I’ve been on a kick recently reading Jane Austen and watching movies inspired by her books. And this delightful journey has taken me on a exploration of silhouettes, or (and this I love) “shadow portraits”! I purchased a book last year Silhouettes: The Art of the Shadow by Emma Rutherford. What a delicious addition to my library!
The book is filled with gorgeous plates (some full page) of beautiful silhouettes, some apparently never published before. Oooo… like discovering something wonderful in Great Auntie’s attic. So, my love affair with silhouettes is not newly born but a revisit when I got on my newest Austen kick.
And this is what I’ve cooked up just recently, another quirky little kit idea!
The Regency Silhouettes Kit comes with three wood fiberboard backs, three quirky little feather-shaped wood fiberboard toppers, three fancy oval cut outs laser-cut from delicious heavyweight cardstock, a print of the black ornate backgrounds to be cut out, and an assortment of laser-cut silhouettes cut from heavyweight cardstock including but not limited to the ones shown in the product photo, above. What a superlative gift idea just in time for the Holidays, whether the gift is for you or some creative someone on your shopping list.
If you enjoy papercutting and like something a bit modern, too, I can recommend Paper Cuts: 35 Inventive Projects by Taylor Hagerty, also in my personal library. This book of nifty designs includes patterns.
For further reading into the history of shadow portraits, you might enjoy this blog post on janeaustenworld.wordpress.com, which also has, of course, tons of great reading for my fellow Austenites.
And just for fun, something to download – believed to be her shadow portrait, our beloved Jane Austen. Several sizes available for download, all in the public domain at Wikimedia Commons.
TTFN!
gale