Video of Silhouette Cutting at a Recent Event

Below is footage of Silhouette Artist, Sarah Goddard, cutting silhouettes, at a recent prestige’s charity ball, in London.

The Film was shot in real time but the sound track and text were added on afterwards. Each Silhouette is cut in a matter of seconds, using scissors and card. No drawing before hand.

If the video doesn't load you can always try running it direct from you tube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf5VsievlW0


Silhouette costumes

Masqerade Ball Costume
Designed and made by
Janice Mason - JAM of London
Contact: 020 7381 3801


This elegant ball gown was inspired by the Victorian bustle, swags, to the masquerade frills.

The back has a lot of flowing fabric and a bow. A pillow or bustle pad can accentuate this Victorian style.
The front of the dress is swaged to create folded fabric which was also popular in that era. This is not only flattering but also creates a concealed pocket for me to place my black paper and silhouette mount cards.




Other Victorian styled skirts can be seen at:


The front panel on the bodice is made from a silhouette bivory faric.

Similar to the Lee Jofa designed fabric but mine has simple white silhouettes on a black background:


This truly is a remarkable dress and I felt a million dollars in it. Janice was amazing to get the design exactly how I wanted it with the limited description that I gave her.


One of many of Janice's projects is working with one of the finalists who featured on Project Catwalk with her new clothing range. It is thanks to Janice's wealth of expertise and creating fabulous outfits that the finalist got through as there is a lot of attention to detail and hard work that goes into a collection for a fashion show, it often difficult to do it alone.

Janice is friendly, approachable and excellent in understanding what you want from a design and the best way to make it. In her own words, 'There aren't many dress designers now-a-days that can also sew'. I would highly recommend her to anyone wanting a special outfit that fits well and looks great.

Sarah Silhouettes Artist is linked to these sites

Since Sillhouette cutting is a unique and rare art-form, lots of people try to get the word out.

That makes it's hard to keep track of all the diffrent sites you can find details of Visage Silhouettes on, so I thought I'd try to make an index of them all here:

Local Directory for Reading, Berkshire

Silhouette events with flaming fun:http://www.flamingfun.com/index.php?act=272

Silhouettes at weddings in Berkshire. This list is for only reccommended local businesses:http://www.readingwedding.co.uk/silhouette.html

Silhouette designs on networking blog:http://madmedmunkee.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?user=1zlhz0yu1jjnd


http://www.a1businessforums.co.uk/forum/private.php?do=showpm&pmid=56960

http://www.freeindex.co.uk/wr.htm?id=147406&br=1

http://uk.partypop.com/

http://www.planetplanit.co.uk/

http://www.suppliermatching.co.uk/default.aspx

http://www.partyoffers.co.uk/entertainers/silhouette_cutting/


http://www.theeventorganiser.com/index.php?a=project&pid=62


http://www.weddingservices4u.co.uk/dynamicc/SeeMyAdvert.asp?Adv_Code=VISAGESILHEN



http://www.atmosphere.uk.com/artists/Specialised-Artists/Sarah-Goddard/395



http://www.contrabandevents.com/performer.php?name=Sarah+-+Silhouette+artist+-+Berkshire&group=Mix+%26+Mingle+Entertainment&category=Silhouette+Artists


http://www.cruickshankscakes.com/page6.htm



http://www.topblogarea.com/edit.php

Steve Kwok - Profilm Wedding & Event Videography

http://www.profilm.co.uk/

Wedding invite examples

Here are some examples of wedding invites I have desined in the past.







Silhouette festival organised by The Guild of American Paper-cutters

The 5th International Paper-Cut Festival is in the organisational stages and the The Guild of American Paper-cutters (GAP) call for Entries.

