, however, can learn Furginson’s technique for free in a class she teaches Wednesday evenings at the community arts center at Plaza de la Raza in Lincoln Heights.