Silhouettes are generally solid color (usually black or dark colored) detailed profile portraits of people, often on a light-colored background, creating a contrast between the portrait and the background. They were especially popular before photography was invented.

I cut my silhouettes “freehand”: that means, I just look at a person’s profile (side of their face and body) and cut paper using only scissors. I do not draw anything in advance, trace a shadow, or color-in a photograph.

When I fulfill a customer’s online order, they email me a sideways photo. I cut the silhouette exactly the same way as if the person is live (freehand!), except that I am looking at the emailed photo instead of the live person.

People love events where they can participate in an activity. Silhouettes are rapid: under two (2) minutes for the sitting. They are personal, detailed, and elegant, so the ‘sitter’ (the person being silhouetted) experiences an event activity on site, yet they can bring home and enjoy the result for yers and decades to come.

People also love to theme their events. Themes are engaging and helps people connect to a feeling, location, or idea. Silhouettes can also fall under so many themes, they become the perfect engagement for live events as small as corporate cocktail parties to as large as conferences.

Read more on the Event page and also the Activations page. (“Activations” is a corporate term for ‘memorable experience’, especially if the interaction hits your heart and soul).

People love silhouettes for many reasons:

• They love the details in silhouettes

• They love participating in their own portrait.

• Most people who love silhouettes love vintage, antiques, history, romance, and/or art

• They grew up with family silhouettes on the walls, perhaps of their grandparents or parents

• They love history, so they are charmed by Colonial, Regency, Victorian, or other silhouettes they have seen in books or museums

• They have seen silhouettes at Disneyworld or Disneyland; since Walt Disney was inspired by historical silhouettes to put them in his theme parks

• They love Jane Austen or other writers whom they have seen in silhouette portraits, before photography was invented

• They have seen silhouettes in media so they feel comfortable with the representations

• They might have seen me at another event, and remembered how they loved seeing me work

• They might have had a silhouette made of themselves when they were young, and those memories are sweet

Silhouettes have a long history for thousands of years; but functionally silhouettes were first made popular in Europe in the 1700s. They are best known from before photography was invented.

Silhouettes have been beloved through a number of historical eras - Colonial, American Revolutionary, English Regency, American Federal, Antebellum, Victorian, Edwardian, “Belle Epoque”, even into the World War I and well into the 20th century.

While it is factual that they started their popularity before photography was invented, the larger picture of silhouettes is that they have have stayed with us long after photography entered the picture. (that’s a photo joke!).

People have been enjoying silhouettes - and their clean lines, minimalism, clarity, simplicity, bold statements, and detail for well over 250 years. Silhouettes are clean, crisp, clear, and iconic to almost any artistic vision.

Read an easy overview about silhouettes in my Silhouettes History webpage.

Silhouettes are an iconic image of American as well as British history in the 1700s. Silhouettes are a fast portrait during the Revolutionary era.

For any event celebrating America’s 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, live silhouettes with Silhouettes By Hand is the perfect public engagement activity. Not only is your artist Lauren Muney a historical specialist in silhouettes, but her rapid public silhouette-cutting and her interesting historical discussions can help all people - even people who do not like history! - connect to the event deeply.

Read more on the blog post about America’s 250th , or read the page about Historical Celebrations

Silhouettes are important in history because they are the first inexpensive personal image that a person could have for himself or herself. It’s the first truly democratic portrait - that is, cheap enough for most people to afford - before photography was plentiful and cheap.

Read more on my Silhouettes History page.

I started my real journey to cutting silhouettes in 2008. My initial encounter with silhouettes was with an old silhouette in an antique store; I couldn’t afford the antique but I went home to research silhouettes. In my research, I learned all about the rarity of finding old silhouettes, the unique and unusual traditional skill.

I decided to try cutting one for my own wall, using my experience as a craftsperson, artist, and illustrator. Over a year later, I was finally ready to try with live people instead of practicing alone. It’s a good thing that I have an artist’s eye for detail and had many years of anatomy and life-drawing classes during my illustration training!

I have to confess, I was ‘really terrible’ for the first five years. Then I was just ‘relatively bad’ for the next five years. That sounds really hard to hear, but now that I’m past those early years, I can look back to say to myself, “I have really come far”. I dare say that only in the past five years do I feel like I’m ‘getting the hang of it’ (!)

Fast forward almost 20 years to today, I am one of only about 20 people in the world cutting silhouettes. Silhouettes are very difficult - despite their apparent simplicity - and not every person who tries to do it succeeds at creating silhouettes that truly look like the sitter in a deep and meaningful way. As a trained illustrator, I’m looking into these silhouettes to learn how I can create tiny - but rapid- details which will make each silhouette “pop” for its owner.

And I feel like I’m still learning! Every single face teaches me more. I have new elements that I am working on, in my craft - every day. It’s really exciting to uncover new ways to create these simple-looking portraits — which are actually highly detailed with a great amount of thought.

I love cutting silhouettes at live events because it gives people a chance to slow down, even for under 2 minutes, and experience something they wouldn’t have otherwise experienced.

I originally created silhouettes as a business to help people experience history, not just to pass by history on walls of a museum. I wanted them to take a moment to try something. I loved silhouettes, so I wanted other people to love silhouettes too, by experiencing what it was like to be ‘back in time’ before we all had instant cameras, or selfie-makers, in our pockets.

