Art Meets Lasers: The Modern Papercut Process

Crowned Cranes Papercut by Enya Keshet

As the world’s premier ketubah vendor, we pride ourselves on expertise, customer service, and especially on selection. We may be a small business, but we have a big reach due to close relationships with great artists, and the world’s largest collection of exclusive ketubahs. We are proud of everything we offer, but our abilities with papercut ketubah are especially worth mentioning.

Papercut is an intricate art that requires precision and serious artistic ability, which makes it incredibly time-consuming to design and create. Fortunately, we have a Trotec Speedy 400 laser cutter which allows us to offer our customers the intricacy, detail, and breathtaking beauty of papercut ketubah at affordable prices (and without overworking our artists)!

A Quick History of Papercut Ketubah

Trees Papercut by Ruth Stern Warzecha

Ketubah decorated with papercut art have a long history throughout the Jewish world. Papercut art in the Jewish community has been referenced in surviving documents from the 15th century, and similarities between papercut techniques among other cultures indicates that the artform may be older than that. In the 19th and 20th centuries, papercut art on ketubah became quite popular, but many examples have been lost to pogroms, the Holocaust, and time. In the 1960s, a ketubah renaissance began, which grew until the point where the popularity of papercut ketubah has soared.

Ancient Art Meets Modern Machine

Papercut ketubahs—especially layered papercut designs—are challenging to make, and for much of their history they represented significant output of time and effort from artists. Nowadays, they still represent a lot of time and effort, but the ability to recreate them has arrived in the form of computer-controlled laser cutting machinery.

The Trotec Speedy 400 is the fastest laser cutting machine on the market. Compared to one artist, or even a team of artisans reproducing papercut art, this machine completes orders of magnitude far more efficiently. The advancement in speed, combined with computer-controlled precision, allows us to prepare flawless reproductions at affordable prices.

The Advantages

A laser cutting machine allows us to offer advantages to both artists and customers. For our artists, we ensure that a quality replica is produced so that their art is faithfully conserved—also, it doesn’t require 60 or more hours of their time per papercut ketubah, so they can focus on creating and perfecting their craft.

For our customers, we offer unparalleled value, timeliness, and customizability. By far the most important thing laser cutting provides is the option to customize designs and add details—be it names, an especially meaningful symbol, or any other decorative element you may wish.

A Cut Above

A laser cutting machine allows us to offer advantages to both artists and customers. For our artists, we ensure that a quality replica is produced so that their art is faithfully conserved—also, it doesn’t require 60 or more hours of their time per papercut ketubah, so they can focus on creating and perfecting their craft.

For our customers, we offer unparalleled value, timeliness, and customizability. By far the most important thing laser cutting provides is the option to customize designs and add details—be it names, an especially meaningful symbol, or any other decorative element you may wish.
View the full Trotec Laser Canada and Ketubah.com video here!