Professor Chen Jing has sent an invitation to us here at Visage Silhouettes and to other members of GAP to come to China for the 5th International Paper-cut Festival. It will be held around September 15th in Jin Tan, China (near Shanghai). All accommodations, local transportation and local touring for the invited artists, during the Festival, will be paid by the government of Jin Tan.
Silhouette artist Sarah Goddard of Visage, was honoured by the invite to apply but is unable to attend due to other commitments. However, the lucky candiadtes will also, prior to the opening of the Festival.
Professor Chen is planning a “cultural tour” to visit several popular folk and paper cutting areas throughout the country. On the list are the cities of BaoTou in Inner Mongolia; Liu Lin in Shanxi province; etc. This pre-festival tour is scheduled to take about 10 days. They hope local accommodations and site-seeing expenses will also be paid by the government. However, train transportation expenses between the cities and interpreter expenses would not be covered.

CALL FOR ENTRIES of paper cuttings for the Festival: Professor Chen said the organization committee has decided to include foreign works into the evaluation for the Gold, Silver and Bronze prizes. Every prize winner will be given certification and a souvenir. After the festival, the committee will publish two collections: one will include the work chosen and exhibited in the festival and the second will be a collection of papers on the creation and understanding of paper-cut art in different regions and countries.
Professor Chen would like a photo of the paper-cut Festival entries by APRIL.

GAP members Alice Helen Masek, Jupi Das, Susan Throckmorton, Joyce Yarbrough and Marie-Helene Grabman have all attended previous Festivals in 2006 and 2007. We are all happy to share our experiences and suggestions.

PLEASE email Marie-Helene Grabman, scissorcutter@yahoo.com
ASAP IF YOU WISH MORE INFORMATION AND WANT TO ATTEND.


Silhouette artist sightings

There are only half a dozen silhouette artists in the UK, but you can go all over the world and spot a silhouette artist's. Here are some silhouette artists and information on silhouette sightings!

Gerlof Smit, The Netherlands

http://www.gerlofsmit.com/

Silhouette Art as an Unusual Wedding Entertainment



I am often contacted from people looking for
unusual wedding entertainment.


Those that find me are either lucky enough;


- To find silhouettes on the net,
- To see my silhouette Art first hand,


or

- To find out about Silhouette Artists from a friend of a friend!


This makes this type of entertainment different from the norm and has often never been seen before.



Silhouetting Cutting at Weddings




Each silhouette is cut freehand with scissors in a matter of minutes and is presented to the guests in mount cards which could be personalised to include a special message such as:

'Thank you for being apart of our special day, please take this silhouette as a gift from us'.

or they could simply include your wedding date and silhouette motif.


Guests are always amazed that I cut these portraits freehand using scissors and card only. I always get people asking to have their silhouette cut and asking me interesting questions about this rare art-form. This is such a great compliment, especially when they gasp in delight!


Performance....


I love performing the art of silhouette cutting at weddings. Firstly I appreciate that weddings are personal and special, and every one is different. I love cutting detailed silhouettes of guests in hats!


A silhouetist tends to work best as an icebreaker, during the drinks reception, whilst the happy couple are having photographs and getting used to being married! Then I'm off to the wedding breakfast to see those I haven't done yet.


People often ask me, 'How do you know who you have cut a silhouette profile of?'. ...But to a silhouette artist this is easy as we never forget a face, - well a profile at least!








Full Length Silhouettes





This is an option that I like to give the happy couple as part of a package or as a unique wedding gift.


The full length silhouette is mounted on plain A4 card with my signature and the date of their wedding . It comes with a certificate of authenticity and may well become an heirloom of the future and it shows off the wedding attire beautifully.


Silhouette art is rFont sizeare and unique and definitely different and memrable for a wedding.

Visage Silhouettes Presents - My First Post 'So Hello to the world of Blog'

My first post.... Hello, Sarah Goddard Silhouette Artist here!

I was a bit miffed by this blogging malarky! But have been convinced that it is the thing to do by a couple of lovely ladies I met at http://www.ladieswholatte.com/ which is a networking group who meet up each month at different location around Berkshire. Everyone is so supportive and it gets me out of the silhouette parlour!

The two women who introduced me to blogging were Alice Elliot a Graphic Design Marketing expert http://www.alice-designs.co.uk/ and Annie O'Neill http://www.newhorizons-divorcecoaching.co.uk/ who I would reccomend highly to anyone who is going through divorce as she is so lovely and reassuring.

