Ready to do some holiday shopping? Boost the economy and support a crafter by buying handmade. It’s nice to know where your gifts come from and it feels better to give your money directly to the maker of an object. Last year I featured a handmade toy each week, but this year I will feature gifts from all categories.
This week’s featured gift is from Silhouettes by Carolin. Her hand-cut portraits are beautiful and reasonably priced. I think a hand-cut portrait would make a lovely gift, becoming a prized family heirloom. Carolin’s work ranges from traditional individual profiles to full-body portraits with background scenery. Not only does she create portraits of children, but her hand-cut portraits of couples would make a lovely wedding or anniversary gift. The photo below shows the intricacy of some of her work. Here’s a bit about Carolin, in her own words:
I was born and raised in southern Germany and moved to the US with my American husband in 2000. My sweetheart and I have two adorable girls (5 and 7) and enjoy being close to the coast here in South Carolina.
Starting as a very young girl I drew just about anything around me, mostly with soft pencils or graphite. That’s all I needed. I was never a “color person” (but I adore all those beautiful colorful things others make!) so the step towards black and white papercuts came natural. I always enjoyed arts and crafts and being around children so I had the idea of combining the two by starting my own silhouette business a few years ago, cutting silhouettes of children as keepsakes for their families. Since then I’ve cut probably hundreds of silhouettes. A lot of them are what I call the “classic silhouette profile” but I also did many full body silhouettes (of children and adults) and custom orders of just about any kind, like houses, landscapes, animals, scenes, logos and my newest addition bookmarks with custom designs on them.
Not until this summer did I join Etsy and it has truly been a wonderful experience, with all the orders (some of them rather challenging though) and great feedback. Hope you like my stuff and let me know if there is anything you would like to see cut.
Visit her shop on Etsy for more details.
I LOVE your site. I’m 57 years old and have two very creative daughters and have sent your site on to them!
THANKS!
I have recently discovered your site, so I haven’t seen last year feature the handmade toy, but this is really an amazing idea! Really looking forward to see what other great gift ideas you will post about!
She does beautiful work! I’m planning to buy a few for my kidlet’s rooms and one for my sil of her children. 😉
her work is amazing!!!
What a great blog and so many interesting links. Thank you for sharing!
This lady does beautiful work. She has an interesting story too. I am going to save her Etsy Store in my folder for Christmas presents. I just had my 2 year old grandson here. I hope I got a good picture. I will not be seeing him again for a couple of months.
Wow, that IS a great gift idea! Thank you for sifting Carolin out for us to discover as well.
Wow. What beautiful work. Truly this would make the sweetest gift. Thanks for the link.