2015 UPDATE ON MARGARITA FICK: Margarita is no longer producing her beautiful black paper cutouts due to illness. The photos on this page were taken in 2012 and 2013 and they have been sold. Unfortunately, her work is no longer available.

I've talked about these before but they are so amazing, that I want to show you a few examples. These are gorgeous pictures cut out of black paper. The first one is large (38.5" by 24") and the other two are smaller (24" by 16").  They are cut by hand, with a small fingernail scissors, by a master designer and paper-cutter, Margarita Fick. She grew up in a family that made papel picado, the cut out tissue paper flags, so she learned early about paper and its ways. She now is the only person I know in Mexico who creates these beautiful (and limited) designs.  Most of her designs are women skeletons dressed in fancy cutout dresses, but she does do some Frida Kahlo designs and a few non-skeleton designs. The backgrounds are filled with insects, butterflies, lizards, dogs, pigs or a variety of animals, plants and leaves.  The composition of the piece is always incredible.

Notice the asymmetry of the last photo. The symmetrical pieces are folded in half and then cut, but the asymmetrical ones are more difficult to make because they are not folded before cutting.