Schweizer scherenschnitte

It isn't raining! Here in the Pacific Northwest that is a pretty big deal in spring. The weatherman tells us that this March has been one of the rainiest in many years. Oh, well everything will be beautiful and green, soon.

With four more weeks until Easter, I'm going to share another set of Easter eggs.  This is a set that I made after visiting my daughter who was living in Switzerland at the time. They are decorated with pen and ink in the style of a traditional Swiss folk art.

goatherd

mountain chalet

While it is practiced in Bavaria, Austria, as well as Switzerland, this is a craft that is perfected in Switzerland, and called Scherenschnitte. These beautiful images are made by cutting silhouettes from black paper and pasting it onto a background. 

Schweizer scherenschnitte

American

Lausanne

Sometimes these designs are painted onto the sides of buildings. The ones I like best are the ones like the ones here at the Cheese factory in GI like the ones that show the cows being brought down from the high Alps for the winter.

 Here is the cheese factory La Maison du Gruyère. 

Mural at the factory

close-up

close-up

This is a typical shepherd's hut that is taken up into the high mountains where the cows are pastured all summer.

shepherd's hut

The aging caves at the factory

In Switzerland, every house is required to have a secure room, called a cave. The family usually stores water, and other emergency food. They man's gun is a requirement as well. After the compulsory military service the man is required to keep his gun. This is the cave of the farmhouse home where we stayed near the town of Gruyéres. A real cave!

 

Cave

Wish the would deliver here!

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