Portrait profiles from Charles' silhouette studio

This is the range of studio silhouettes and portraits currently offered by Charles Burns, and all the styles of work referred to in the current price list are illustrated here:

Scissor cuts
Embellished Silhouettes
Painted Silhouettes
Glass mounting
Regency Silhouettes
Miniature Portraits
Conversation Pieces
Small Silhouettes
Dolls House Silhouettes
Ordering Notes

Scissor Cuts

Traditional scissor-cut portraits, cut freehand from black paper in any number of shapes and sizes. Most of the silhouettes scattered around this website are made this way.

Usually mounted on 5"x 7" white acid-free card with a printed oval. They can alternatively be supplied unmounted, or on any kind of card you like. They needn't even be black.

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These are black paper silhouettes which then have painted embellishments added to them to indicate highlights in the hair and other details. This style of silhouette was very popular in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Such highlights are traditionally shown in gold paint, but a more modern style is to show them in chalk white with black underpainting (left).

Painting with black paint onto black paper sounds counter-intuitive, but can actually be very effective (right). Silhouettes embellished in black only appear at first sight to be plain black silhouettes, it's only on closer inspection that subtle indications of hair and form make themselves apparent.

These silhouettes are mounted onto acid free card and can be supplied either unframed or framed in our DML frames or plain black frames.

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Painted Silhouettes

Not cut at all, but brush painted with indian ink and watercolour onto acid-free white card. The advantage of this very traditional method of taking silhouettes is that far finer detail of hair and outline can be created than would ever be possible with scissors. Generally these are left as plain black silhouettes, although it is possible to embellish them.

A portrait of the artist's son. Indian ink on paper. Note the detail of the curly hair, this would be quite impossible to achieve with scissors.

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Glass mounting

These are scissor cuts which have been mounted on glass rather than card. The advantage of this technique is that it preserves something of the natural three-dimensionality of a paper cut silhouettes, allowing the image to seemingly float above a plain white ground, casting a natural shadow of itself when placed in direct light.

Because of the fragile nature of glass we cannot supply these unframed. These silhouettes are always supplied complete with a hardwood oval frame, which is included in the price. Full length glass mounted silhouettes are supplied in a maplewood frame.

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Regency Silhouettes

Embellished silhouettes that have been mounted on glass. These are the ones to go for if you want your silhouette to have the true "Regency Period" look. Charles has spent a long time studying the kind of work produced by English artisans of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and has produced this range of contemporary portraits which draws heavily on this tradition.

A pair of Regency Silhouettes, embellished in gold and white and then mounted onto glass in wooden oval frames.

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Miniature Portraits en grisaille

These silhouettes are cut from white laid paper and embellished with fine graphite. This style of portrait pre-dates the heyday of silhouettes and was popular in England in the late seventeenth century (usually drawn with graphite on vellum), although the idea of drawing onto a cut profile is Charles' own. Since the embellishment includes the face they are not really silhouettes at all, but miniature portraits.

A pair of portraits en grisaillle. These have been mounted onto a traditional 'Wedgwood blue', but such profiles can be mounted onto almost any colour dependant on your mood. On a standard computer screen these portraits should display at approx life size.

The portrait on the right has been glass mounted and framed in an oval frame.
Oval frames like this always include the small brass ring as shown.

Test

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Conversation Pieces

A conversation piece is any group of silhouettes, usually cut in full length, arranged in a single group. These can be family groups, or any collection of friends gathered together on a specific occasion.

A line of cousins (all grandchildren of one couple) traditionally arranged from oldest to youngest. This group has been gold embellished and mounted on paper, using handmade Japanese paper as a ground, with watercolour shadows painted in.

A Family group including the parents and 3 children, cut from back paper, embellished in gold, then glass mounted and framed in a traditional maple wood frame.

The detail of the group shows the black and gold embellishing on each silhouette, together with the effect of glass mounting the whole group, which allows each cutting to throw a shadow onto the background. The paper floor on which the figures are standing was cut from hand-made Japanese paper, while the shadows cast diagonally on the floor have themselves been individually cut from black paper.

Prices for conversation pieces are not included in the price list, as they can vary enormously dependant on the number of people involved and the kind of embellishments required. The prices for individual full length silhouettes can be taken as a guide per person.

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Very small Silhouettes

Silhouettes are traditionally quite small, being cut to fit within a 5"x3" oval frame. However they can be cut much smaller. The usual reason for this is to fit them into a locket or some other object. As silhouettes get harder the smaller you make them we're afraid smaller doesn't equal cheaper. It's important to let us know the exact size of the visible area of the locket concerned.

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Dolls House Silhouettes

For those with very well apportioned dolls houses we have made it possible to commission a 1/12th scale silhouette of your loved ones! These are cut with special scissors from very thin origami paper and measure just 8mm high. Because of their fragility we frame them for you in a small brass oval frame (included in the price).

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Notes

Please download our current price list
Sittings for silhouettes are best done live whenever possible. You can either ask Charles to make a home visit, or arrange a time to visit his Reading studio. Note that home visits are normally subject to a call-out charge (dependant on distance and the number of silhouettes) while studio visitors must be pre-booked.
For overseas clients, or others for whom a live sitting may not be possible, it is possible to create silhouettes from well taken profile photographs. Please use our guide to taking photographs for silhouette.
We deliver all unframed card-mounted silhouettes (scissor-cuts, embellished & painted silhouettes, as well as miniature portraits) free of charge anywhere in the world. For anything involving frames (eg: glass-mounted silhouettes and miniature portraits) there will be an extra delivery charge.
All the silhouettes and portraits featured here are available in the form of gift vouchers. You will receive a numbered gift voucher which then needs to be returned to the studio, either with a suitable photo or with the subject(s) on a studio visit.
Charles is always working on new ideas to present silhouettes, so if what you're looking for isn't featured here do please ask.
Christmas orders.
- Please note that because December is such a busy month we usually close the order book for christmas silhouettes in the last week of November. Please try to give us as much notice as possible if you want your silhouette as a christmas present.
- It is always possible to give silhouettes in the form of a gift voucher, with the sitting to be carried out after christmas. These can be ordered anytime up to the last posting date before xmas.

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