Now a bit about me..... I am 30, I live in Reading but travel anywhere with my scissors. I have a wonderful husband who is an I.T. trainer (surprised he didn't mention this to me earlier)! and my naughty but nice Staffy, Maggie Moo.

It'll be nice to hear from you, so drop me a line.

Visage Silhouettes Presents - Choosing the right banner ad

If you find it difficult to promote yourself or your products at exhibitions, wedding fairs , or events it is essential to choose a reputable print company and create a professional banner advertisement design.

In my line of work of silhouette cutting the general public saw my products on a display table as stationary or special commissioned peices and not as a form of entertainment. Instead of asking questions, they would simply move on to the next stand. Having a banner ad was the best solution. I wanted to design it my self using photoshop but couldn't without knowing the size, so I needed to find a supplier.

Like most products on the internet each one is offering something slightly different. Each site had different banner names, colours, sizes, coatings, offers & prices. As it was my first banner I wanted a simple indoor pull up version which has a base at the bottom and a pole to elivate it.

The banner supplier I chose was called 'Genie' from : http://www.c-s.uk.com/ Creative Solutions. I chose Creative Solutions as they were professional, happy to help, were competitive, and gave good advice on designing the banner.

They dispatched the banner the day after I approved the proof and in time for my wedding fair at Elcot Court on Sunday 8th February where I will be from 11am to 4pm. (I will let you what impact the banner had at the wedding fair)

Here is my design and some useful information you need to consider when designing your banner ad:


1) I would recommend that you ask what are the popular products. Genie was the second cheapest banner and popular with most.


2) A good company should include a bag for the banner. Mine is surprising light.


3) Choose a banner that is good for your needs i।e. there were options of having the t-bar support on a swivel if you are worried about people tripping over it. (I decided that this was unneccasry as the t- bar is reletatively small).





If you are designing the banner your self make sure you ask them:





1) What colour should I use?


I was told to use CMYK as this is the format printers use. It is best to let the printer know exactly what colours you are using by taking note of each colour's Pantone number. (Remember colours look different on screen)! In photoshop you can find out your pantone number by using your eye droper to select the colour you have chosen on screen. With the colour seected in the tool bar, click on it and this will bring up a seperate colour box. Chose the option Custom. This should bring up the pantone number or it can be selected from a drop down menu.



2) What size will the banner be?
Mine is 2150mm x 800mm but 50mm at bottom is lost in the base.



3) What shall I save it as?
I designed my banner ad at full size and saved it at 100dpi to make sure that the quality was good enough to print. Creative Soluations told me if I was to try and reduce the size by 1/4 I would need to save it as 400dpi.

4)What size fonts should I use?
You will have to put the number in manually as it will need to be much larger than the usual reading size. 220-215 is the font size that would usually go across the whole width of banner. You should leave 25mm high between text & image.
Choose a good logo. My logo font was free at: http://www.fontface.com/fonts/f.html. My body text font was gill sans which was easy to read.


5) How can I send my banner design via email?
As the size of a banner design is large, make sure that your printer gives you the correct email address to send large files to. I ended up zipping my j peg to make it small enough to send through my email account. Creative Solutions had a seperate email account for receiving large art work.


6) What about the design?
Make sure you don't have too much text and that you keep the same font throughout (not including your logo). Keep your message simple. Stick to three colours to make more of an impact. Remember it should be read and understood in a matter of seconds and be eye catching. Use photographs as instant testimonals of happy clients to keep wording down. This also makes you look professional without having to write that you are and therefore has more codoss! Think of your unique selling point and get that message across. If all else fails, get someone to design it for you!







Other useful links:




Banner ad forum:
http://www.a1businessforums.co.uk/forum/graphic-design-web-design-coding/5699-banner-ads.html




Advertising ideas for small businesses:
http://www.entrepreneurslife.com/thoughts/entry/5-critical-questions-for-effective-small-business-advertising/



Make your own banner ad or poster:
http://www.makesigns.com/
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