It feels like I tapped into a backlash against technology for some people; how they are longing to experience something real, true, timeless. It feels great to help people experience both history and art at the same time: two of our greatest achievements of cultures.

I also love helping people see more of the world through my eyes. Most often, my sitters and I get to enjoy a deep, yet quick, conversation during our silhouette together. For me, it’s a way that they can engage with an artist on a philosophical level, yet we can still go back to real live after the conversation. And they can keep the silhouette as a reminder of their experience!

I take online orders on my website, so anyone with a smartphone, tablet, or computer can make a very order online, from anywhere.

During the ordering process, my system will walk you through the easy ordering process, including your choice of background color or even style of paper. My system will also guide you how to take a picture which will be the image from which I create your hand-cut silhouettes.

I cut the silhouettes for an online-ordered silhouettes in the same way that I create live orders; however I am looking at a live person, I am looking at a picture of the person. Everything else is the same: the high quality and the traditional craftsmanship.

It’s easy to make an online order for silhouettes on this website. Simply go to the Order page, read about making an order, and choose from the easy categories.

You can choose from:

• Silhouettes on cardstock

• Silhouettes on handmade paper

• Rare frame styles

• and more

I don’t cut very big silhouettes, but if you need a very large silhouette, but I do offer a digital silhouette through my online ordering system. I hand-cut a silhouette and then scan it for you, sending you the digital scan.

You can take the digital scan-file to any fabricator who makes large images, to translate that digital silhouette onto a large canvas, a banner, a wall decal, or any object you can imagine.

There are only about 20 freehand-scissoring silhouette artists in the world. So depending on where you are, perhaps a silhouette artist is near you, or may be able to travel to you, depending on your budget.

Read more on the Bookings and Events page (non-profit and private), or the Activations page (Corporate events)

I’m sorry to say that pricing is not as easy to have only one basic price!

Every event is a different price, because the elements which I need to make the proposal for you will have to consider these factors:

• What is the date and time of the event?

• How many people?

• How many hours?

• What is location of the event?

• Are there additional costs for me to travel to/from your event?

• Are there special supplies for your event?

• Do you have special requests which affect anything above?

That’s why I have a contact form where you can send me basic information so I can send you a detailed estimate or a generalized estimate

I would love to try to come to your party to cut silhouettes! Please use my contact form to send me information about your party and your expectations. I’ll reply with any follow-up questions, and then I can send you a proposal if we seem to connect well about your event!

I would be happy to cut silhouettes at your wedding! Weddings are contracted like all other events: first you would send me information via my Contact Page, and tell me all about the event, location, date, time, etc.

Depending on your location, there might be travel and accommodations fees along with the appearance fee.

My current base is Baltimore/ Washington DC area, on the East Coast of the United States.

However I travel all of the world from here to be at events - “Have scissors, will travel!”

Yes, of course: activations (interactive experiences) are one of my main joys!

Read details about activation ideas on the Activations page and/or on the Blog

I travel somewhat yearly from the East Coast of the United States to north of Melbourne, Australia to demonstrate at the Lost Trades Fair - So, that’s halfway around the world!

If I will travel as far as halfway around the world, I’m certainly interested in traveling much closer distances too.

Why should you hire me for your event? Well, that’s a big question, perhaps the biggest question of all FAQs.

Overall, I think that live silhouette-portraits at an event is a fantastic way to engage guests. They are experiential, deep engagement, and also a great visual from afar. They are both intimate and public activation at the same time.

Additionally, I have over 30 years of special-event experience, mostly in corporate special events, and almost 20 of those years have been cutting silhouettes with the public. This is to say that I know how to work with people especially in professional venues. I know how to be rapid, yet I know how to deeply touch each person so that (hopefully!) the rapidity is overlooked.

Professionalism: Because I have been working in events for over 30 years, I know how to be professional with my event producers and customers. I strive to be clear and professional. I have modern ways of contracting and payments. I believe in honesty and integrity with my clients.

To please the sitters as well as the clients who contract me to their events, I think I bring detail and skill:

Silhouettes are, by their nature, very difficult to cut freehand with only scissors. I don’t draw in advance. There are no photographic devices. My tools are only scissors and paper…. and my eyes. I look, and create the profile of the person in front of me with only those scissors. Each portrait brings (hopefully!) joy and a long-lasting reminder of the place and time of that encounter. This is the timeless nature of silhouettes - they are, at their center, both the thing to keep and a memory of where and when it was made. These memories, and the resulting silhouettes, are why silhouettes are an excellent choice for live events.

The silhouette experience is (again, hopefully!) multilayered. I can talk about a subject with my mouth and half my mind, while looking with my eyes and cutting with the other half my mind. That is: I talk to the person while I am creating the portrait. We engage, discussion, dream, joke, laugh, bemuse… all in 90-120 seconds. I multi-task, all in the service of creating a great experience for the sitter… and also therefore for the event producer.

Finally, I believe in longevity. I think that silhouettes should be saved, savored, and passed down. They have survived for over 250 years, so I think the silhouettes that I cut should be hanging around for over 250 years (or more) too. So the resulting silhouette connect the sitter to the place, time, experience, and joy of being at that event. It’s better than a branded cup or letter-opener (yawn) . This silhouette might be part of a family legacy, passed down for generations.

And that, “legacy”, combined with “professionalism” and “engagement”, is the greatest reason for me to cut silhouettes, and anyone to hire a professional silhouette artist at their event.