SOME WEEKS ago I was lucky enough to be booked for the Jane Austen Festival in Bath, where I found myself cutting a whole series of regency silhouettes. 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. The event was a great opportunity to practice this kind of cutting.
Regency Silhouettes: a popular art
Unusually, the client had decided to charge the visitors £15 each to have a silhouette. This did make me rather nervous at first, but I needn’t have worried. Once I got going there was a queue all day long, and the client actually raised rather more than my fee. My Regency Silhouettes were very popular!
With such a win-win situation do you think I can hope to do some more next year?
Postscript
Edit / 21st September 2016 / Charles Burns
Since making this post I’ve been back the Jane Austen Festival many times. It’s become one of my favourite regular gigs!
