You are art

Imagine your portrait hanging in one of world's great art museums. With museumr, you can. Just upload one of your favorite photos or point the site to one of your photos online. While you're there, have more fun turning it into an Easter Egg, a jigsaw puzzle and more.

Kara Walker

The Walker Art Center, in our old hometown of Minneapolis, is currently exhibiting Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love featuring her signature black-paper silhouettes. It will be on view now through May 13.

Here's a brief description from the Walker:

Kara Walker is among the most complex and prolific American artists of her generation. Over the past decade, she has gained national and international recognition for her room-size tableaux depicting historical narratives haunted by sexuality, violence, and subjugation but made using the genteel 18th-century art of cut-paper silhouettes. Set in the American South before the Civil War, Walker’s compositions play off stereotypes to portray, often grotesquely, life on the plantation, where masters and mistresses and slave men, women, and children enact a subverted version of the past in an attempt to reconfigure their status and representation.

You can learn more about the artist by visiting this site created by the Walker as a companion to the exhibition.

For those not in the Twin Cities, the exhibition will travel to the ARC/Musee d'art moderne de la ville de Paris (June 20 - September 9, 2007), the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (October 11, 2007–February 3, 2008), and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (February 17–May 11, 2008).

My Best Side

One of our favorite fabric designers, Michael Miller, recently came out with a great black and white collection, including this great pattern, "My Best Side":

One crafty mama, Kelly from Superbuzzy, was so inspired by the collection that she made this beautiful silhouette quilt of her daughter.

You can read more about how she did it here.

Fun with Silhouettes

Here are some fun ideas for your silhouettes. Jones Soda can make you a personalized 12 pack of sodas for just $29.95.


M&M's can put your silhouette on the color(s) of your choice:

And who knew that you could personalize your own Kleenex boxes?

At Simply Silhouettes we're only limited by your imagination. We love to do custom orders. Contact us today.

NOTE: It looks like we were on the same wavelength as someone else today. Check out this post.

Do You Have Your Merit Badge Yet?

We're big fans of great children's design here at Simply Silhouettes and few know it better than Robert Mahar of Mahar Dry Goods. He's recently launched Junior Society where he will be exploring better than average children's design in categories from Furnishings to Wardrobe to Cleanliness and more. One of our favorite entries so far (surprise, surprise) was this terrific one highlighting silhouettes. Go sign up today and earn yourself some merit badges.

wee love them

We were just checking out wee citizens for our daily dose of what's new in children's design and were thrilled to find that wee were featured.

Visit their site today and become a wee yourself.

Noodle & Boo

I first came across these products from Noodle and Boo at our charming neighborhood boutique, Not Too Shabby and couldn't resist. What great packaging.






And check out what's inside the packaging of their French Milled Baby soap:

DIY

We've come across several how-to's for silhouette making recently that we thought we'd share with all you DIYer's out there. A new catalog from Twilite Moon appeared in our mailbox a few weeks ago. While browsing through it, their rooms seemed to be custom made for silhouettes, and sure enough, their catalog contains this tutorial.

Another tutorial was featured in the current issue of Wondertime magazine and here's how they do it. Happy cutting!

Silhouette, Meet Pirolette

No, these aren't technically silhouettes, but when I came across these "pirolettes" in Cookie, last year. I was captivated. The optical illusions of artists M.C. Escher and Salvador Dali get the credit as the inspiration for artist Tom Beshara. These nine inch sculptures start at $149 and can be made out of your choice of maple, walnut or cherry. Order yours today from Turn Your Head.

I came across these cookie cutters in Country Home's Holiday with Mathew Mead magazine last December.

They're made by Victor Trading Company. You can purchase these exact cutters or they will customize them for you from your silhouettes. The cost is approximately $35 per cutter, including shipping. To have your silhouette made, please visit us at Simply Silhouettes and we'd be happy to help you.

Let's Dish

One of my favorite catalogs is Brocade Home, (brought to us by Restoration Hardware) although my home does not resemble it in any way. (A girl can dream, can't she?)

The image above has been featured in their recent spring issues and I was captivated by these plates, along with the aptly named "Silhouette Table".

After some research, I found that they were done by Sarah Cihat. You can see more examples of her "Rehabilitated Dishware" here.

A favorite daily read of mine is Danny Seo's blog, Simply Green. He's done a lot of similar plates, reglazing thrifted plates with just a sticker cut into a silhouette and some porcelain glaze that can be found at Michaels or other local craft store. You can find a tutorial here. Let me know if you try it and what the results are.

Welcome to the Simply Silhouettes Blog

Welcome to the Simply Silhouettes blog. It will be filled with silhouettes of all kinds, new products, special events and more. We'll also be sharing some of our projects from our dining room studio.

We are thrilled to have our tote bag and pillow listed as "The Perfect Mother's Day Gift for Grandmama" on Cool Mom Picks Mother's Day Gift Guide.

Thanks so much for visiting and check back soon. We invite comments and tips for any great silhouette products that you've seen. And get in touch with us if you're looking to create your own silhouettes.