Hollow cut silhouettes

Here is one of the new hollow cuts I was making at the showmans show

The Showmans Show

I thought you might like to know that we have a Roving Artist stand at the Showman's Show again this year. We are stand no 13 in the exhibition marquee. If you've never been to The Showman's Show, it takes place in Newbury Showground on 20th and 21st October. It's a fascinating event, which you can find out more about here:

www.showmans-directory.co.uk

We'll be demonstrating the full range of silhouettes, from full-lengths to caricatures and portraits, as well as my new hollow-cuts. I believe it really may be first time this latter technique has been demonstrated to the UK public for about 200 years! If you're in the area do pop by and say hello, as ever I'll be looking for new markets for a very old art indeed...

Sarah Harrington

Still on the historical theme, I recently came across the work of a talented silhouette artist called Sarah Harrington.

It seems Mrs Harrington was professional silhouettist who worked during the latter part of the eighteenth century. During her career she visited many parts of the country in the performance of her art, and cut silhouettes of many prominent people of the day, including King George II. What struck me in particular about about her work, apart from her obvious love of hats, is that they are all cut inside-out. What I mean by this is her profiles are all cut from the centre of white paper (now rather yellowed) while the black profile is formed by placing a black material, eg. silk, behind the cutting. As there are no entry lines in the profile she presumably began each silhouette by stabbing the paper with the points of her scissors. The proper name for this technique is "hollow-cutting".

Ever curious I've of course been experimenting with the technique myself. It's surprisingly difficult. I'm finding it awkward to turn my scissors freely, but enjoying the challenge of learning something new. Of course I've no idea yet if it will ever have a commercial application, unless I get booked by a modern day manufacturer of black silk perhaps. I wondered if perhaps you might have an idea or two about this?

Jane Austin

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be booked for the Jane Austen festival in Bath. This is one of those rare events that is obviously made for a silhouettist like myself, so I simply had to write and share some of the results...

Cutting this set of full lengths (and I cut nearly 50 of them on the day) I really felt as if I'd gone back in time and become a Regency era silhouettist myself. I've often studied silhouettes of this era, but it was a rare treat to be cutting them myself. I hope you agree they are really something special. There are very few artists who can cut a freehand full length silhouette these days, and the wonderful hats and bonnets made it all the more challenging for me.

Unusually, the client had decided to charge the visitors £15 each to have a silhouette. This did make me rather nervous at first. However once I got going there was a queue all day long, and the client actually raised rather more than my fee. With such a win-win situation do you think I can hope to do some more next year?