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Monday, December 28, 2009

Papercraft: Victorian Silhouettes

I was a bit under the weather today so I decided to do one of Vivcore's tutorials at Fancy Girl. The alternative was watch another hour of infomercials or football recaps, so I got really into the project of making silhouettes. Silhouettes were a popular pastime in the Victorian era and look really cool on just about anything--scrapbooks, binders, bookcovers, bookmarks--they're really neat looking. The idea of making one this year came from my grandmother (although no longer with me). She was an artist and art teacher who always did crafts like this and who actually made silhouettes of all her children which hung in our living room for awhile. Here's my modern day spruced-up take on the Victorian silhouette:

My face is so flat in front, I realize now. Oh well -_-

I used construction paper for the background (which I colored and decorated with colored pencils and markers), but ideally one might use old decorative wallpaper or scrapbook paper. I also mounted my silhouette (thicker black paper/cardstock) on pink construction paper to outline it. The little floral details are from stationary given to me by my best friend Glee, and the black and gold beads are from an old favorite bracelet. I like the idea of "mementos" so I put lots of sentimental objects like these into my silhouette. The oval frame and crowning ribbons are also my grandmother's.
The process is easier if you use a digital camera to take your picture in profile. Directions can be found here.
That's all for today for me--I'm going back to sleep now. Tata.

1 comments/comment?:

Silhouette Sarah said...

Hi I'm a silhouette artist. One of the few left in the country. I cut peoples potraits using just scissors in the tradtional Victorian way, and it's great to see other pepole intrested in the art. Check my blog out at:
www.silhouettecutting.com