Monday, April 02, 2007

Wild Swans

Hans Christian Andersen wrote one of my favorite stories called The Wild Swans. It's about a princess who has a wicked stepmother, as most princesses do. She also has 11 brothers who the wicked stepmother turns into swans. After doing that she banishes the princess to live with peasants in the forest. Somehow she finds out she's a princess and that the way to undo the curse on her brothers is to make them shirts of stinging nettle. If anyone has ever felt the sting of nettle, it's not fun. The catch is that she has to do this without speaking a word until she's done. Of course while she's making the shirts, a king falls in love with her and marries her. The townspeople think she's a witch and just as they're about to burn her, she finishes the shirts and frees her brothers and her tongue and proclaims herself innocent of witchery and everyone lives happily ever after. I love that story.

I cheated with the shirts and made a net and there are only 6 swans instead of 11, it's okay. Don't cry about it.

P.S. I fell on the bus and sprained my hand/wrist and it just now healed. I'm still worried I might have carpal tunnel syndrome, but not as much.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love your "Wild Swans" scherenschnitte, absolutely lovely.

bug girl said...

If I had the money I would commission you to do a whole line of fairy tale scherenschnitte to adorn the walls of my nursery.

ewesa said...

you should be illustrating books with this stuff! my friend's dad just got done illustrating a book, want me to find out who his publisher is??..

k8 said...

cindy this is beautiful! really really beautiful...

brooklyn said...

i love love love this!

vfg said...

really very lovely. there's such a tension between the freedom the princess feels in her moment and the capture of the swans. so much movement in a paper cutting!

daysease said...

wow, i also love this story, and i was amazed to see your paper art on it. lovely. truly.

Elisa said...

well she hadn't enough time and nettle yarn to finish the last shirt, so her youngest brother has a swan wing instead of a hand... but that is only a detail.

My parents named me after the princess in this fairy tale, they told me. :-)

Carla! said...

Totally agree with Bug Girl, a series of fairy tale/princess cuts would be so cute in a nursery. Heck, I would put them up in my room! Please do more!