I know we have been seeing a popular resurgence in silhouettes for awhile now, but what I love about Patti Rishforth is what she is doing to come up with new and fun ways to do them. Patti also does amazing pencil sketches of children, animals, etc. We’ve had Patti on site for several of our events doing them live as a take away for guests.  And I just love story of how she got started…

“I was doing pencil portraits at children’s boutiques (live sittings in 45 minutes) before I knew I could do silhouettes. The owner of one boutique I frequented the most kept asking me to do silhouettes and I kept saying I didn’t know how. She kept insisting that if I could do portraits, I’d surely be able to do a silhouette and that she could fill the day with even more appointments. So I got some crisp paper and sharp scissors and practiced on my husband and 2 year old son. After doing 4 or 5, suddenly, it clicked! Like that moment when you finally learn how to use your two hands to play different notes on a piano instead of mirroring each other. It all just clicked into place and I knew I could do it! So I did more of my nephew and nieces and took them to show the shop owner expecting her to say, well, keep working on it and one day we will have a silhouette event. But she immediately chose a Saturday only 4 weeks away for me to do silhouettes. When I showed up that day, the line was out the door! I’ve been doing them ever since.”

“One thing I’m also doing a lot of now that stands out with people are the family themes where I hand cut siblings or grandchildren playing together. I make sure each child is proportionate to their siblings or cousins so that it can remind the parent (or whomever) of that time period when they were all little enough to play with each other before that moment is gone so fast. I do a lot of these family themes as a “Family Train” so they can all be tied together in a fun way that works well for a strong design.”

Great idea for favors at a wedding or a birthday party-

And she is now offering customizable canvas wall prints through online boutique Oopsy Daisy.