{"id":3190,"date":"2011-02-16T14:27:48","date_gmt":"2011-02-16T19:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=3190"},"modified":"2011-02-16T14:27:48","modified_gmt":"2011-02-16T19:27:48","slug":"whats-up-at-wassenberg-21611","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2011\/02\/16\/whats-up-at-wassenberg-21611\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s Up at Wassenberg 2\/16\/11"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
\u201cFamily Barns\u201d (detail), rug designed and hooked by Altha Brooks. \u201cThe Art of Fiber,\u201d which includes quilts and hooked rugs, is on display at the Wassenberg Art Center through February 25.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hooked rugs and quilts featured in Art of Fiber exhibit<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>By now I hope that many of you have visited the Wassenberg Art Center\u2019s \u201cArt of Fiber\u201d exhibit.\u00a0 This is a popular show and has attracted people from all around the Van Wert area and beyond.<\/p>\n

The display includes quilts from the collection of Barb Pemberton and hooked rugs by members of the Black Swamp Rug Hookers.\u00a0 This week I\u2019d like to give you some information about the rugs.\u00a0 Actually, there are more than rugs on display; the rug hooking group also makes felted purses, needlepunch work, chair covers, and more.<\/p>\n

Many of the rugs on display were designed by their makers.\u00a0 \u201cFamily Barns\u201d by Altha Brooks is a good example.\u00a0 The rug features the barns her family grew up with:\u00a0 a gambrel roof barn in Putnam County from her father-in-law\u2019s farm; a three level bank barn near Columbus on the farm where Altha was raised; a bank barn near Bluffton on the farm where her husband grew up, and the bank barn on the farm where Altha\u2019s mother-in-law was raised, near Bluffton.<\/p>\n

Several of the rugs in this display have this kind of personal connection to their makers.<\/p>\n

Much of the charm of hooked rugs comes from the colors chosen by the artists which range from muted, earthy tones to bright colors.\u00a0 The pictures on the rugs are charming — some rugs have folk art themes, others, like the \u201cFamily Barns\u201d rug, depict realistic objects or scenes.<\/p>\n

The exhibit continues through February 25, 1-5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday (closed Mondays), and admission is free.\u00a0 The show is sponsored by 1st Federal Savings & Loan and Stephanie Dawn.<\/p>\n

The Wassenberg Art Center is located at 643 S. Washington Street in Van Wert, Ohio.\u00a0 Contact us by phone at 419.238.6837 or e-mail wassenberg@embarqmail.com.\u00a0 Information about coming events can be found on our website at www.vanwert.com\/wassenberg.<\/p>\n

The ancient art of silhouette<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>If you have ever used your hands and a flashlight to make shadows that look like animals or faces, you have practiced the art of silhouette (sil-a-WET).\u00a0 A silhouette is the image of a person, object or scene consisting of an outline<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A traditional 18th century silhouette portrait.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

with a featureless interior.<\/p>\n

Silhouettes have an ancient history.\u00a0 No one knows when the first person got the idea of tracing a line around a human shadow.\u00a0 There is a story by Pliny the Elder (circa 77-79 AD) about a potter named Butades whose daughter was deeply in love with a young man.\u00a0 Before her lover left for a long journey, the girl traced his profile as it was thrown upon the wall by the light of a lamp.\u00a0 Her father saw the likeness on the wall and pressed clay inside the outline to create a face in relief, which he then fired in his kiln.\u00a0 If the story is true, this may have been the first use of the silhouette as an art form.<\/p>\n

For hundreds of years in both Europe and America, profiles cut from black card paper were the cheapest way of recording a person\u2019s appearance.\u00a0 The art got its name in 1759 when a gentleman named Etienne de Silhouette was a French finance minister.\u00a0 During the Seven Years War, France\u2019s financial problems forced Silhouette to impose severe economic restraints on the French people — particularly the wealthy.\u00a0 The noblemen looked for a way to ridicule him.\u00a0 Because he enjoyed making cut paper portraits, Silhouette\u2019s name came to refer both to these \u201cempty\u201d portraits and to anything that was done very cheaply.<\/p>\n

The term \u201csilhouette\u201d now includes not only profile portraits but also intricate pictures of people, animals, plants and landscapes.\u00a0 It can also refer to anything with a silhouette appearance, such as a figure standing against a bright light.<\/p>\n

Silhouettes can be painted or drawn, but the traditional method is to cut them from lightweight black cardstock which is then mounted on a light (usually white) background.\u00a0 For many years silhouette artists worked out of booths at fairs or markets.\u00a0 These experts could cut the likeness of a person, freehand, within just a few minutes.\u00a0 Some silhouette artists became famous, such as S. John Ross of Australia, who cut silhouettes at agricultural shows for 60 years until he died in 2008.<\/p>\n

Silhouettes were used as book illustrations during the early 20th century.\u00a0 Illustrations on color plates were expensive to produce and each one had to be glued into the book by hand.\u00a0 Silhouettes printed with blocks were cheaper to produce and easier to print.\u00a0 Therefore silhouettes were often used in conjunction with color plates to add to the books\u2019 visual appeal.\u00a0 Among famous illustrators who produced silhouette pictures at this time were Arthur Rackham and W. Heath Robinson.<\/p>\n

Although the invention of the camera ended the widespread use of silhouettes as portraiture, the skill wasn\u2019t lost.\u00a0 Traveling silhouette artists often appear at fairs and festivals, and\u00a0 silhouette artists advertise their services on the internet for weddings and other occasions.\u00a0\u00a0 People are rediscovering the silhouette for fine art, book illustrations, greeting card designs, and nostalgic portraits.<\/p>\n

The silhouette is found in unusual places.\u00a0 In Hawaii, for example, quilters sometimes lay fabric under the tropical foliage and trace the shadows cast by the leaves, to create beautiful quilt patterns.\u00a0 Silhouettes are used on signs to identify all sorts of things — for example, restrooms and handicapped parking spaces.<\/p>\n

To cut a simple silhouette portrait, you\u2019ll need a strong light source (such as a gooseneck lamp or other light that will project light on a targeted area), white colored pencil, black construction paper, and a very sharp pair of scissors that will make accurate cuts (good embroidery scissors work well).\u00a0 Use masking tape to fasten the construction paper to the wall.\u00a0 Darken the room and turn on the strong light.\u00a0 Seat your subject between the paper and the light source so the shadow of the person\u2019s profile falls sharply on the paper.\u00a0 The shadow must be sharp and details of the profile should show clearly.<\/p>\n

Make sure your subject holds still.\u00a0 Use the white colored pencil to draw the outline of his\/her shadow on the black paper.\u00a0 Once you\u2019ve drawn the complete outline, take the paper off the wall and carefully cut along the white line to create your silhouette.\u00a0 Mount the black profile on white paper and frame it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hooked rugs and quilts featured in Art of Fiber exhibit By now I hope that many of you have visited the Wassenberg Art Center\u2019s \u201cArt of Fiber\u201d exhibit.\u00a0 This is a popular show and has attracted people from all around the Van Wert area and beyond. The display includes quilts from the collection of Barb […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wassenberg"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-01 13:55:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}