More “Fun with Silhouettes”

Okay, kiddies, gather ’round.  Here are two more silhouettes I used to do, only in pastel colors.  The top photo is from the now defunct magazine, Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion, which did an article on my daughter’s home back in 2001.

The silhouettes were mounted on paper that I lightly crumpled before dipping in a tea dye. Once dried, I ironed the paper to flatten it out again.  The creases kept some of the tea stain, adding to the “old” look.  Then I would paint the frames for the silhouettes with two different pastel colors, “crackle” the surface, and wipe on an antiquing gel that would then be wiped off just enough to give the frames an old appearance.  The look we were going for was something that you might find up in your grandma’s attic.

I’ve included two views of what the backs of the frames would look like.  At the thrift store I’d found this funny little book that had to be from the 1950’s. It had poems about being good, helpful, etc., reminiscent of the old “Dick and Jane” stuff we read when I was a young’un.  I scanned the pages and would print them on card stock to go over the standard frame backing.  Just another little fillip to make the frames look homemade and one-of-a-kind.

The two silhouettes below are close-ups of the ones in the Home Companion photo. The boy with the dog silhouette I cut today.  (Here they’re on a purple background so they show up better.)

Since I’ve given away and sold so many of the ones I used to do, I discovered I don’t have many copies of my work.  Gasp.  So I’m determined to go back and re-cut as many as I can to create a record of sorts of all that I’ve done.  At least as long as the fingers and eyeballs hold out…