Carving meat by day, cutting paper by night

Visitors to the Restaurant Hüsy in Blankenberg, canton Bern, might be drawn in by the smell of lamb chops, but their eyes immediately focus on the beautiful lace-like paper cuttings hanging on the walls. As a child, you might have made snowflakes by folding and cutting pieces of paper. But Hans-Jürgen Glatz takes this originally Asian technique to another level. Combining it with psaligraphy (using cutting tools to create scenic or ornamental silhouettes), Glatz produces incredibly intricate black-and-white works of art which bring an aura of serenity to his restaurant. More than 30 years ago Glatz, who comes from the Black Forest in Germany, met a Swiss girl on the shores of Lake Thun in the Bernese Oberland, an encounter that led not only to marriage, but also to a second career as a paper cutting artist. Glatz, who is now the restaurant’s owner and chef, is also on the board of the Swiss Paper Cutting Association and is a well-known figure in the Swiss paper cutting community.